Thursday 13 February: Now that we are landed with HS2, we must capitalise on its benefits

Posted on by Geoff Graham

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Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/02/13/lettersnow-landed-hs2-must-capitalise-benefits/

732 thoughts on “Thursday 13 February: Now that we are landed with HS2, we must capitalise on its benefits”

  1. Donald Trump ‘approves conditional peace deal with Taliban’. 13 February 2020.

    Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, told the Afghan government on Wednesday that Mr Trump has approved the deal, officials in Kabul told the New York Times. The newspaper also said that a US official confirmed that the deal was conditional on the Taliban laying down their weapons and that a deal was 95 per cent agreed in principle.

    Morning everyone. A little good news for a change though one has to treat it with some scepticism to avoid future disappointment. No Afghan is ever going to lay down his Kalashnikov so we can dismiss that out of hand as nonsense. The rest reads pretty much the same. With reasonable luck all this is just a cover for the United States surrendering without actually saying so. Goodbye Afghanistan the grave yard of better men than those that sent them!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/12/donald-trump-approves-conditional-peace-deal-taliban/

      1. They are not that daft. I may have mentioned eta I once employed a Russian chef. He was called up and trained for national service in the Russian Army. His cohort were to go to Afghanistan. The cohort previous to his was sent there. All were killed. The Russians pulled out of Afghanistan on the eve of his departure, so he survived.

  2. Donald Trump ‘approves conditional peace deal with Taliban’. 13 February 2020.

    Mike Pompeo, the US Secretary of State, told the Afghan government on Wednesday that Mr Trump has approved the deal, officials in Kabul told the New York Times. The newspaper also said that a US official confirmed that the deal was conditional on the Taliban laying down their weapons and that a deal was 95 per cent agreed in principle.

    Morning everyone. A little good news for a change though one has to treat it with some scepticism to avoid future disappointment. No Afghan is ever going to lay down his Kalashnikov so we can dismiss that out of hand as nonsense. The rest reads pretty much the same. With reasonable luck all this is just a cover for the United States surrendering without actually saying so. Goodbye Afghanistan the grave yard of better men than those that sent them!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/12/donald-trump-approves-conditional-peace-deal-taliban/

  3. Thoughts from a friend:

    I was lying around, pondering the problems of the world, I realised that at my age, I don’t really give much of a rat’s ass anymore.

    If walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal. A whale swims all day, only eats fish, drinks water, but is still fat.

    A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years, while a tortoise doesn’t run and does mostly nothing, yet it lives for 150 years. And you tell me to exercise?? I don’t think so.

    Just grant me the senility to forget the people I never liked, the good fortune to remember the ones I do, and the eye sight to tell the difference.

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

    Now that I’m older here’s what I’ve discovered:

    1. I started out with nothing, and I still have most of it.

    2. My wild oats are mostly enjoyed with prunes and all-bran.

    3. I finally got my head together, and now my body is falling apart.

    4. Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.

    5. Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.

    6. If all is not lost, then where the hell is it ??

    7. It was a whole lot easier to get older, than to get wiser.

    8. Some days, you’re the top dog, some days you’re the hydrant; the early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese.

    9. I wish the buck really did stop here, I sure could use a few of them.

    10. Kids in the back-seat cause accidents.

    11. Accidents in the back-seat cause kids.

    12. It’s hard to make a comeback when you haven’t been anywhere.

    13. The world only beats a path to your door when you’re in the bathroom.

    14. If God wanted me to touch my toes, he’d have put them on my knees.

    15. When I’m finally holding all the right cards, everyone wants to play chess.

    16. It’s not hard to meet expenses . . . they’re everywhere.

    17. The only difference between a rut and a grave is the depth.

    18. These days, I spend a lot of time thinking about the hereafter . . . I go somewhere to get something, and then wonder what I’m “here after”.

    19. Funny, I don’t remember being absent-minded.

    20. HAVE I POSTED THIS MESSAGE BEFORE?

  5. There are no benefits to HS2, it is an EU project designed for the benefit of the EU, nothing more, nothing less no matter how anyone tries to spin it or dress it up.

    1. What are illogical and vastly expensive publicly funded projects for ?

      To transfer vast sums of public money from one place to another.

        1. One of George’s best buddies has for years been close to the beating heart of HS2 and even claims ‘to have thought up the project in the bath’ !

    2. B3
      It is Appeasement at it’s best and a show of strength from johnson & co
      we ARE doing it our way.

  7. SIR – No general would entrust a mission of such importance to two young lance-corporals. The vital message could have been dropped accurately into the trenches by an aircraft. Dropped messages were used regularly to passed tactical information on enemy movements. Acknowledgement by signal flare saved sending more aircraft.

    Brigadier Ken Timbers (retd)

    London SE9

      1. ‘Morning, Paul, I think he’s joined those pointing out the discrepancies in the film ‘1917’.

        1. Ahhh… I see. I wasn’t there, can’t comment – even if I could smell the words porperlly.
          Morning, Tom.

  8. Good Morning all.
    Perhaps it’s because a year ago I had a severe chest infection that I’ve been following closely the reports on the spread of the WuFlu. ZeroHedge today has two detailed and potentially very credible reports on the Flu’s origin and spread. In this Alice through the looking Glass World of MSM and Alt News reporting if you decide to read the articles I’m afraid you will have to decide for yourselves what degree of truth they contain:

    https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/sudden-militarization-wuhans-p4-lab-raises-new-questions-about-origin-deadly-covid-19

    https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/china-reports-huge-jump-new-coronavirus-infections-deaths-oil-stocks-tumble-gold-soars

    “Either:
    A coronavirus spontaneously mutated and jumped to humans at a wet market or deep in some random bat cave which just so happened to be 20 miles from China’s only BSL-4 virology lab, a virus with an unusually slippery never-before-seen genome that’s evading zoological classification, and whose spike-protein region which allows it to enter host cells appears most like a bio-engineered commercial product, that somehow managed to infect its first three and roughly one-third of its initial victims despite them not being connected to this market, and then be so fined-tuned to humans that it’s gone on to create the single greatest public health crisis in Chinese history with approaching 100 million citizens locked-down or quarantined – also causing Mongolia to close its border with its largest trading partner for the first time in modern history.

    Or, Chinese scientists failed to follow correct sanitation protocols possibly while in a rush during their boisterous holiday season, something that had been anticipated since the opening of the BSL-4 lab and has happened at least four times previously, and accidentally released this bio-engineered Wuhan Strain – likely created by scientists researching immunotherapy regimes against bat coronaviruses, who’ve already demonstrated the ability to perform every step necessary to bio-engineer the Wuhan Strain 2019-nCov – into their population, and now the world.”

    1. Most of us on here are already pretty suspicious Stephen but there is a serious lack of evidence!

    2. SIR – As a retired GP I have undertaken several preventive measures for my family, which includes two people in high-risk groups: a newly born grandchild and an isolated relative in her nineties.

      I have ensured that we all have access to hand sanitisers and tissues. We have stocked my elderly relative up with supplies of long-life milk and tins of soup. I always use hand sanitiser after shaking hands and after touching switches, handles or buttons.

      My advice is to keep clean, use sensible precautions and keep away from people with acute respiratory symptoms to avoid further spread of infection. Those individuals with acute respiratory symptoms should adopt self-isolation and hygiene measures, keeping away from public places until they are risk-free.

      Dr Robert McKinty

      Darlington, Co Durham

      1. He and his family will be OK. He’s taken the very best practical precaution possible. He’s isolated himself in Darlington. No one ever goes to Darlington…. 😉

        1. You mean ….. the Rocket isn’t running?
          Typical bloody railway service; change the timetable without warning.

  9. We can’t avoid the word empire when it still shapes our world. Afua Hirsch. 13 February 2020.

    Coronavirus dominates the news, but how many people know that the globalisation of modern pandemics began with the co-opting of huge swaths of the planet into European empires? This isn’t something to celebrate, but that does not mean it is something to ignore. It shouldn’t be that difficult – for, whether we know it or not, we all have a story of empire to tell.

    Here is Hirsch conflating causes and effects and babbling utter nonsense yet again. It is a tautology that Modern Pandemics begin in Modern Times they cannot begin in any other! The greatest pandemic in human history, the Black Death, occurred before the European Empires. It was generated in East Asia and devastated China before travelling along the Silk Road and striking Europe. It was not the first such incursion; the Fifth Century Roman Empire suffered an attack that seriously weakened it. These are of course bacteriological examples of a human phenomenon; the continuous movement from the earliest times of nomadic people from East to West. These created through war, the pathways for both trade and disease. It was not until Europe gained the technological means, gunpowder, that they were able to close the Steppe Highways and prevent further outbreaks of both.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/12/british-empire-lisa-nandy-history

    1. We could speculate about what foul lurgies the Rift Valley travellers brought with them into a pristine Europe; but that doesn’t fit the “Blame Whitey” narrative.
      Ooops … morning, Minty.

  10. SIR – The BBC’s chairman, Sir David Clementi (report, February 12), inflates the importance of the BBC.

    In travelling the world, I have never heard the BBC mentioned. Hotel rooms abroad mostly show CNN in the English language. My middle-aged children rarely watch or listen to the BBC, and my teenage grandchildren never do so.

    As to his assertion that the BBC unites the nation: it has lamentably failed lamentably to do this over the past few years.

    John Russell

    Plymouth, Devon

    SIR – The BBC is already largely a subscription channel so far as I am concerned. I buy DVDs at car-boot sales and in charity shops dating from the time when the BBC made programmes worth watching.

    P M Knight

    Dorchester

    1. Morning, Duncan.
      Even as we speak, she is taking an express camel to China, so she can hunker down in the mud and protest like crazy.

      2. Now you have me picturing a camel with a big cork rammed up its jacksie to reduce unwanted CO2 emissions.

  12. “Pecunia non olet”; as, no doubt the Duke and Duchess of Woke are not saying to Goldman Sucks.

    Morning, Campers. I think the blasted weather is getting to me.

      1. So you’re saying (© Cathy Newman) that you normally go to China to teach them to speak in German? (Good morning, btw.)

          1. Search me, Peddy, I think I must have had a brainstorm earlier today!

            Anyhow, I’m off to bed now, so sleep well everyone.

  13. The untold story of Britain’s role in the Trump-Russia scandal. 13 February 2020.

    Allegations of election interference have dominated the narrative throughout Donald Trump’s presidency. As another election approaches, The Telegraph’s US Editor, Ben Riley-Smith looks back at what happened in 2016. He finds threads that repeatedly run through the UK, but were never fully explored – from crucial London meetings, to a Cambridge University don turned FBI informant, to the flat, just round the corner from Harrods, where a computer geek managed to upend the election by publishing private Democratic emails.

    But why does Britain keep coming up? How exactly does foreign interference happen? And what does this tell us about how Donald Trump’s campaigns work?

    Whoops! Someone in the UK government has just realised that the guy they tried to keep out of the presidency is President! Worse still it looks like he’s there for another four years! Time to suck dick and smile while applying for a Trade Deal! The UK’s meddling in the 2016 Presidential Election far outstripped Russia’s efforts. The spying on Trump, the Steele Dossier, these are just the tips of the iceberg. There was almost certainly a vast program on Social Media that has been suppressed for obvious political reasons. This was all in the cause of a Clinton presidency that for some reason the numpties in Westminster thought would be more amenable to their blandishments. How dumb can you be?

    Well not smart enough to learn anything and keep out of it, but dumb enough to support Trump and alienate Sanders and the Democratic Party!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/02/13/crossfire-untold-story-britains-role-trump-russia-scandal/

    1. What did they want covered up ?

      I think part of this is Obama’s multi billion dollar Iran deal and certain Europeans who are said to have had a cut.

  14. Sky Email on Outlook

    These clowns have changed the log in system without telling anyone, I have spent 2 days trying to get my Sky email working again with Outlook it packed it in 2 days ago

    They have without telling anyone something called 2 stage authentication so now the Outlook client no longer uses the Sky Yahoo password you have to go to the Sky Web site and get a 16 digit authentication code which is entered into the Outlook client password box

  15. Legal Aid for Immigrants

    A vast industry has grown up to fight immigrant cases which is funded by legal aid. These lawyers have nothing to lose. They can take on hopeless cases and they still get paid

    The government is looking at what can be done about this. I would suggest they move it to a no win no fee basis. if they dont win the case they dont get the legal aid money

  17. Corbyn and Racism

    Corbyn spent most of yesterday playing the racism card as did Lammy & Abbot

    There was no racism with these deportations. Yes they were all black but given they were Jamaican deportees it would be highly liky they would happen to be black. The chances of a white Jamaican nation being in the UK and having committed a criminal offence carrying a prison sentence of at least 12 months would be pretty low

    1. Where were these race-baiting cretins when we deported thousands of Albanian and Romanian criminals??(not enough thousands but a start)
      Nowhere to be seen,who are the real racists here???????????????/

      1. Once we leave the EU it will be easier to deport the Romanians

        This seem to summarize the current rules as to deporting EU national , does not cover Albania as they are not in the EU

  18. Tories beware – Sinn Fein holds the secret to a shock Labour comeback
    SHERELLE JACOBS – DAILY TELEGRAPH COLUMNIST – 13 FEBRUARY 2020 • 6:00AM

    While the Left has a eureka moment, the Right is being sucked into a mental black hole

    Sinn Féin’s shock success in the Irish election is a warning: the headwinds of a new Left-wing populism are blowing Britain’s way. In fact, the secret to Sinn Féin’s genius is a double warning: in a country where the economy is thriving, Corbynism clad in a shamrock-green rugby shirt can still top the polls.

    Such an extraordinary turnaround is worth reflecting on: a party that was once a squalid political backwater for retiring terrorists has gone mainstream overnight. It has done so by channeling Left-wing patriotic populism: doorstep volunteers pledged to build 100,000 new homes while giving out Easter lily pendants. Seizing on the centenary celebrations of the fight for Irish independence, Sinn Féin framed modern indignities – like the elderly lying on hospital trolleys – as an insult to the ideals of egalitarian republicanism.

    Their storming success is no aberration. In Poland, the governing PiS party (although technically conservative) has dominated the country’s politics by splurging on welfare while shaking their fists at Brussels liberals. Spain’s Podemos is clogging town squares with rallies that roar for a war on bankers and invoke the insurgent spirit of the Madrileños who rebelled against Napoleon. They claim they are on a mission to “reclaim patriotism for progressive ends”.

    In an intriguing twist, Rebecca Long-Bailey has pilfered the concept of “progressive patriotism”. As clunky as the concept is, it hints that the intellectually vacant Labour contender may not necessarily be the ideological dead end her critics on the Left fear; the perverse reality is she is probably the only candidate who has an instinctive inkling of Labour’s true path to recovery, perhaps inspired by the dramas unfolding abroad.

    Granted, since the election settled the Brexit question, the Left here has spent most of its time wallowing in the molasses of confected melancholy. But its shrewder thinkers are rushing to come up with a new Labour patriotism. Leftie magazine columns and local Labour meetings are already crackling with inspiration, drawing on everything from George Orwell’s “green fields” and “red letterboxes” to the lore of insurgent ancient Britannia.

    The socialist history of Britain is being hastily rewritten to emphasise people rather than class, and to linger on the favourite patriotic pitstops of Leavers, from Chartism to the Civil War. In other words, the Left have already parked their academic tanks on the Eurosceptic liberation story.

    Which is why the PM’s attempt to discreetly burn the Book of Brexit, banning the word in his speeches and trade briefings, is so dangerous. The Right should in theory be able to see off the Left’s downtrodden version of nationalism with reasonable ease.

    But only if it can breathe life into the legend of the British lion unleashing its potential. Not least by showing younger voters that throwing off the shackles of EU regulation in the sectors of the future, from biotech to AI, will give Britain a huge head start as the world teeters on the brink of a second industrial revolution. But how can the Government tell this confident tale of post-Brexit Britain if the B-word is taboo? Not to mention the fact that a story without a beginning is quite the self-defeating challenge to the chaos of metropolitan post-modernism.

    The Right is ceding ground on other crucial fronts. While it struggles to define the new bureaucratic enemy, now that the battle against Brussels apparatchiks has abated, academics on the Left are close to cracking a rival discourse. The latter are targeting what they wonkily refer to as “pro-market corporatism”. The theories of panoptic thinkers like David Graeber and Martin Parker, who want the state, activists, NGOs and individuals to merge in a “collective resistance” against globalising managerialism should worry the Right. Not least because the number one target of this new school is the giant corporation – a leviathan that they argue feeds off the anarchy of free market economics.

    At a time when the Left is tantalisingly close to defining its new elite enemy, the Right risks becoming too elusive on the same topic – fighting a cold war against Whitehall in the shadows and grinding down the metropolitan liberals who run the BBC with passive aggression, while not quite daring to confront their enemy.

    Complacent Tories like to point out the low calibre of today’s Labour politicians. But the point is that much of the thinking is already being done for them in Left-leaning universities. There are also plenty of countries for Labour’s uncreative politicians to draw inspiration from. Their road to recovery will be tribally vicious, but it will involve less mental heavy lifting than many seem to think.

    The opposite is true for the Right, which urgently needs to craft a vision for Britain’s place in the world and an economically credible blueprint for bankrolling modernisation without punishing wealth. When Boris Johnson announced his Isambardian infrastructure vision to a sceptical nation this week, it was hard to tell whether one could detect the first shudders of a Victorian revolution or the stalling of the Conservative mental machinery. Time will soon tell.

    1. Conservative mental machinery looks parked on Millbank, and it’s been there so long the tyres are flat.

    2. This is a little overthought for Sherelle! Neither Corbyn nor the Labour Party could pose convincingly as Patriots!

  19. Foreign Nationals and deportation

    When a foreign national is given the right to reside in the UK they are informed they could face deportation if they commit a serious criminal offence

    There may be a slight weakness in the current legislation with regard to foreign minor that come to the UK or are born i the UK (The latter applies if both parents are foreign. Different rules currently apply with EU Nationals)

    I would suggest to clarify the situation the government should write to these minors on their 16th birthday informing them that if they now comity a serious criminal offence they are liable to be deported

  21. Good morning all.

    QT tonight…

    Fiona Bruce chairs from Dundee, with panellists Tom Tugendhat MP, Ian Murray MP, Joanna Cherry MP, author Val McDermid and Alex Massie, Scotland Editor of the Spectator magazine.

        1. 🙂 The Tay Bridge Disaster.
          For connoisseurs of Dundee’s finest (apart from the Beano and the Dandy).

          Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay!

          Alas! I am very sorry to say

          That ninety lives have been taken away

          On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

          Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

          ‘Twas about seven o’clock at night,

          And the wind it blew with all its might,

          And the rain came pouring down,

          And the dark clouds seem’d to frown,

          And the Demon of the air seem’d to say-

          “I’ll blow down the Bridge of Tay.”

          When the train left Edinburgh

          The passengers’ hearts were light and felt no sorrow,

          But Boreas blew a terrific gale,

          Which made their hearts for to quail,

          And many of the passengers with fear did say-

          “I hope God will send us safe across the Bridge of Tay.”

          But when the train came near to Wormit Bay,

          Boreas he did loud and angry bray,

          And shook the central girders of the Bridge of Tay

          On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

          Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

          So the train sped on with all its might,

          And Bonnie Dundee soon hove in sight,

          And the passengers’ hearts felt light,

          Thinking they would enjoy themselves on the New Year,

          With their friends at home they lov’d most dear,

          And wish them all a happy New Year.

          So the train mov’d slowly along the Bridge of Tay,

          Until it was about midway,

          Then the central girders with a crash gave way,

          And down went the train and passengers into the Tay!

          The Storm Fiend did loudly bray,

          Because ninety lives had been taken away,

          On the last Sabbath day of 1879,

          Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

          As soon as the catastrophe came to be known

          The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,

          And the cry rang out all o’er the town,

          Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,

          And a passenger train from Edinburgh,

          Which fill’d all the peoples hearts with sorrow,

          And made them for to turn pale,

          Because none of the passengers were sav’d to tell the tale

          How the disaster happen’d on the last Sabbath day of 1879,

          Which will be remember’d for a very long time.

          It must have been an awful sight,

          To witness in the dusky moonlight,

          While the Storm Fiend did laugh, and angry did bray,

          Along the Railway Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,

          Oh! ill-fated Bridge of the Silv’ry Tay,

          I must now conclude my lay

          By telling the world fearlessly without the least dismay,

          That your central girders would not have given way,

          At least many sensible men do say,

          Had they been supported on each side with buttresses,

          At least many sensible men confesses,

          For the stronger we our houses do build,

          The less chance we have of being killed.

  22. The purge of the unwoke. Spiked. Brendan O’Neill. 12 February 2020.

    So now we know. If you believe in biology, Labour isn’t the party for you. If you think people with penises are men, not women, Labour isn’t the party for you. If you believe women should have the freedom of association to set up their own spaces and institutions, Labour isn’t the party for you. If you believe in reason, truth and freedom of thought, Labour isn’t the party for you. This is the loud-and-clear message of the disgraceful purge proposed by Labour members yesterday, and swiftly endorsed by some of the leadership candidates, against anyone who questions the cult of transgenderism – that Labour really has become an irrational, intolerant party of extreme identity politics.

    I wish that I could say that this makes me more enthusiastic about the Tories but it doesn’t! I suspect, though it will take a while to be sure, that the present Government is a reincarnation of New Labour.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2020/02/12/the-purge-of-the-unwoke/

      2. Morning Rik,
        I do believe the host party is not far of off having played it’s part and the Country will not like what emerges.

      4. Don’t be silly – they’ll make an exception on Religious Grounds (Namely the voting booths across this once green and pleasant land).

    2. Morning AS,
      No, the mayday continuation is well on track as can be seen, no if’s or but’s about that.

  23. I don’t know why but when I woke up this morning then next thing I thought after ” thats good, still here and everything seems to be working” was if the Chinese have been investing hugely in Africa for the last 20 years and tying them down to massive debt ( $150 billion I found later ) WTF are we doing still sending them money?

      1. I’ve refused to have anything to do with Brussels since 2005 when the airport security staff confiscated my novelty Manneken Pis corkscrew, to be fair that may have been on the grounds of taste rather than security.

    1. Not to worry, the rest are due to be released from quarantine any day now.

      It reminds me of goverment’s attitudes to criminals, let them out early, irrespective of whether they are safe.

  25. Good morning thinkers,

    Do you think the repair of the Elizabeth tower and Big Ben is just another vanity project ?

    The cost of repairing the Elizabeth Tower, which houses the famous Big Ben bell, has risen by £18.6m following the discovery of bomb damage and asbestos.

    The need for more money was only discovered during a survey of the 177-year-old structure in central London.

    The House of Commons Commission said it was “extremely disappointed” that the cost had risen to £79.7m.

    The new budget will have to be approved by the accounting officers of the Houses of Parliament.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-51482370

    1. Par for the course where publicly-funded contracts are concerned. And I’m willing to bet that this won’t be the final ‘surprise’.

      Oops…’Morning Belle.

    2. Par for the course where publicly-funded contracts are concerned. And I’m willing to bet that this won’t be the final ‘surprise’.

      Oops…’Morning Belle.

    3. You usually do a survey first. How can you come up with a cost for a job without a survey ?

      1. BJ.
        You wait until the final bill arrives for the work on the house of commons building.
        And still a few leaves and two inches of snow or excessive rain brings our whole transport system to a complete standstill.
        This country is a complete laughing stock. Run by jelly headed incompetents.

  26. Morning Each,
    Just a thought, maybe giving the johnson chap an 80 seat win in the General Election was just to much especially with the calibre of tory leaders of late.
    Playing devils advocate if the “nige” had pressed ahead
    with ALL the brexit groups candidates and whittled down the 80 seats also continuing to pose as an ongoing threat, have made a difference ?
    The “nige” has form on taking a hike on a successful outcome, could the standing down of 50% of the brexit group coming on top of the anti UKIP rant be the work of a treacherous political coxswain ?
    PS, will the construction of HS2 give the commuters from Chatham to Cannon Street more floor space to park their arse in the mornings ?

  28. PM may show the door to cabinet ministers in today’s reshuffle

    Boris Johnson will seek to promote more female MPs as he reshuffles the cabinet today – but ministers who fear for their jobs are said to be bracing themselves for the “brutal” process.
    The prime minister will look to “promote a generation of talent that will be promoted further in the coming years”, according to a No 10 source.
    Female MPs in line for promotion include defence minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan, former Brexit minister Suella Braverman and Gillian Keegan.
    Alok Sharma is expected to be promoted from his cabinet post at International Development, while Paymaster General Oliver Dowden – who attends cabinet – is also in line for a bigger role.
    Baroness Morgan has already said she intends to leave her role as culture secretary, and Andrea Leadsom and Theresa Villiers are seen as likely to lose cabinet positions.
    Defence Secretary Ben Wallace and Attorney General Geoffrey Cox are also thought to be vulnerable – and they have been setting out why they should stay in their posts.

    1. If as I suspect Remainers dominate, I shall know the Truth and the Truth will set me free!

      1. Only rumours at present. How accurate this will turn out to be who knows but Westminster seems to be full of leaks

        1. Morning Jbf,
          Sadly not, they are immune to it, donning a three monkey cloak
          is an easier route to take.

      4. Those of us who had their doubts about Boris Johnson’s integrity and competence are being proved right on a daily basis.

        Does anybody remember Bianca in Othello? She is Cassio’s whore who makes the mistake of falling helplessly in love with him. The sad irony is that she who sexually ensnared many has herself been ensnared.

        Boris Johnson is a male Bianca – he has treated women disgracefully throughout his sordidly immoral life so if he is underdone by Carrie Symonds it will serve him right.

        Now, more than ever, we need a new political party of the reasonable and principled right. However large their majority is at the moment, the Conservatives under Boris Johnson are a busted flush.

  29. Nestle axes low sugar chocolate due to weak sales

    Nestle has axed its range of chocolate that used a new low-sugar technique, less than two years after it was launched.
    The Swiss food giant said demand for its Milkybar Wowsomes had been “underwhelming”.
    The bars used what Nestle described as “hollow” sugar crystals to cut the amount of sugar by almost a third.
    Confectionery makers have come under pressure from health authorities to cut the amount of sugar in their products.
    Nestle’s Milkybar Wowsomes was the first product to use technology developed by the company that creates sugar with a more porous structure, which it likened to hollowing out the sugar crystals.
    Some industry experts had seen the discovery as a breakthrough that would help Nestle take a leading position in a growing market for low-sugar products.
    At the time of the launch Stefano Agostini, Nestle’s chief executive for UK and Ireland, said: “A new product like Milkybar Wowsomes introduces greater choice and allows parents to treat their children with chocolate that tastes great but has less sugar.

      1. As long as the MSM gives it the “oxygen of publicity” which allows weak minded vote seeking politicians to ride off its back.

  30. BBC Criteria for Music Festivals

    5% Homosexual
    4% Lesbian
    3% Bisexual
    2% Transgender
    2% Cross Dressers

    Note musical instruments should also met this criteria as should the audience

  34. Morning all.
    Cabinet reshuffle ?
    House of Lords (greedy do nothings) voting themselves a tax free pay rise ?
    BBC (publicly funded) hosting a labour leadership hustings last night.
    Over spend and (it’s a train line) ongoing on HS2 ? We once had an enviable country wide network, shut down.
    Another increase (it tells the time) in costs of the reference of the clock tower ?
    All and much more funded by the British public !
    When do you and I and the rest of the British public get a say in how our money is spent ?

      1. Democracy eh ! ? 😕
        As the vast majority vote against any incoming government all ever get is an elected effing dictatorship.
        But I guess it’s better than the EU Mafiosi. So far.

        2. RE,
          Nose gripping, best of the worst, make boris PM he makes us laugh, got us to where we are today as a nation, in deep sh!te.
          We got here vie the abuse of the polling booth over the decades.
          Are the contingent “boris makes us laugh make him PM”
          laughing now ?

          1. From a personal prospective I only voted because the media were suggesting a close run competition between the two useless major parties. I once voted for latterly proven liar Blair, because of the prospect of more of the appallingly useless and hapless John Major.
            Our political sector including parliament is in need of a massive overhaul. It simply does not work in an acceptable manner.

  35. JANET STREET-PORTER: If our government doesn’t start taking the coronavirus seriously, British people are going to die from political correctness and official complacency

    The UK government seemed more bothered about evacuating British citizens from China than trying to control our borders or test people who were arriving in the UK from all over the world.

    The virus has travelled to Africa and America, to Austria and Australia. Jet travel means a bug can be transmitted in transit lounges, at duty free shops, in airport terminals. Now I am pleased I ran the length of Singapore airport to catch my flight and didn’t stop to buy anything or eat- but I have no idea whether anyone on my flight was carrying the bug or using the same washrooms as me.

    This Friday will be the end of the incubation period for me – a good present on Valentine’s Day.

    ‘Steve Walsh is not guilty of any crime – when he felt unwell, he immediately telephoned the NHS for help,’ writes JANET STREET-PORTER. ‘He has been treated in hospital and made a full recovery. If he had been tested on touchdown in the UK, the virus would have been contained.’ +7

    But what should members of the public be doing to limit the risks of catching the virus? We have to use public transport, canteens, and shops daily. But there’s a lack of information – some mothers have been taking their kids out of school in the Brighton area, where Mr Walsh lived

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7997597/JANET-STREET-PORTER-British-people-die-coronavirus-complacency.html

    2. Sitting at Gatwick at the moment. Many rugrats of various sizes milling around. If this virus is as infectious as some suggest, it could become very interesting

      1. Our neighbour flew in from France yesterday. I’ve not seen her yet. I’ll give it a couple of weeks.
        Joking aside, every time an aircraft lands and the passenger’s disembark there is a risk. If this turns out to be a pandemic it’s going to be another world wide cockup that possibly might have been avoided.
        But only yesterday another truck has been found to be carrying a dozen or so illegals in Portsmouth.

        1. Didn’t the ones that died in the refrigerated container come from Vietnam via China?

          I have seen just three facemasks so far, not much in the way of prevention for the thousands of people here.

  36. If you needed any more proof that

    government and the ‘elite’ Westminster MSM are in cahoots, then this is

    it: the Fishery Industry has become a non-subject for the BBC, the

    Times and the DT. Only The Express has some articles while the DM has

    reports but you’ve really got to search for them.

    Instead we get breathless reports

    about a ‘massacre’ in No10 and ‘Ministers fighting for their lives’ –

    not because they’ve caught the Corona Virus or COVID 19 as the WHO now

    labels it officially, but because of Johnson’s Cabinet reshuffle which

    is taking place today.

    One has to feel for these journalists

    because the poor things might have to find new ‘sources’ to feed them

    ‘news’. They’re obviously incapable of going out and doing some

    investigative research, for example into the state of pharmaceuticals

    here in “Our NHS”.

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-thursday-13th-february-2020/

  37. Air-rage woman jailed over spat that caused RAF to scramble jets

    Cafe worker caused panic when she drunkenly tried to open door at 30,000ft and assaulted cabin crew.

    A drunk [sic] passenger who tried to open a plane door at 30,000ft, prompting the RAF to scramble fighter jets, has been jailed for two and a half years. Passengers and cabin crew fought to restrain Chloe Haines, when she flew into a rage on board a flight to Turkey from Stansted, Chelmsford Crown Court heard. Haines, a Costa Coffee worker, later said she “blacked out and didn’t really remember what happened” after mixing alcohol with medication, prosecutor Michael Crimp said.

    The very facts that air passengers have not been banned from boarding aircraft when under the influence of alcohol, and that the serving of alcohol on board aircraft and in airports hasn’t been prohibited, is more evidence of the intrinsic stupidity of mankind.

    You cannot drive a car whilst pissed, so why are pissed people allowed to cause drunken rampage in a ”big car” that travels at 36,000 feet?

    1. This one arose from ‘drinking their own’ on board I think. Normally those becoming objectionable will not be served more alcohol. The crew can often spot those who are gradually getting more sozzled after buying a couple of pepsis but its not foolproof. If people arrived at the door drunk, they can be turned away. But as ever, the few spoil it for the many, in addition, alcohol makes a lot of money all round.

      1. The question is: why does anyone need to consume alcohol on a flight? The fact that it is available means that the potential for disaster is always imminent.

        A truly sensible (and intelligent) species would never have sanctioned such a crass stupidity. If passengers were routinely breathalised at the boarding gate then such problems would be annulled.

        [Oh NO! I hear you all cry! What about out rights? What about the rights of the firms that make and sell alcohol? Well, you don’t have any fucking “rights”. That’s a ridiculous concept invented my mankind to convince himself that he is a higher intelligence. Reality check: He is not!]

          1. You are being mischievous, D-cup! :•)

            “He” and “Mankind” are not (nor have ever been) sex-specific.

          2. I know dat Grizz, but I prefer the term ‘humankind’ – it makes me feel more that that its referring to me.

          3. I don’t like that word, D-cup, especially because it is a PC term invented by Labour. A bit like “Chair” or “Chairperson” for Chairman. I’m old-fashioned in lots of ways.

          4. I agree that some neologisms can be clunky, Grizz, but they should be suffered. Surely the discomfort of embracing a new word is better than expecting 50% of the population (actually I think it may be 51% or 52%) to have to live under linguistic biases formed in another age when the other 50% made all the rules.

            Try referring to yourself and all other males as ‘she’ for 24hrs. You’ll come to appreciate how discomfiting it is.

          2. I know :o) – If the aircraft was depressurised maybe the door could be opened (they always open inwards) unless there’s another locking system eg a microswitch on the undercarriage which means you can only open the door when the U/C is down and bearing the weight of the aircraft.

          3. The only side doors that opens fully inwards that I know of is on the DC-10/MD-11, and it opens inwards a little (a plug door), then rolls up into the ceiling of the cabin. Overwing exit doors typically open inwards.All others swing outwards against the airflow, so now way, Jose, could you open it (always forgetting the tail airstair door on Boeing 727s, of course… used by one Timothy McVeigh to parachute from , complete with ransom).

          4. Nah! exit doors have to open inwards, whether they roll up or sideways is irrelevant. They are designed so that cabin pressure keeps them closed against the seal

          5. My inaccurate wording. All main exits are plug doors.
            The overwing exits on later models of 737 hinge at the top & swing outwards. Not plug doors.

      2. Morning, Spikey.

        That may be the case, but it doesn’t stop a paralytic cretin trying, and causing all manner of mayhem for the other passengers in the meantime.

  38. May one ask,
    Seeing operation sealion is ongoing can it be countered by the daily deportation flight, I take it the daily flight of felons is established now, is it not ?

    1. I know, I have a brilliant idea.

      Let’s destroy more and more millions of square miles of tropical rainforest, so that we can plant more and more plants to provide us with “biofuels”.

      That’s the way to go!

      As a consequence. let’s turn the planet into a monoculture of just one animal species and a couple of plant species.

      Where’s me Nobel Prize?

          1. I saw another thousand tons of American forest going into Lynemouth power station as I passed yesterday morning.

  41. Miserable Moment

    Do you trust all the researchers busy analysing and trying to find a vaccine against the whu-flu not to create something worse by mistake?

    They seem to be rushing to put out a vaccine in a far shorter timescale than is generally the case.

      2. Forecast now showing 923Mb for Saturday Midnight – must be getting fairly close to hurricane force winds….

  43. Labour’s tax raid on family homes will slash legacies for millions of children, say Tories: Shadow Chancellor McDonnell signals plan to tax parent’s gifts to kids to redistribute wealth ‘more fairly’.

    Currently, inheritance tax is paid on part of estate worth more than £475,000
    New plan would see tax threshold slashed to £125,000 worth of gifts in lifetime
    Shadow chancellor said party will consult on tax ideas for fairer distribution.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7198137/Labour-plots-scrapping-inheritance-tax-replacing-lifetime-gifts-tax.html

    Labour was accused of plotting a raid on the middle classes last night after John McDonnell signalled major reforms to inheritance tax.

    The Shadow Chancellor said he was interested in replacing the current levy with a ‘lifetime gifts tax’ on cash or homes given to children.

    He claimed the plan, which the Tories say would affect 10 million households, could ensure ‘wealth is more fairly distributed’. At present, the inheritance tax threshold is £475,000, or £950,000 for couples. According to Tory estimates, there are currently only 640,000 households affected.

    But a lifetime gifts tax (LGT) would see each child paying tax on everything their parents gave them – either during their lives or after their deaths – above £125,000. The two children in a typical family would, therefore, only be able to inherit an estate worth £250,000 tax-free.

    Once an individual exceeds the threshold, any further gifts would be taxed annually at income tax rates.

    1. Then the smart money will invest in things that can be passed on unnoticed…diamonds, for example.

    1. Summary
      Senior ministers are bracing themselves for Boris Johnson’s first major cabinet reshuffle

      Esther McVey and Andrea Leadsom both lose their jobs

      NI Secretary Julian Smith is sacked

      Senior figures such as Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab and Priti Patel are not expected to be moved

      Not expected to be a reduction in the number of women in the Cabinet

      Commons will sit from 09:30 GMT for culture questions

    2. No matter who is in the cabinet, George has his hand on the handle.

      ”We work to foster open societies inside and outside Europe by leveraging the EU’s policies, legislation, funding, and political influence……. by ……..building strong relationships with officials, politicians, NGOs, and other actors”.

    2. Morning Atg,
      Maybe the bridge ( johnsons folly)
      is an emergency run out and Ireland the final destination.
      Picking up three generations of political lifestyles en route.

    1. Boris was asked about this on PMQs yesterday and he said he had no say on this rise – it was the decsion for the overcrowded House of Lords.

  48. 3 Years Ago, Kim Jong Un Got Away With Murder. The Diplomat. Aidan Foster-Carter. February 13, 2020.

    In April 2018, Sergei Skripal, a former Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in the quiet English cathedral city of Salisbury with the nerve agent Novichok. The Skripals survived, but a woman who unwittingly picked up the discarded poison later died.

    At present there’s a freeze on European articles concerning the Skripals. The reason that this one has slipped through the net is that The Diplomat is an online American propaganda outlet similar to Radio Free Europe, but dealing with the Pacific Region. We can see in the quote the usual error/lie that Sturgess was killed by the same means as that used on the Skripals; whether this is voluntary or through ignorance on the part of the author it is impossible to say, but it is necessary to make the example both coherent and applicable. The “Novichok” that killed Dawn Sturgess was in a sealed perfume bottle and could not have been the one purportedly used on the Skripals. It is as simple as that. Interestingly any mention of both Burgess and Charlie Rowley has been removed from the Skripal Wikipedia page!

    Why are the Skripals off limits? Well essentially the PTB doesn’t want anyone asking questions as to what’s happened to them and where they are!

    https://thediplomat.com/2020/02/3-years-ago-kim-jong-un-got-away-with-murder/

    1. The link follows your header to a Kim Jong Un article, but your quote is about the Skripals……………

    2. The bbc are at it again right now. They are displaying the labour leadership candidates on the Victoria Derbyshire programme.
      They are a disgrace using public money to promote a political party.

  51. Boris Johnson has sacked Julian Smith as Northern Ireland secretary, Andrea Leadsom as business secretary and Esther McVey as housing minister during this morning’s cabinet reshuffle.

    1. Plum-Tart True_Belle • 42 minutes ago

      Summary
      Senior ministers are bracing themselves for Boris Johnson’s first major cabinet reshuffle

      Esther McVey and Andrea Leadsom both lose their jobs

      NI Secretary Julian Smith is sacked

      Senior figures such as Sajid Javid, Dominic Raab and Priti Patel are not expected to be moved

      Not expected to be a reduction in the number of women in the Cabinet

  53. English councils go on commercial property spending spree to boost income

    Gambling with tax payers money with high risk investments. They are attracted by the High returns. The High returns though are because they are high risk

    English councils went on a massive £6.6bn commercial property spending spree over the past three years, buying office buildings and shopping centres to offset the impact of government funding cuts, the public spending watchdog has revealed.
    The scale of the rush to acquire revenue-generating investments to fund council services has left many local authorities potentially badly exposed in the event of an economic recession or a property crash, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.
    Between 2016 and 2019, councils spent £3.1bn buying office developments, £2.3bn on retail property, including £759m on shopping centres, and nearly £1bn on industrial property – a 14-fold increase on the previous three years.

    1. If I recall correctly, it was one of the Hebridean Island Councils that put all its revenue into one of the then, overnight very high interest accounts. Having done it for a few nights they were surprised when the bank went bust and they lost the lot.

      If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

      1. They are gambling on things they dont understand and are very high risk. Only fools or gamblers would invest in Retail properties at present

  54. ” Eight of the nine people known to have
    coronavirus in Britain have suffered only mild symptoms, raising
    optimism among health chiefs about coping with an outbreak.”
    Anyone have a clue as to what has really been going on ?

    2. As they are likely fit youngish people capable of traveling to exotic destinations they would probably get over it, unlike any poor soul who is very young, elderly or already ill they came into contact with.

  55. I fooled ya
    I fooled ya

    This line from Lonnie Donegan’s Rock Island Line is what Boris Johnson is singing to the British electorate. He is already getting rid of all the committed leavers from his government.

  56. Who’s lost their job?

    Here are the sackings we know so far:
    Julian Smith as Northern Ireland secretary
    Andrea Leadsom as business secretary
    Theresa Villiers as environment secretary
    Esther McVey as housing minister
    Nusrat Ghani as transport minister
    Chris Skidmore as education minister
    George Freeman as transport minister

    Geoffrey Cox is also gone – he says he has resigned as attorney general.
    We already know that Nicky Morgan was leaving her role of culture secretary.
    With the prime minister back in Downing Street, we should soon hear who will be returning – and new appointments – to his cabinet.

    1. Freeman was a remainer. Leadsom, Villiers and McVey are remainers, not sure about the other three.

  58. Rod Liddle a lone voice of sanity in a sea of madness

    Item one on the workshop agenda might be ‘why the working-class wants

    foreign-born criminals deported immediately’. I am referring to the

    hoo-ha currently obsessing the BBC. Top story on the bulletins and the

    subject of endless, hand-wringing debate on the Today programme

    and elsewhere. Yet again, the corporation has totally failed to

    understand either the mindset of the public on this issue or indeed the

    rectitude of what is happening. For every witless BBC reporter keening

    by the runway as a Boeing 707 packed with Jamaican rapists, killers and

    drug dealers departs for Kingston, there will be a million

    licence-payers quietly applauding in their homes.

    The arguments raised against the government’s actions are, as usual, a

    succession of non-sequiturs and idiocies. David Lammy thinks it all

    ‘racist’, but given that he thinks absolutely everything is racist we

    might discount this objection immediately. The Jamaicans — the sole

    focus of those who oppose these deportations — are but a tiny minority

    of foreign-born villains being kicked out. And yet that fact is scarcely

    mentioned. Should we kick out the others but spare those from the

    Caribbean? And if so, why?

    Some of them were ‘only’ involved in selling drugs, according to the

    protesters and the BBC: the very trade which is fuelling our epidemic of

    knife crime in the capital. Why should drug dealers who are not British

    citizens be allowed to remain here? What is the point of principle? We

    are enjoined to worry about the reception they will receive in their

    native country and that they may fall prey to gangsters. Well indeed.

    That is because many of them are gangsters themselves. We are also told

    that it’s not fair on Jamaica. It is utterly intolerable, of course,

    that Jamaica should be forced to put up with Jamaicans in their own

    country

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/how-id-resolve-the-deportation-conundrum/

    2. The only people we should really be feeling sorry for are those on the Island of Jamaica.

      They are the poor sods who now have to live with the scum that we are deporting.

        1. All the more reason why they should be pitied, getting an injection of new blood letters.

          It makes one wonder whether such things are genetic.

  59. Rod Liddle cheered me up

    Douglas Murray sends me back to the pits of depression

    And so that is why I laugh like a madman when the MP question comes

    up. I reckon it would be less than a day before I was hauled into the

    whip’s office, made to stand in front of the desk, a pre-written

    confession before me and a pen forced into my hand. Found guilty of

    drawing lessons from the mass-rape of children, or consorting with

    people from the continent who are not on the political left. There I

    would be, signing a statement agreeing that orthodox Jews are

    anti-Semites, that I have consorted with homophobes, that elected prime

    ministers are fringe nobodies and that while up is down, right is

    far-right.

    There are a whole heap of European problems. But this one is ours.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/why-ill-never-become-an-mp/

    1. ”We……. leverage…… policies, legislation,…. by ….building strong relationships with officials, politicians….. and other actors.”

      Translation… We get George what he wants.

  60. Germany, Italy and France hit by PLUMMETING factory production

    INDUSTRIAL production in the eurozone dropped dramatically in December, creating a gloomy outlook for the single currency area.

    Factory output fell by 4.1 percent in the final month of the year compared with the same month a year earlier, according to figures published by Eurostat on Wednesday. Germany was among the states which suffered the most, as production dropped by 7.2 percent. Italy was close behind on a 4.3 percent decrease while France was down 3.2 percent.

  61. Let Joy be unconfined.

    I’ve just seen a headline with the London Mayor promoting a neighbouring borough Lewisham as the London Borough of Culture 2021. The headline disappeared before I could find out if it was for Gang or Knife culture….

    2. Lovely, lovely man. Now if only Boris could implement his plans and not those of Mrs T. May, we’d be on a winner.

    3. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/43f379b531178395b6578ff8160bfec339c8efa49d64e0ed0d70cd82da02f493.jpg

      Just a short visit from me as I feel strangely guilty looking here when there is work to do (the well-loved patient has been discharged from hospital and I am looking after her while she recovers, which will be 1-2 weeks if the medication works but could be far longer if it does not.)

      On another note, was Javid moved out by the sideways tactic of telling him that his advisers had to resign if he wanted to stay on? A couple of weeks ago Javid gave a speech about our future relationship with the EU and it was music to Leavers ears. Then one pro-Brexit newspaper reviewer said that the problem was that it was only the Chancellor saying it, and it was too close to the real Brexit that we voted for and Boris did not want that. The reviewer said we might only get half-way there.

      We shall see how many of those who want a “soft Brexit” are moved to the fore, and how many of those who want a real one are shuffled out. Now, back to making lunch and preparing tablets. Take care for the time being. 🙂

  66. Who’s lost their job?

    Sajid Javid

    Here are the sackings we know so far:
    Julian Smith as Northern Ireland secretary
    Andrea Leadsom as business secretary
    Theresa Villiers as environment secretary
    Esther McVey as housing minister
    Nusrat Ghani as transport minister
    Chris Skidmore as education minister
    George Freeman as transport minister

    Geoffrey Cox is also gone – he says he has resigned as attorney general.
    We already know that Nicky Morgan was leaving her role of culture secretary.
    With the prime minister back in Downing Street, we should soon hear who will be returning – and new appointments – to his cabinet.

  67. Just to dispel any rumors Boris did offer me the Job as Personal assistant to No !0’s Moggy but I turned it down

  68. Pubs get green light to stay open two hours longer to allow drinkers to celebrate 75th anniversary of VE Day in style

    1. By getting legless due to self-administered alcohol rather than legless due to stepping on landmines? Hmm…

  69. The full article:

    How I’d resolve the deportation conundrum

    Rod Liddle

    A couple of people in the Hornsey and Wood Green Labour party have come up with a fascinating suggestion – a section of the party for working-class people. I don’t know their names, but let’s call them Bob and Hilda for the time being. Bob and Hilda, the last two working–class people alive in the Labour party. The two of them say that while middle-class party members are in general very nice, Bob and Hilda sometimes feel patronised and talked to as if they were children. Bob and Hilda have recommended ‘awareness–raising group workshops’ to address this problem. Hmm. This made me wonder if Bob and Hilda were themselves middle-class people disguised as working-class people, because I know of no working-class people who would use the phrase ‘awareness-raising group workshops’, still less voluntarily attend one.

    Still, at least Bob and Hilda are presumably not black. If they were, they would even more fully experience the pleasure of being treated like children by middle-class lefties. There is something deeply racist in the middle-class left’s behaviour towards black people, something proprietorial and quite offensive. Only Labour, said Labour, can ‘unlock the potential of black, Asian and minority ethnic people’, as if they were not merely children, but children in the special needs class. The same attitude is betrayed by that phrase they often use when criticising comedians and writers for making jokes about ethnic minorities: ‘punching down’. Down, you will note. They see themselves effortlessly above this morass of people who they consider simply too dumb to help themselves – black people, the white working-class, women. Anyway, I wish Bob and Hilda all the very best of luck, not least in finding one or two other working-class Labour party members, so they don’t feel lonely going into those workshops. There’s probably a few hiding out in, say, Wigan.

    Item one on the workshop agenda might be ‘why the working-class wants foreign-born criminals deported immediately’. I am referring to the hoo-ha currently obsessing the BBC. Top story on the bulletins and the subject of endless, hand-wringing debate on the Today programme and elsewhere. Yet again, the corporation has totally failed to understand either the mindset of the public on this issue or indeed the rectitude of what is happening. For every witless BBC reporter keening by the runway as a Boeing 707 packed with Jamaican rapists, killers and drug dealers departs for Kingston, there will be a million licence-payers quietly applauding in their homes.

    The arguments raised against the government’s actions are, as usual, a succession of non-sequiturs and idiocies. David Lammy thinks it all ‘racist’, but given that he thinks absolutely everything is racist we might discount this objection immediately. The Jamaicans – the sole focus of those who oppose these deportations – are but a tiny minority of foreign-born villains being kicked out. And yet that fact is scarcely mentioned. Should we kick out the others but spare those from the Caribbean? And if so, why?

    Some of them were ‘only’ involved in selling drugs, according to the protesters and the BBC: the very trade which is fuelling our epidemic of knife crime in the capital. Why should drug dealers who are not British citizens be allowed to remain here? What is the point of principle? We are enjoined to worry about the reception they will receive in their native country and that they may fall prey to gangsters. Well indeed. That is because many of them are gangsters themselves. We are also told that it’s not fair on Jamaica. It is utterly intolerable, of course, that Jamaica should be forced to put up with Jamaicans in their own country. It is also said that some of those deported were unable to afford the costs of applying for citizenship, which currently stands at about £1,300. If remaining here as a British citizen was important to them, couldn’t they have sold a few more bags of crack and maybe marked up the price a bit? Some of them were very young when they arrived here, apparently. In which case, where are their families?

    There isn’t a single coherent argument from the protesters, and yet their massed sobbing is filling the BBC’s airwaves. The simple fact that citizenship is a privilege, not a right, and that people who arrive from another country and abuse the laws of the land should have no redress is something accepted pretty much worldwide. And yet we are urged to believe it shouldn’t apply here, when it is Jamaicans. It is a bizarre argument, lacking logic and morality.

    My only quibble with the government is that the Home Secretary, Priti Patel, may be stinting a little, not pursuing her brief to the utmost. If I were in charge of the deportation programme, it would be like the Berlin airlift: one plane leaving every 30 seconds. I’d save a little bit of space on every flight for any protesters who found it intolerable to live in a country which didn’t grant automatic permanent citizenship to rapists and drug dealers from foreign lands, especially when – as they’ve explained to the BBC – they’re now going straight and wish to retrain as brain surgeons, or awareness-raising workshop facilitators. And I’d plant a tree to offset the carbon emissions, obvs.

    The left is in crisis. It cannot win elections. It wonders why this is so. Its sponsors in the broadcast media wonder likewise. A story such as this crops up and they pile into it, convinced that this is the issue which will finally make the dunderheaded voters realise that we’re living Under Fascism, I mean like actually, OMG, we really are. And all those people who trooped across to the Tories in December look at the plane taking off and think: ‘At last! Why on earth didn’t I vote Conservative before?’

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/how-id-resolve-the-deportation-conundrum/

    2. Tangentially related to this, is this article in Taki mag:

      https://www.takimag.com/article/the-anti-larry-david/
      The energetic media tycoon Ezra Klein has a book out titled Why We’re Polarized. Spoiler alert: One reason is because too many people watch Fox News instead of reading Klein’s properties like Vox. Another cause is because somebody imprudently spilled the beans to “white Christians” that they are being demographically doomed to defeat while they still have a chance to do something about it.
      ……
      Klein peaked during Obama’s first term, when the president was trying to focus on non-racialist issues like health care to keep his supporters’ rising demographic triumphalism under wraps long enough so that he could be reelected.

      Not surprisingly, soon after Obama was safely assured of four more years, the gloves came off and our current era of public antiwhite hate, which Klein’s colleague Matthew Yglesias has acidly dubbed “The Great Awokening,” was underway.

    2. Having another go at UK fisheries, it seems. the fish travel up and down and in and out of the North Sea.

    3. Dutch scientist should be taken away by the men in white suits, and put into a secure mental unit.

      “the current sea level rise is 3 mm/year”

  71. Disgusting vandals!’: Extinction Rebellion protestors are slammed online for digging up lawn inches from Home Office and hurling mud and grass onto pavement before police make arrests

    Extinction Rebellion eco-warriors have been arrested for digging up a lawn outside the Home Office to protest against coal mine expansion today.
    The militant environmental group were protesting against the expansion of an open-cast coal site in Bradley, Durham this morning.
    Campaigners dressed in suits mounted the side of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government with spades and began digging up turf next door to the Home Office.
    They carried banners addressing Tory Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick that read: ‘If you’re in a hole stop digging.’

    1. Re my post about Barnet Council proposing a 49.9 (enough to power up to 20,000 dwellings) megawatt gas fired Power Station on green belt land in Mill Hill NW7. I have emailed the following :- Extinction Rebellion. The ‘Green’ party. Friends of the earth and Green peace over this proposal. None of them are in the slightest bit interested in making a representation against this proposal.

  73. Hubei’s leader sacked as China death toll passes 1,300 – live news. 13 February 2020.

    The latest coronavirus statistics from China’s National Health Commission are snapping on Reuters.

    China reports 254 new deaths in the mainland from the coronavirus outbreak as of the end of 12 February.

    China reports 15,152 new coronavirus cases in the mainland as of the end of 12 February.

    This thing’s out of control my friends. Time to make preparations.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/feb/13/coronavirus-latest-updates-deaths-in-china-pass-1300-with-jump-in-cases-live-news?page=with:block-5e4502bb8f0811db2faf6c9d#block-5e4502bb8f0811db2faf6c9d

    1. Ahem

      The reported militarization of Wuhan’s P4 Lab has raised new questions about the origin of the Covid-19 virus and the apparent cover-up that has occurred since it was first made public.

      Following the removal of the most senior health officials in Wuhan yesterday, Chinese State Media has just reported that Chen Wei, China’s chief biochemical weapon defense expert, is now to be stationed in Wuhan to lead the efforts to overcome the deadly, pneumonia-like pathogen.

      According to the PLA Daily report, Chen Wei holds the rank of major general,

      and along with reports that Chinese troops have started to “assist”, it

      strongly suggests that the PLA has taken control of the situation.

      https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/sudden-militarization-wuhans-p4-lab-raises-new-questions-about-origin-deadly-covid-19

  74. It seems that Boris is giving Donald a lesson in building walls.
    Having demolished the Red Wall on 12th December it has taken him just 9 weeks to rebuild it.

  75. Looks like cabinet reshuffle day, will all the old remainers be getting their jobs back or returning to government?

    2. We are now seeing just why Johnson was so determined eliminate TBP.

      Nigel Farage was the first to blink and his withdrawal of candidates in all Conservative held seats was a very grave mistake and Johnson saw this immediately as a weakness and it convinced him that he did not need to make a pact with TBP.

      I feel very sorry for Nigel Farage – to have come so far and to have fallen at the last hurdle. He might console himself that he brought about Brexit – but what sort of watered down Brexit it is going to be.

      Now we shall see the return of the remainers and the betrayal – once again – of the British people.

    2. It is rumoured that Javid was jettisoned for not removing the advisers that suggested the mansion tax.

      Who will be the first to be thrown out of the carriage for questioning HS2?

  77. Morning all

    SIR – The deal is done. We must make the best of it. Maybe a cost-benefit analysis is in order.

    We know the cost: approximately £106 billion.

    Benefits:

    1. An extended HS2 will give improved access to and from most areas of economic importance in the country for decades ahead, a long-term gain that which should justify upfront cost.

    2. Fast travel between north and south obviates the need for a third runway at Heathrow. New or enlarged airport capacity in the North thereby becomes a viable alternative.

    3. The project cost is high, but labour, materials and job skills can be sourced at home. Taxpayers’ money is thereby recirculated into the economy: it will go to remunerate indigenous labour and increase industrial output, favouring the North.

    4. An extended period of construction gives industries time to gear their output to the project and the manufacture of the necessary material and equipment. The proposed free-port network could similarly benefit from all of the above.

    If there is no way back, then capitalising upon these opportunities could be the way forward.

    Graham Boon

    Ardington, Oxfordshire

    SIR – Something had to be cancelled this week. Sadly it turned out to be my Conservative Party membership, not HS2.

    Mary Work

    Haltwhistle, Northumberland

  78. Who paid for Boris’ mega expensive Caribbean new year holiday ?

    The businessman Boris put on his Commons declaration has denied it was him.

    If Boris can’t afford to pay for himself, why did he go ?

    1. In any normal business this would not be allowed and would potentially be liable to be fired but in politics anything goes

    2. In theory the amount and the donor are supposed to be recorded

      This sort of thing should be banned in industry it normally is. There has to be a conflict of interests with this donations. In industry you normally can only accept gifts of a nominal value so a pen diary, mug , mouse mat etc

  79. Eleven days old but I don’t think this has had an airing on here.

    HS2 is this Government’s first major mistake

    SIMON HEFFER

    No-one can blame the Conservative party for wanting to take steps to shore up its new-found popularity in the north of England, but consolidation of this new and much-prized base is something that needs to be done on reflection, and not out of a sense of panic.

    Panic was precisely what seemed to be behind the ill-thought out proposal floated a fortnight ago to move the House of Lords to Yorkshire. And it seems to lie behind another apparently imminent policy announcement, namely to build HS2.

    Although the Huawei decision may yet come back to haunt the Prime Minister, pressing ahead with HS2 deserves to be regarded as this Government’s first major mistake. It is telling that the best Boris Johnson can offer so far in the defence of this Cameron-era vanity project is that when you are in a hole the size of HS2 the best thing is “to keep digging”. As the bills come in, the difficulties mount and the benefits to the long-term prosperity in the north become less and less evident, the joke will wear pretty thin.

    At a time when the Government is trying to appear to be less London-centric, it seems to fail to understand how very London-centric it is to be so hell-bent on building a railway to move the people of Birmingham and Manchester to the capital a few minutes faster. And when one considers the cost, which has ballooned, predictably, to over £106 billion, one would have to be very stupid indeed not to realise that some of that money could be spent infinitely better, and some not spent at all.

    If the Government’s prime concern is to improve the appeal of the north to businesses and migrants from elsewhere in the country, then the obvious way to do it is to improve infrastructure and the quality of life in that region. A means of getting rapidly from Liverpool to Hull via Manchester and Leeds would revolutionise areas such as East Lancashire and the West Riding where cotton and wool mills once shored up an economy founded on coal mining.

    The very building of an east-west high-speed railway would attract thousands of workers to the region, precipitating the development of new housing, schools and hospitals and taking pressure off the overcrowded south-east.

    Some of the money could also be spent improving existing railways and, building on an announcement last week, investing in re-opening Beeching-era lines. In many places the track-beds still exist and, in the south of England especially, re-opened railways would take pressure off the roads and stop business wasting so much money with its personnel and goods stuck in traffic jams.

    The knee jerk on HS2 is no substitute for a strategy that uses predominantly fiscal measures to ensure that the north of England, in terms of growth, catches up the south. Once we have properly left the EU much can be done with VAT that is not at present permitted, and a regional variation on the rate, or VAT holidays for start-up firms, would have an inevitable impact.

    So too would allowing parts of the north to charge flexible rates of corporation tax. Anyone who doubts this should look at the example of Northern Ireland, where towns within reach of the Irish border have steadily lost businesses to the Republic because of the lower rate of corporation tax there.

    It was also reported last week how relatively small the number of pupils doing well at A-level and going to the best universities is in the north compared with the south. A region-wide determination to improve the quality of schools might start with improving the quality of teachers, by giving those with the best degrees tax incentives to serve in failing schools. For a fraction of what is about to be blown on HS2, the poorest schools in the north could be turned into high-achieving specialist academies.

    The British public are mature enough to tire of stunts, especially those orchestrated by politicians. For people in the north it is of little concern where their elected, or unelected, representatives meet, or where the cabinet deliberates. Expanding opportunities, encouraging aspiration, enabling prosperity and improving living and working conditions are the real ways in which the Conservative party will keep its newly-acquired voters.

    Leaving them watching a grossly overpriced infrastructure project that has no bearing on their lives for 20 years, if then, and which sinks in credibility and popularity every time the bill goes up, would seem a sure way to drive them back into the arms of the Labour Party.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/02/02/hs2-governments-first-major-mistake/

    1. Gravy pipeline.

      Just by purely random innocent coincidence, one of Soros’ big buddies is on the board.

    2. “The very building of an east-west high-speed railway would …” be an excellent start.
      Cross country travel East -West is very difficult anywhere unless London is on the route. Any part of Scotland except the Central Belt, although the Central Belt E-W is horrible with the M8 mostly stationary mornings and evenings. Newcastle to Cardiff is an adventure.

      1. Newcastle to Cardiff is an adventure.

        5-6 hours with one or two changes isn’t so bad. Before the grouping there was a Newcastle to Cardiff and Barry through service that took more than 9 hours. It went via the Great Central to Banbury and then across the Cotswolds, passing through Hook Norton, Chipping Norton and Bourton-on-the-Water. What a journey that would have been.

        1. Fabulous, it would have been. Comfortable, clean, dinner on board, no Riff-raff.
          My journeys were from Edinburgh to Caerphilly, no fun really.

          2. Fabulous! Thanks. The mention of parcels reminded me of Red Star which I used to get labels overnight from Yate to Berwick. Never failed. JIT.


    3. The British public are mature enough to tire of stunts, especially those orchestrated by politicians.

      They’re already tired of it, and the mood online is very sour. The government’s honeymoon period is definitely over.

      2. ”
        This HS2 project is going to dog Boris”
        But with Huawei, Boris has shown that he is not Trump’s poodle.

      3. Don’t forget the mutterings about the Ireland-Scotland bridge, which will be completed just in time for all cars except electric ones to be banned.

        When I hear the announcements about HS2 being cancelled in favour of electricity grid infrastructure upgrades, ten new nuclear power plants, and some new CCGT plants, I’ll believe this government is serious about going all-electric.
        That it’s still all unaffordable is another matter.

    5. Afternoon WS,
      It is IMO an Appeasement / power play to appease the eu & to show the peoples the way things are going to be henceforth.
      I am afraid that the upstairs / downstairs roles are reverse and you
      WILL bow the head and touch the forelock in the presence of an Mp.

  80. I wonder if Boris’ holiday is linked to Open Society’s new claim that they “leverage” policy and form “close relationships with officials and politicians” ?

    I actually very much doubt it’s connected but Boris must be barmy to accept hospitality on this scale.

    The “Red Wall” will hate it !

      1. The letter states that his UK passport “should not have been issued”, on
        the basis that he naturalised with an identity that “conflicts [his]
        true identity”. It states that he said he was born in 1986 and born in
        Serbia, but the Home Office believes he was born in 1985 in Albania.

        He’s no Serb, the clue’s in his name. Fatush Lala is not a Serb name, it’s an Albanian name – a muslim name.

        He’ll be an Albanian trying to pass himself off as a refugee from Kosovo, like many of his fellow-countrymen.

    3. President Trump has every right to feel smug.

      He has been under constant bombardment since before his presidency and he hasn’t blinked.

    3. It is, except the south has a track record of making these claims and being proved wrong.

  87. Transport for London admits that a “major expansion” in charging infrastructure is required and is concerned at the “convoluted ways to pay” and lack of clarity on value for money from different charging points.

    There are about 350 rapid charging points in the capital.
    But charges at Heathrow’s taxi park can exceed the cost of diesel, while it costs £45 to park at the TfL-funded charging points in the Olympic park for drivers who are not also using sports facilities at the Copper Box arena.

    1. Ah, that kind of charging. For a moment, I thought you meant the payment charging, not recharging of batteries…

  88. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

    SIR – I suspect that reports of the Covid-19 virus originating in a batcave are nothing
    more or less than an attempt, by an arch-criminal mastermind, to weaken public trust in our principal law-enforcement operatives.

    Bruce Wayne
    Gotham City

    1. ‘Morning, Duncan, wouldn’t the thought of the virus originating in the batcave, just be batshit crazy?

  89. Do you remember when the Icelandic volcano stopped all air traffic movements over the UK for a week or longer.. the sky never looked bluer and our skies were quieter.

    Couldn’t we stop all air traffic for a week.. to just quarantine the UK .. and have peace of mind .. cannot we do it now.. for the sake of the health of the Uk.

    2. Same in the US after 9/11. All aircraft were grounded – except for the USAF flying CAP missions over major cities.

      As we were only a few miles from a local airpark, we had F15’s and F16’s low over the house a few times back then when they were “explaining” to private flyers the new rules about not flying too close to DC. Plodding along in your Cessna and having one of those things on your tail, with a full complement of missiles hanging off the wings probably brought on some clean underwear needed moments.

  90. Have we established the flight of felons as like Coronation Street, on a regular daily basis or was the Jamaican issue a token one off ?

    1. Thousands of foreign criminals are expelled each year. The white ones aren’t newsworthy.

      1. AC,
        Any chance of your post being padded out with a few numbers
        as we could be blaming an innocent establishment of doing nothing.

  92. The Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News have agreed to merge into one news operation in a bid to keep both titles running amid financial challenges.

    The Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News have agreed to merge into one news operation in a bid to keep both titles running amid financial challenges.
    The weekly newspapers will unite under a charitable trust in plans intended to “secure the financial future of both newspapers and transform into a modern print, digital and events brand” revealed today.

    Journalists and commercial staff from each title will begin working across both papers once the merger goes through, raising the possibility of job cuts to come. Both titles will continue to publish.

    1. Bill. If you don’t mind me asking, why do you feel it necessary to repeat the first line of many of your posts?

      Bill. If you don’t mind me asking, why do you feel it necessary to repeat the first line of many of your posts?

      1. Probably the sub-heading of the article, Geoff. Many do that.
        Also, what happened to your avatar?

        1. It’s easily enough edited out though, Paul. The avatar has been up since Brexit Day +1. The photo was taken at the Guildford count on 24/6/2016, at sunrise. “Look – it’s the sunlit uplands of Brexit”, someone exclaimed…

    1. ‘ere ’tis :-

      Sinn Féin’s shock success in the Irish election is a warning: the headwinds of a new Left-wing populism are blowing Britain’s way. In fact, the secret to Sinn Féin’s genius is a double warning: in a country where the economy is thriving, Corbynism clad in a shamrock-green rugby shirt can still top the polls.
      Such an extraordinary turnaround is worth reflecting on: a party that was once a squalid political backwater for retiring terrorists has gone mainstream overnight. It has done so by channeling Left-wing patriotic populism: doorstep volunteers pledged to build 100,000 new homes while giving out Easter lily pendants. Seizing on the centenary celebrations of the fight for Irish independence, Sinn Féin framed modern indignities – like the elderly lying on hospital trolleys – as an insult to the ideals of egalitarian republicanism.
      Their storming success is no aberration. In Poland, the governing PiS party (although technically conservative) has dominated the country’s politics by splurging on welfare while shaking their fists at Brussels liberals. Spain’s Podemos is clogging town squares with rallies that roar for a war on bankers and invoke the insurgent spirit of the Madrileños who rebelled against Napoleon. They claim they are on a mission to “reclaim patriotism for progressive ends”.
      In an intriguing twist, Rebecca Long-Bailey has pilfered the concept of “progressive patriotism”. As clunky as the concept is, it hints that the intellectually vacant Labour contender may not necessarily be the ideological dead end her critics on the Left fear; the perverse reality is she is probably the only candidate who has an instinctive inkling of Labour’s true path to recovery, perhaps inspired by the dramas unfolding abroad.
      Granted, since the election settled the Brexit question, the Left here has spent most of its time wallowing in the molasses of confected melancholy. But its shrewder thinkers are rushing to come up with a new Labour patriotism. Leftie magazine columns and local Labour meetings are already crackling with inspiration, drawing on everything from George Orwell’s “green fields” and “red letterboxes” to the lore of insurgent ancient Britannia.
      The socialist history of Britain is being hastily rewritten to emphasise people rather than class, and to linger on the favourite patriotic pitstops of Leavers, from Chartism to the Civil War. In other words, the Left have already parked their academic tanks on the Eurosceptic liberation story.
      Which is why the PM’s attempt to discreetly burn the Book of Brexit, banning the word in his speeches and trade briefings, is so dangerous. The Right should in theory be able to see off the Left’s downtrodden version of nationalism with reasonable ease.
      But only if it can breathe life into the legend of the British lion unleashing its potential. Not least by showing younger voters that throwing off the shackles of EU regulation in the sectors of the future, from biotech to AI, will give Britain a huge head start as the world teeters on the brink of a second industrial revolution. But how can the Government tell this confident tale of post-Brexit Britain if the B-word is taboo? Not to mention the fact that a story without a beginning is quite the self-defeating challenge to the chaos of metropolitan post-modernism.
      The Right is ceding ground on other crucial fronts. While it struggles to define the new bureaucratic enemy, now that the battle against Brussels apparatchiks has abated, academics on the Left are close to cracking a rival discourse. The latter are targeting what they wonkily refer to as “pro-market corporatism”. The theories of panoptic thinkers like David Graeber and Plum-Tart, who want the state, activists, NGOs and individuals to merge in a “collective resistance” against globalising managerialism should worry the Right. Not least because the number one target of this new school is the giant corporation – a leviathan that they argue feeds off the anarchy of free market economics.
      At a time when the Left is tantalisingly close to defining its new elite enemy, the Right risks becoming too elusive on the same topic – fighting a cold war against Whitehall in the shadows and grinding down the metropolitan liberals who run the BBC with passive aggression, while not quite daring to confront their enemy.
      Complacent Tories like to point out the low calibre of today’s Labour politicians. But the point is that much of the thinking is already being done for them in Left-leaning universities. There are also plenty of countries for Labour’s uncreative politicians to draw inspiration from. Their road to recovery will be tribally vicious, but it will involve less mental heavy lifting than many seem to think.
      The opposite is true for the Right, which urgently needs to craft a vision for Britain’s place in the world and an economically credible blueprint for bankrolling modernisation without punishing wealth. When Boris Johnson announced his Isambardian infrastructure vision to a sceptical nation this week, it was hard to tell whether one could detect the first shudders of a Victorian revolution or the stalling of the Conservative mental machinery. Time will soon tell

      3. love some of the comments –

        Sarah Anderssen 13 Feb 2020 7:57AM
        The British left doesn’t do patriotism, it does self-loathing.

        Nothing to worry about there.

  95. Just when you think the Al-Beeb can’t disgust you any worse comes the cry “Hold My Beer”
    Weeping and wailing about Dresden,fluck all about the 55,000 brave airman that lost their lifes serving in Bomber Command
    I give not one stuff about the German casualties,sow the wind reap the whirlwind,just a pity our atomic weapons were not ready earlier.

      1. Nah. It’s the story of one POW who was in the Dresden area when it was attacked, and all the things he saw. They should have paired it it with an interview of someone who entered the extermination camps at war’s end. But, the BBC is Labour dominated and so are not going to be that sympathetic toward the Jews.

        Anyway, I’ve just always been grateful my dad and my uncles all came home in one piece.

    2. What these people don’t realise is that it was a fight to the death for national survival. If Hitler had had the A-bomb he would have dropped it on London, and if “Little Boy” had been ready earlier it would have been dropped on Berlin. That’s just how it was.

      And alongside Bomber Command, the US 8th Army Air Force sustained a similar casualty level.

  97. World War 2 – Fact:

    For every TON of bombs dropped on the UK, allied bombers dropped 50 TONS on Germany.

    May I add, I’m very thankful that the Allies won WW2.

    1. Didn’t Churchill make some comment in one of his speeches to the effect hat for every bomb dropped on England, a 100 would be dropped on Germany?

      1. Hitler made that threat:-
        “You will understand that we shall now give a reply, night for night, and with increasing force. And if the British Air Force drops two, three or four thousand kilos of bombs, then we will drop 150,000, 180,000, 230,000, 300,000 or 400,000 kilos, or more, in one night. If they declare that they will attack our cities on a large scale, we will erase theirs!”

        1. I’ve heard it said that the point of “an eye for an eye” was to limit and prevent escalation of violence rather than encourage revenge, though if it’s to be interpreted literally, we only have two each anyway.

      1. I fancy there were more genuine innocents in German cities (foreign slaves and those detestin g the Nazis) than there are in Idlib or were in the ISIS-held cities in Syria and northen Iraq.

  98. From MoggMentum

    The European Union is set be damaged further as Switzerland are now having a referendum on their Schengen membership.

    As we’ve said countless times, Britain’s departure is the beginning of the end for the European Union – The dictatorial bloc will not exist in 20 years time.

        2. Some of us, given the proclivities of those in our Parliament, think it will be the only way we will ever be truly free.

  99. Fly-tipping: Organised crime behind large rise

    The real reason behind it is that councils make it as difficult and expensive as possible to dispose of waste legally

    1. We have an excellent system in France. We load up a trailer with our rubbish and take it to a dump about a couple of kilometres from where we live. We do not have to pay anything to use it. There are several large skips specifically designated for each sort of waste and a council employee is there to tell us where to put everything.

      This is self-financing as the junk is sold for recycling.

        1. Many in the UK keep limited hours and are fussy over what you dispose of and most will not accept vans or trailers and many make charges for some waste

      2. Have you been put into the DIY card scheme for household rubbish and recycling yet?

        Our weekly collections stop this week and the inefficient bureaucracy has yet to issue the access badges even though the bins are in place.

  100. Islington GP surgery closed ‘due to the coronavirus’

    A GP surgery in Islington has been closed until Friday “due to the coronavirus”.

    An alert on the Ritchie Street Health Centre website says: “Practice is closed until 14/02/2020 due to the coronavirus. Any patients that have the symptoms should call 111 and not come to the practice”.

  101. Harping back to my visit, yesterday, to a cop shop in Sweden, it occurred to me later (I’m a slow thinker, these days!) that the movement to protect people’s hurt feelings is gaining apace worldwide.

    As I mentioned, all the signs on the wall were in Swedish with no assistance for speakers of other languages (as you get in Denmark). The only exception was on a revolving stand in the corner. I perused all the leaflets on offer and they were identical but each one written in a different language (about eight in all).

    There were no advice leaflets advising on the course of action members of the public should undertake in the case of:

    Murder
    Wounding or Grievous Bodily Harm
    Actual Bodily Harm
    Common Assault
    Rape (and false accusations thereof)
    Criminal Damage
    Arson
    Theft
    Robbery
    Burglary
    Riot
    Serious Public Disorder
    Reckless or Dangerous Driving
    Blackmail
    or any other serous offence or crime.

    The only subject on the solitary leaflet was the action the public should take and the immediate response the police will give in the case of:

    Someone’s feelings being hurt!

    The world has gone tits up and, as I never tire of telling you all, the increasing rate of stupidity of the human species is accelerating daily at an alarming pace.

          1. At least give the rest of us a brief summary of what the page was about so the comments make sense, please TB.

    2. No mention of grooming gangs, gang rape and other sexual misconduct by recent migrants ?
      Also, Gaining apace world wide.

    1. There was much debate local to me when the council suggested something similar. As I understand it, it’s not illegal as such, just stupid.

      1. It is an offence under the highways act id on a public road as the road traffic act lays down the exist requirement for a crossing

    2. High time for those in charge of education to be weeded out, thrashed, sacked and strung up.

      The entire lot of them need replacing, and urgently, with people of common sense.

  103. The 16 day forecast for here shows no frosts. If confirmed by reality that will mean I’ve had no frosts this year, and only one day of an overnight -1C in early December. The problem here last year though was that there was little sun, it was all cloud, so my garden did not flower terribly well. I hope it’s sunnier this year!

  105. Man who threatened to ‘rearrange’ face of train conductor is jailed

    Shallow, 35, of Dean Close, London, was at Ipswich railway station on October 2 last year and asked a member of staff at the barrier if he could travel to London without a ticket.
    When he was told he could not, Shallow said: “I’m going to do what I’m going to do.”
    The member of staff continued to observe Shallow and he bought a ticket to Manningtree, Ipswich Crown Court heard.
    On the train, Shallow was challenged by a ticket inspector but the train had already gone past Manningtree and he was told he would need to buy another ticket.
    Shallow then became abusive, Richard Sedgewick, prosecutor, told the court, refusing to buy another ticket and telling the inspector: “I’m not buying a ticket to Colchester. I’ll rearrange your face”.
    The British Transport Police were called and when the train stopped at Colchester, Shallow was met by officers.
    He again became aggressive and abusive and a search of his rucksack revealed a broken kitchen knife, a metal throwing card with a serrated edge, and £110 worth of cannabis.
    Shallow had eight previous convictions for 13 offences between 2002 and 2019.

    The court heard that Shallow, who appeared via video link at Ipswich Crown Court on Wednesday, had issues with his mental health.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7907c50da7ae7a2f8ff515ddb489801208f5f51736280c7d4ff3f93f7ee96c20.jpg

    2. Is that his full name: “Shallow”? Doesn’t he have a first name?

      [Oh, I see. You’ve cut-and-pasted again without checking what you’re doing!]

      1. Do they all have mental health issues?

        Carrying cannabis and a blade and then drawing attention to yourself…what a dick.

        1. …… and carrying cannabis worth £110, yet he didn’t want to fork out for a train ticket that would have cost only about a tenner (according to Trainline)

          Congenitally stupid.

          1. I suppose Lammy will insist it’s because he is black and as a wog showing entrepreneurial skills he should have free travel on the network.

  106. The number of fatal stabbings in the year ending March 2018 in England and Wales was the highest on record with 285 killings in 2018/19 using a knife or sharp object

    The media and left try to deflect from it being predominately a black crime. They also try to deflect from it mainly being a London issue

    The data shows it is very much a London issue., Of the 285 fatal stabbings in England and Wales a 132 were in London ie almost 50% of those stabbing were inn London

    132 people were killed in London alone during that same period although London only accounts for about 15% of the population of England & Wales

    93% rise in hospital admissions for knife attacks

    25% of knife crime victims who are admitted to hospital are men aged 18-24

      1. These knife criminal are already spreading out from London. Drug crime seems to be behind a lot of it

  107. Just pointed out to a work colleague that (according to Google) the exchange rate today is €1.20 to the pound and she immediately said, “Oh the pound is weak then”. Surely it’s the other way round?

      1. We were told the pound would go through the floor with Brexit.

        £1.20 is one of the highest rates for the pound against the euro for three years

        Two possible reasons?

        i) The prophets of doom were wrong;
        ii) The prophets of doom were right but the poundjhas not collapsed because Boris’s WA and the likely sell out trade arrangements mean that Brexit is not really happening at all.

        1. The pound is lower against the Euro compared to before the referendum and has been continuously since the vote. The prophets of doom got most things wrong but not the decline of the pound.

          2. Correct but if that’s the only criteria then Argentina and Zimbabwe should be doing well.

          3. Exports are a net loss. They are resources we could have consumed swapped for meaningless bits of paper who’s value goes up and down at the whims of huge FOREX traders. We can swap our own meaningless paper for other states’ meaningless paper, we don’t need to swap out resources unless we have high external debt because then if we don’t that money comes back to the UK in the form of land sales, airports, ports, bridges, roads, anything other countries see value in buying for the useless UK paper their central banks are holding.

          5. The euro was about 1.3 to the pound at the time of the referendum. The fall in value of the pound after the referendum was not as great as they predicted but over the last 30 years the pound has got signifcantly lower in value against the former euro currencies.

            .

          6. When making that comparison I would suggest that the former currencies are “benefiting” from the deutsch mark effect within the Euro. In real terms the Euro has harmed those countries as much as it has helped Germany

            With few exceptions the legacy currencies would be far weaker relative to sterling than they are within the Euro. The Germans benefit from what would be the Euro’s relative weakness against the DM had it existed. Similar to the way the Swiss Franc has increased relative in value vs most currencies.

          8. The German economy is a complete mess. it’s surviving by holding wages down for 30 years and exporting as much of its consumable wealth as it can. Once the Germans turn on their masters for the pay restraint which has been totally ridiculous, then the wheels fall off that economy in a big way. You can’t be mercantilist with the labour costs and environmental overheads of Germany. Sooner or later the Germans are going to want to move towards domestic consumption.

          9. My view is that that is down to reunification.

            The German banks are more worrying for Europe and the world, when they go we’re all deep in the midden.

          10. The Germans have a paranoid fear of inflation. They are prepared to import very little, consume very little, and export their real wealth, while their real wages are constantly eroded to pay for it. German central bank has sucked Euros from other states and now the only way to return them is to buy up land. You’ll notice Germany now owns the majority of Greek airports for instance. It’s all unsustainable. It’s going to end in tears. Germany is in big trouble economically and it’s causing havoc for some states in the EU. Going to be fun to watch from the outside but we didn’t get as clear as i’d have liked.

          11. And why do they have that fear?
            Because people like you thought that printing money was the solution.

          12. Consequence of the Treaty of Versailles which was always going to be problematic and the Allies way of enforcing it. Hyperinflation is not caused by money printing it’s caused by supply shocks. Printing of money is just a symptom, not a cause. We print money every day. Every payment the government makes is freshly created, the same goes for commercial banks, it’s the way of the entire world. Every single currency is now fiat. Many are free floating, and pegs can be removed and adjusted as necessary for those silly enough to peg. We need not accept the current trade-offs of running the economy based on neoliberal ‘eventually the wealth will trickle down’ theory which has driven us backwards economically from a nice trend of organic growth of living standards to a massive boost for just the few while the middle-classes shrink and ever more of us work for existence rather than a life.

          13. The pound had been overpriced for some time. On the news we had voted for freedom, it corrected itself.

          14. The FTSE closed at 6139 on the day of the result of the referendum. It quickly rose to 7200 and more by January 2017. it has remained constant at about that level since then. Today it is 7452, down from yesterday’s 7534.

          15. Yep, in part due to many FTSE companies reporting in dollars not sterling. But good all the same.

    2. With your news i decided to buy a thousand pounds worth of euro early for my holibobs. The extra will pay for my bloody marys on the plane. (sticks two fingers up at Grizz). :o)

        1. I hope so as long as it doesn’t get too strong and hurt exports; one caveat, if the Government keeps spending money we don’t have, it might go the other way.

          1. Investors like governments spending cash they don’t have. It inspires confidence that the economy will be awash with spending power, and jobs, and so with the interest rate in the right area investment starts going into productivity and producing higher output. Conversely we can go into austerity and spend less, taking spending power away from people by under-inflation rises if they get any at all, lower spending and higher taxation. That causes even more malinvestment away from jobs and productivity and into land. That exacerbates housing issues, living standards growth, and causes yet more people to leave the productive economy for a life of extracting rent from those still being productive.
            We borrow in pounds. We are not Argentina which borrows mostly in the US dollar despite having its own sovereign currency. We could only ever soft default, a choice, rather than a hard default pushed on us, and we have in fact never seriously defaulted.The UK should not be scared of running deficits if that’s what we need to get the economy growing, but it must be matched with changes to the fiscal system to incentivise production and deter rent-seeking.

          2. We’ve had this discussion before.
            You would happily tank sterling and then wonder why we have hyper-inflation.

            NO country can just keep printing money ad infinitum.

          3. No one is suggesting ‘printing money’ ad infinitum. Nor would there be any hyperinflation. We’ve run deficits for about 50 of the past 60 years. I don’t see inflation being any problem with massive hyperinflation in that time. There was stagflation in the seventies but largely that was caused by global events and exacerbated by some bad chancellors on the domestic side, particularly Barber.
            Debt as a percentage of GDP comes down when GDP growth is high and at that stage smaller deficits are necessary to keep the whole thing moving. A balanced budget is almost never needed. We either want to be running deficits to get things going or running a surplus to cool an overheating economy. A balanced budget is the very essence of doing sweet sod all for anyone.

          4. At some point you have to stop printing.

            That means you have to look at the budget much more carefully.

            Cut out the nice to haves and concentrate on the need to haves.
            No HS2, much less foreign aid, no non-jobs in the public sector, diversity officers and the like fewer “green” initiatives.

            More housing, more hospitals, more schools and employment that actually produces or improves: prison officers, police, road menders etc.

          5. With the exception of more housing (I’d rather see deportations of criminals and a brake on immigration), I agree.

          11. Actually non-jobs would be a better way of spending. Welfare should take the form of a job guarantee at a rate ever so slightly lower than minimum wage to incentivise moving into the private sector as soon as possible. A citizens income is another possibility. Employers don’t like people that have been out of work for more than a few months. Those CVs go straight in the bin. Most benefits system add fiscal cliffs at stupid withdrawal rates. At one time you earned 4p for every quid you earned from work if you were getting JSA and HB and found a low paid job. They wouldn’t exactly be non-jobs either. We could focus on trade training, giving people the skills they need for employment and self-employment. Fiat currencies allow for vastly different trade-offs than Gold Standard times and too much of neoliberal thinking is based on assumptions that if we don’t keep acting the way we did back then there will be hell to pay. We need a more varied economy, rather than one so reliant on financial services. We need lower housing costs to raise disposable income and we need to spread out the spending power to increase demand rather than keep on concentrating it in fewer hands. This can be engineered with some joined-up thinking.

          12. Agreed in parts. (well, what did you expect!)
            I’m all for training and I’m all for avoiding that cliff edge. The answer as far as I’m concerned is to make the benefits relate to the work done.

            The pressure should be on the total takers; physical make work jobs, road mending and the like, should be compulsory for anyone who is claiming unemployment benefits. The argument, which I have made in the past, that it isn’t worth working 40 hours for an extra £4 should NOT be accepted.

            If you are not prepared to work 40 hours for £X +4 then you should not be paid £X for doing nothing.

          13. I envision a job centre where an unemployed person can turn up, sign up for an actual job, paid at the rate of the previous year’s minimum wage where he can be put to use using his skills, or if he doesn’t have any, learn some skills. Employers will look more favourably at someone who will work for last years nmw to keep his skills current, or learn new skills, than someone who ‘draws the sole for sofa surfing’. It would help morale. The money would be spent some returning to government, and some boosting economic activity. It’s a good way to handle apprenticeships. It may even lead to small start-ups being spun off. A place to learn welding skills could well become a private sector welding shop as skills of those working there improve. I see a world of possibilities.

          15. Pensioners leaving a life of work in the private sector could work a few morning and afternoon hours passing their skills and lessons learned through a lifetime of work down to the younger generations, helping make sure some valuable but less needed skills are not lost completely. I think that would also help them stay fit, and feel useful, and of course top up the pension a bit with some earnings.
            To me although more expensive than a meagre existence payment, it has all the right qualities of a welfare system. Unemployment gone almost forever if we want it. Anyone that wants to work can, for last year’s minimum wage, until they can find something better.
            We should pay the first month’s travel costs, after that they can pay their own, they’ll have wages.
            That’s an example of a good use of deficit spending. One that can only bring benefits economically.

      2. Not really. The pound has weakened against both currencies over the medium term. The idea that because there is more than one dollar, euro, yen or whatever to the pound, the pound is stronger is nonsense.

        1. Yes really.

          Today you get more Euros for your pound, therefore today it is stronger against the Euro.

          Define medium term.

          4. That is hardly medium term in FX markets

            In the medium term the GBP/EUR rate was hovering around the launch rates. The financial crash beat Hell out of sterling, because our banks were deemed more vulnerable, it rose again steadily and it was only when the remain “project fear” really kicked off that sterling deteriorated again.

            I suspect that the absence of the UK wll harm the EU considerably and the rate will trend upwards again. I also suspect that the Euro may well self-destruct. The next financial crash will probably be led by the European banks, Germans in particular, dragged down by the very countries that the Euro hurt while Germany prospered.

          5. I agree, but overtime the pound has been in long-term decline against major currencies. There’s talk of it losing its reserve currency status. I know it’s only a small anecdote but my recent black market dealings in Khartoum suggested the only currencies in demand were the US dollar and Euro.

          6. How many people in Khartoum would have any use for sterling cash?

            Your black market is strictly supply and demand, I doubt that there would be much interest in cash Renminbi, cash Riyals or cash rupees either.

          7. But lots of demand for dollars and euros as they are regarded as a safe long-term home for your wealth.

          8. As far as the black market traders are concerned I suspect it’s as much to do with ready convertability and where they can turn a profit than as a store of wealth.

          9. Not sure how they turn a profit when they buy dollars at twice the official rate. But you’re correct in that it’s down to supply and demand as in no demand for sterling.

          10. Because our economy is in long-term decline it’s turned rather feudal due to the neoliberal fiscal system. Some of the stats look good, like the unemployment rate, but really we don’t have a great deal of demand. Interest rates are still at emergency levels and no one is spending. Look at the business failures, the price of land which rises as that’s where our investment goes, the rate of growth even after many tweaks to make it look better, labour productivity, wage growth. Austerity has choked off any chance of growth. We keep on doing this to ourselves. Automation is replacing workers. Self-employment is being used as disguised employment to get around minimum wage laws and worker rights. Real investors know what’s going on, so you don’t see investment and the living standards poverty and productivity ‘puzzle’ will continue and the currency will continue to decline in the medium term against currencies of economies that are growing in productivity and productive capacity.

        2. When we bought our house in France in 1988 there were 12 FF (French francs) to the pound.

          When we bought our boat in 2003 there were about 10 FF to the pound.

          Now that the pound is worth 1.20 € to the pound it is the equivalent of 7.8 FF to the pound.

          So in the time we have been in France the pound has devalued against the currency used in France in the ratio of 12 to 7.8.

          1. The first time I visited the US, in 1970, the dollar was 2.40 to the pound. As we still had 240 pennies to the pound, it was one cent, one penny. Today it’s $1.30 to the pound but that’s still an improvement on recent rates?

          2. I can’t recall the economics journalist who coined it but he went on the Manhattan cocktail, as soon as it cost a quid, sterling was grossly overvalued

  108. The newly independent country of Britain is to revert to using pounds and ounces, feet and inches. Expressing length in metres will be a treasonous offence.
    Just announced.

  109. Peter Turner: Ex-monk at Catholic boarding school jailed for more than 20 years for child abuse

    A former monk at a Catholic boarding school who continued to abuse young boys after confessing to having sexual contact with a pupil has been jailed for more than 20 years.
    Peter Turner, 80, sexually abused two boys after he was forced to leave Ampleforth College, in North Yorkshire, and sent away to work in a parish in Workington, Cumbria.

    He was sentenced to 20 years and 10 months at York Crown Court on Wednesday after admitting to a string of sexual offences committed more than 30 years ago against three boys aged between nine and 12.

    Turner, who was previously known as Father Gregory Carroll, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to 11 counts of indecent assault, two counts of buggery and one count of gross indecency with a child.

    He served another jail sentence in 2005 after he admitted offences against 10 pupils at Ampleforth between 1979 and 1987.
    Judge Sean Morris, the Recorder of York, said: “You have brought evil into this world when, by your calling, you should have brought hope, help and succour.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c566d590247bea578b607c2ba42c681cbb61d9e6626b5d04f67901ceb1c290e4.jpg

      1. A bad habit. So much though for Corbyns racism claims, He is clearly white and he has got a 20 Year sentence a lot more than the average Asian terrorist got

    1. I never had much time for Sajid Javid but, in resigning because he refused to sack his staff, he displayed a sense of honour that few politicians and even fewer very senior police officers would have shown.

      1. Javid has morals. He’s one of the better Tories, but like all of them completely misguided economically speaking. This move smacks of a Blair type sofa dictatorship led by the odious Cummings.

      2. He probably knew the next budget would be the end of him and jumped ship before the proverbial hit the fan. No present day politician has a sense of honour.

  111. George Eustice is the new Secretary of State for DEFRA. He’ll be a very popular appointment with Tory MPs. Having been a farmer and the fisheries minister, he knows the brief backwards. His promotion will be seen as much deserved and long overdue. Eustice will also manage to balance the various opinions within the party about the agricultural interest and animal welfare.

    1. BJ,
      I though the johnson chap would have brought in the wretch cameron for
      animal welfare his approach to it is well known.

  112. Massive wind turbine on coast stops working

    The Gulliver wind turbine at Lowestoft’s Ness Point has stopped working – with engineers saying they are doing all they can to get it turning again.

    asked why the turbine at the UK’s most easterly point, next to Orbis Energy Centre, did not appear to be turning in the windy weather, owner Thrive Renewables said Gulliver had not turned for nearly two months.

    A spokesman for Thrive Renewables said: “The recent storms have not affected our wind turbine at Ness Point in Lowestoft.

    “It has not been turning since before Christmas, as we have been waiting for spare parts to arrive.
    “We are working hard behind the scenes to get it back in action as soon as possible.”

    1. I’ve been on 2 ships that had to enforce quarantines. Both times were for chicken pox and both times it was only Asians that caught it. Confined to cabins until we could have ’em evacuated to hospital, usually by supply boat which would quarantine them until they reached port.

  114. How the cabinet is shaping up so far

    A number of ministers have kept their jobs
    :
    Gavin Williamson, education secretary
    Therese Coffey, work and pensions secretary
    Oliver Dowden, culture secretary
    Liz Truss, international trade secretary
    Matt Hancock, secretary of state for health and social care
    Priti Patel, home secretary
    Dominic Raab, foreign secretary
    Michael Gove, Duchy of Lancaster
    Robert Buckland, justice secretary
    Baroness Evans has also kept her job as leader of the House of Lords.
    Here are the new additions to the cabinet:
    Rishi Sunak, chancellor
    Anne-Marie Trevelyan is secretary of state for international development and will attend cabinet
    Alok Sharma, business secretary and minister in charge of the climate conference, COP26
    Suella Braverman is attorney general and will attend cabinet
    There are more announcements to come.

    1. Indeed, but if the reasons are correct, the Spads from number 10 will have too much power, government by spin doctors.

      Heir to Blair

        1. Politicians, and particularly senior ones, like to believe that they will leave a “legacy”.
          Boris Johnson if he’s not careful, by acting in the way that he is, is going to have the resurrection of the Labour Party as his.

          1. Interestingly, his enforcer has a background in Durham and the North East and may be better connected to and have more insight regarding the Tories new low income provincial voters than any Chancellor occupying no.11.

      2. Blair emphatically did not have control – he did foreign policy (tragedy), including immigration (UK suicide), culture (PC/suicide), whilst Brown controlled finance/spending – and boy did he spend (and b*ggered it all up).

        1. Everything Blair and his minion Brown touched turned into a problem that came back to bite us hard.

    2. She: Honey, what should we do on Valentine’s Day?
      He: Don’t want to say too much, but do you like Paris?
      She: Yesss!
      He: How about Barcelona then?
      She: Yessssss!!!
      He: Great, then we will meet at O’Leary’s pub at 20.45. It’s Champions League.

  120. BREAKING NEWS New Ministerial position

    Dilyn has been offered and accepted the post of Minister for pets. It comes with a seat at the cabinet and a bowl of milk

    1. Dogs shouldn’t be given milk.
      They can’t cope with the fat.
      Next; Dilyn is treated for lactose intolerance.

      1. I didn’t know that, our hound has been receiving about a saucer of milk most days. Semi-skimmed if that helps. Is that not a good idea, Anne?

  122. JCB cuts production because of coronavirus

    Makes change from blaming Brexit for everything and this has some substance to it. Mind you were we not told by various manufacturers that it was almost impossible to import things from outside of the EU ?

    Digger manufacturer JCB is cutting production and working hours as its faces a shortage of components from China due to the coronavirus outbreak.
    It is thought to be the first time a major UK manufacturer has warned about the epidemic’s impact on its output.
    There will be reduced working hours for the 4,000 staff from Monday and an immediate suspension of overtime.
    More than 25% of JCB’s suppliers in China are closed, while others are working at reduced capacity.
    “The disruption to the component supply chain in the UK comes at a time when demand for JCB products is very strong, so while this course of action is very unfortunate, it is absolutely necessary to protect the business and our skill base,” JCB chief operating officer Mark Turner said.
    “We are keeping the situation under review and we anticipate a surge in production levels once this period of supply disruption has passed.”

    1. Neither Cameron nor Johnson can bear Owen Paterson. Not only is he a gentleman rather than a nouveau riche twerp as they both are but he is also far better looking, more intelligent, charming and far more competent.

      If only Paterson had joined Nigel Farage on TBP and taken several honest Brexiters with him.

      I think Johnson’s ascendancy will not be long lived and that some decent human beings will take over. Surely the days of the fumbling, feckless, foolish fornicator are numbered and that even Carrie Symonds will tire of the odiferous taste and company of this odious, flabby charlatan?

      1. “fumbling, feckless, foolish fornicator”

        I admire your use of alliteration, Rastus. Ever tried your hand at writing in Old English metre?
        ;¬)

        1. Like this?
          The Siege of Belgrade

          An Austrian army, awfully arrayed,
          Boldly by battery besieged Belgrade.
          Cossack commanders cannonading come,
          Dealing destruction’s devastating doom;
          Every endeavour engineers essay
          For fame, for fortune, forming furious fray.
          Gaunt gunners grapple, giving gashes good;
          Heaves high his head heroic hardihood.
          Ibraham, Islam, Ishmael, imps in ill,
          Jostle John, Jarovility, Jem, Joe, Jack, Jill;
          Kick Kindling Kutusoff, Kings’ Kinsmen Kill
          Labour low levels loftiest, longest lines,
          Men marched ‘mid moles, ‘mid mounds, ‘mid murderous mines.
          Now nightfall’s nigh, now needful nature nods,
          Opposed, opposing, overcoming odds.
          Poor peasants, partly purchased, partly pressed,
          Quite quaking “Quarter, Quarter” quickly quest.
          Reason returns, recalls redundant rage,
          Sees sinking soldiers, softens signioro sage.
          Truce, Turkey, truce! Truce treacherous Tartar train!
          Unwise, unjust, unmerciful Ukraine
          Vanish, vile vengeance, vanish victory vain
          Wisdom wails war – wails warring words. What were
          Xerxes, Xanthippe, Ximenes, Xavier?
          Yet Yassys youth, ye yield your youthful yest.
          Zealously, zeals zanies, zealously, zeals zest.

    3. According to his wiki entry he lives near Ellesmere, but I always thought he lived at Overton (just inside the Shropshire boundary).

  124. BREAKING NEWS!

    Wee Krankie has announced the creation of a new Scottish Honours List.

    It’s thought that Justice Minister, Humza Yousaf, will be created “Mullah of Kintyre”.

  125. Marks & Spencer depot closures put nearly 700 jobs at risk

    I assume it is trying to cut costs to br competitive but givven mnopst of its clothing range is seen to be poor I dont think it will help much

    Marks & Spencer is closing two of its clothing distribution centers in a move that puts almost 700 jobs at risk.

    The struggling retailer is revamping its warehouse network to save money and improve stock availability, which is a long-running problem in its high street stores.
    On Thursday, M&S said the sites in Long Eaton in Nottinghamshire and Thorncliffe in Sheffield would close next year. Long Eaton is run by the logistics firm DHL, while Thorncliffe is managed by rival operator XPO. Together they employ 662 staff.

    1. I dont know why M&S clothes get such a bad press. They meet their brief (ahem) perfectly – of mid price, multi occasion clothing ranges.

  126. Car manual business Haynes sold to French rival for £115m

    Probably a declining business as it is almost impossible to repair modern cars yourself

    Haynes Publishing, the company best known for producing car manuals in the days before the internet, has found a buyer three months after putting itself up for sale, the company has confirmed.
    French media, information and service company Infopro Digital has agreed to pay £114.5 million for the business – a 62% premium to the share price on Wednesday – putting the business into foreign ownership for the first time in its 60-year history.
    The deal, which will see shareholders paid 700p for every share they own, will still need to be voted through at a meeting in the next month or two.
    But it is being recommended by the board of both companies and is significantly above the 431p trading price on Wednesday night.

  127. Dover county lines drug dealer John Isichei jailed for almost six years

    Another one for potential deportation if he is not a UK national

    A county lines drug dealer who sold heroin and crack cocaine has been jailed for more than five years.
    John Isichei, of Rotherhithe New Road, south-east London, was caught by Kent Police investigating texts sent to drug users in Dover

    The 21-year-old admitted supplying class A drugs and was sentenced to five years and ten months at Canterbury Crown Court yesterday.
    He was given a 54-month sentence for drug offences and a further 16 months for breaching a suspended sentence he was serving at the time.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/33c86bab1f0bd5d2825924423501366c3ea72b0e796d51c693c09f9cd992e29f.jpg

    2. Another half a million of tax payers money wasted.
      Rope is still cheap a single bullet is cheaper.

      1. Rope’s cheaper, surely. The single bullet method must include the cost of the firearm.

  128. Tonbridge cocaine dealer Haxhi Krruci jailed after A21 chase

    A drug dealer who led police on a chase down the A21 has been jailed.
    Police spotted Haxhi Krruci driving suspiciously in Quarry Hill, Tonbridge and followed him on the A road.

    Krruci, of no fixed address, was charged with possession with intent to supply Class A drugs and driving without insurance.
    On Monday Krucci pleaded guilty at Maidstone Crown Court and was jailed for three years.
    Officer in charge of the case, PC Abbie Brookes of Tonbridge CID said: “Our patrols are always on the lookout for those who drive into the county from London with the intention to deal drugs.
    “We proactively target suspicious vehicles and, as Krruci has found out, our officers work relentlessly to detect and bring to justice any drug dealers who target our towns in order to prey upon some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5668a39ec4e229b72209aa1131ca295429cf676f92e741960789881261a53424.jpg

        1. Indeed, there’s another example above too..

          (I’m sure you know the Kentish man and man of Kent difference)

          2. My guess is Dover is a major source of drugs coming into the UK so is an important party of the supply chain to London

        2. Yep, Albania,

          There was a young man of Buthrotum
          Who unfortunately was kicked in the scrotum
          He became very bent
          And ran off to Kent
          But caught coronavirus and choked to death on his own sputum.

    3. BJ,
      Book him on a flight in 36 months time
      on day of release if necessary fit him up with an odious ID, ( glider)

  129. Drug dealer who sold cocaine in Tunbridge Wells is jailed for 2 years and 4 months

    Hussein Camaglu was spotting acting suspiciously inside a BMW at a car park off Pembury Road, Tunbridge Wells, last August.

    His BMW was searched where 28 deal bags and five lottery tickets worth of cocaine were found under the gearstick.

    Camaglu’s phone and sat nav were also seized and examined. Both items had several addresses stored, indicating that he had been actively dealing to users in and around the town.
    The Vicarage Park, Woolwich, resident admitted possessing cocaine with intent to supply. He was jailed last Friday for two years and four months.
    District Commander for Tunbridge Wells, Chief Inspector Pete Steenhuis said: “Camaglu is yet another drug dealer who mistakenly assumed he could operate in Tunbridge Wells with impunity. I hope this sentence serves as yet another warning to those intent on dealing drugs within our communities – you will be caught and brought to justice.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9c47576a2ebb7ce448332e9339965ed348411546aa171788735f7321c60ac77e.jpg

    1. “five lottery tickets worth of cocaine were found under the gearstick.”

      Is that some new measure?

    2. “I know ye’re Albanian
      By the cut of yer hair,
      But ye ay claim ye’re Kosovan
      An’ come o’er here.
      Ye’ve fled yer ain country
      Fae brakin’ the law
      An’ we’re roondin’ up felons
      Frae Auld Tira-na”

    4. BJ,
      Fit him up with a Jamaican ID, book him on a flight in 28 months time, day of release, ( glider)

        1. Ntn,
          I am counting on the full sentence being brought in before the 27th of Feb.
          The johnson chap will bring this law in, to for once, appease the peoples of these Isles.
          Softening the peoples up for what we are about to receive in the near future regarding the “deal”

    5. “I know ye’re Albanian
      By the cut of yer hair,
      But ye ay claim ye’re Kosovan
      An’ come o’er here.
      Ye’ve fled yer ain country
      Fae brakin’ the law
      An’ we’re roondin’ up felons
      Frae Auld Tira-na”

  130. ‘Drug dealer’ in court after car smashes into wall in Rusthall Grange, Tunbridge Wells

    No picture but going by the name I would guess White British

    A suspected drug dealer has appeared in court after a car smashed into a wall near Tunbridge Wells.
    Police approached a parked Ford Mondeo at around 3.30pm on Friday, February 7, following reports of suspicious activity in Rusthall Grange.

    Max King-Lewis, aged 23, of Kirkdale Road, Tunbridge Wells was later charged with possessing Class A drugs with intent to supply, dangerous driving and with possessing criminal property, which in this case was the cash seized.

    He appeared before Medway Magistrates’ Court on Saturday, February 8, where he was remanded in custody.
    He will next appear at Maidstone Crown Court on March 9.

  131. Gillingham drug dealer Nathan Moore jailed after cocaine and heroin found hidden in car air vent

    A drug dealer who hid cocaine and heroin in the air vent of his car has been jailed.
    Nathan Moore, who lived in Wyles Street, Gillingham, was walking along Ocean Drive, in the same town, on Tuesday, November 19, when he was stopped at around 1pm by officers who suspected he was linked to dealing in the area.

    The 21-year-old was arrested and charged with possession of the drugs and intent to supply after his DNA was found on them.
    Moore initially denied the offences but later pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison at Maidstone Crown Court last Friday.
    PC Jess Summers, who was in charge of the case, said: “Moore claimed he had no idea there were drugs hidden in his car but evidence we gathered proved otherwise.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/e03c104df5c30b8045bb1f63e775b279d1969b89ded521bbcc2f4af0d3ea40c4.jpg

        1. Morning Ntn,
          “Dear boy” to me smacks of being offered a bag of sweets
          leading to ……
          Tis what I want and have wanted for years, that the sentence to be served fully.
          You don’t get half a rape or half a robbery why do you get awarded half a sentence ?

  132. Gravesend county lines drug dealer jailed for four years

    Sounds as if it is not just illegals coming into Dover. It looks as if drugs are coming in that way as well

    Nahom Gebeermskel, formerly of Milton Road, Gravesend, tried to flee after being stopped by officers as he got off a train from London in August this year, but a large package containing class A drugs fell from his waistband as he ran

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f4f2cbe5425d075ee029c2e165a5a05386151dd49f63265de85433bc90fb658f.jpg

  133. Boris purge of n o 10 seems to have been far more extensive than expected. I know little about many of the new ministers

  134. ‘New year bounce’ for UK housing market

    Not sure it does a lot for the economy

    Activity in the UK housing market picked up at the start of the year, surveyors say, with cautious expectations of the lift continuing.
    The number of people looking to buy rose in January, as did the amount of homes for sale, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) said.
    Sales that had been agreed rose for a second month in a row.
    RICs said an easing uncertainty about the general election and Brexit prompted the optimism.
    Simon Rubinsohn, the institution’s chief economist, said the increase in properties being put on the market was a “much needed development” after new listings had been at record lows in recent years.
    “It remains to be seen how long this newfound market momentum is sustained for, and political uncertainty may resurface towards the end of the year,” he said. “But, at this point in time, contributors are optimistic regarding the outlook for activity over the next 12 months.”

    1. How is a child who’s been gang raped supposed to know which of the beasts made her pregnant?

      1. That was my first reaction too, but on reflection I could well believe it, when politicians are objecting to murderers and rapists being expelled anything to help our enemies to stay would be “normal”

    3. Evening TB,
      And so it continues, it can then be sort of put down as a “legalised rape” thereby not staining mass uncontrolled immigration parties name in any way.
      Party before child welfare has been / is operating.

    4. OK, so long as the mother can put the father’s occupation as ‘rapist and oxygen thief’.

  136. Adam Tarik found guilty of murdering Woodberry Down chef Baris Kucuk ‘for a mobile phone and bottle of beer’

    A thug who killed a man close to his home on the Woodberry Down Estate who he chanced upon whilst out looking for people to rob, has been convicted of murder.

    Adam Tarik, 26, of Pacific House, Vale Road, Haringey, had pleaded guilty to robbery and possession of a bladed article at the Old Bailey on February 3, but denied murder.
    Tarik attacked 33-year-old Baris Kucuk, who was Kurdish and from Turkey, after he spotted him in Seven Sisters Road at 2.30am June 1.
    He was found guilty of murder this afternoon following an eight day trial, and will be sentenced on Thursday.

    He had sliced through Mr Kucuk’s knee, severing the major arteries. He died of organ failure on June 3.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcd04e5efe96e942bb7515528009e01386cce8f9ab1d3e2fb4f493150e5adb1c.jpg

  137. Hackney thug jailed for 10 years after attacking woman with claw hammer

    No wonder our courts are clogged up and prisons full

    A man who “could have easily” killed a woman by attacking her with a claw hammer has been jailed for 10 years.

    Mark Hosang, 49, left his victim with three significant head wounds and a broken arm after the attack in Paragon Road, Hackney, on July 12 last year.

    Police were called to the address at 6.25am after passers-by heard screams coming from the property. The victim was struck across the head as she tried to shield herself.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/66dc10d397150f7c629a6a85b44d43d77920e67660b70a80560f348bbedb370f.jpg

  138. Teen jailed for raping underage girl in Islington

    Latimar Richardson, 18, of Great Cambridge Road in Enfield, was sentenced to four years in a youth offending institute after being found guilty of raping a girl aged 13, 14 or 15, and sexual assault.
    He had denied the charges but was convicted after a trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court and sentenced on January 23.

      2. Enfield? The first name could be a corruption of ‘Latimer’.
        The brief court reports lead me to infer that originally contact could have been consensual (although unlawful ) and something in the relationship went sour. The victim’s age is given as “13, 14 or 15” so either she is sadly brain-damaged or they knew each other socially for several years. When the lad was 16, the girl was 13.

  140. Two men who published terrorism-related material to be sentenced

    Mohammed Abdul Ahad, 38, from north London and 31-year-old Muhammad Abdur Raheem Kamali, from Rochdale, Manchester were convicted last year after it was found they were the two main administrators and contributors for an Islamist propaganda website for Daesh supporters.
    Ahad and Kamali recorded and transcribed extremist speeches which they would then prepare for uploading to the website.

    A significant number of these speeches glorified terrorist organisations such as Al-Qaeda and Daesh and encouraged both the support and act of terrorism.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8abf339ba7174befb7149885893130e73e9a3ce723414a0397972d4fd0e0e4b2.jpg

  141. Green PPB just popped up on the Beeb – it’s embarrassingly awful – 5th form woke humour would be way higher, it’s less than juvenile its ????????????????? I’m lost for words except patronising vacuous dross perhaps

    1. Hi Tony,
      this refers to a post that has been removed.
      Oi like it!
      Sultanas are oily (i.e. prepared with vegetable oil), so your pun has an element of truth.

  143. Bill Jackson has done a good job today with a round-up and photogallery of muderous immigrants.
    And these are only the ones that got time.
    If us Northerners survive coronavirus, lets hope we survive HS2 bringing all that lot up here.

    1. “Bill Jackson has done a good job today with a round-up and photogallery of muderous immigrants.”

      If you like that sort of thing for entertainment, Tony; I don’t …

  144. This is getting very confusing, should not the feet to the fire brigade at least be warming up, is there any opposition of any description in place ?
    Where is the brexit group ? where is “nige” ?
    If this johnson chap turns 100% rogue who has a political elephant gun to take him down.
    HS2 / bridge ( bojos folly) talk of elephants in the room policies, they are extracting the urine in massive quantities.

  145. Q: what have Sajid Javid, all those excitable media commentators, and Tony Blair discovered today?

    A: that in the UK, if he wants to be and is strong enough, the Prime Minister is FIRST LORD OF THE TREASURY

  146. Evening, all. I’d like to know what benefits there are (apart from lining the pockets of those involved) from HS2.

    2. Jobs for the favoured at huge salaries. Guaranteed income for years for donors. Something politicians think they can brag about. Increased house prices near stations. The moderately wealthy being able to commute in a bit more comfort.

      1. Have seen the TV programme Fare Dodgers Sos ?
        It rather emphasis the lack of diversity of such cheating travelers.

    5. C,
      Look upon it as an elasticated trough
      lasting for decades, something had to replace the eu.
      Then we have the bridge waiting in the wings.

          3. Not quite such a good result today, but still, a bit of prize money. Helps to defray some of the costs. I’ve got a share in one running in the Hunter Chase at Haydock (assuming it’s on) on Saturday and, for once, I’ve got a badge to see him. I just hope the trains are running as the storm is due to hit. I don’t fancy driving on the M6.

          4. He definitely had trouble getting round the corners! It’s quite a sharp track and ended up being a two horse race, so he didn’t disgrace himself. I doubt there will be much racing this weekend. It must be the Walrus tomorrow and it’s always run in horrible conditions!

          5. Yes, I had a terrible job getting back from Haydock. I should have been home at 19.31 and I barely made it by midnight! That was only because I phoned a friend and he came and picked me up from Crewe! Mind you, the horse I have a share in won it, so that part was good 🙂

    7. Well one theory put forward is that it will increase investment in the north (itchy beard).

      They could prove their intentions apropos this by building from the south downwards, rather from London upwards

      1. Err…

        South downwards?

        And der was Oi tinkin’ dat you’se were ex services.
        Are you in fact a wimmin?

        };-))

        1. I thought that BJ had recently suggested that lots should be set up in the NE to allow import, processing/value added/export with no tax.

  147. Ladies and gentlemen, a 5-card flush:

    Prime Minister = Brexit
    Chancellor = Brexit
    Foreign Secretary = Brexit
    Home Secretary = Brexit
    Attorney General = Brexit

    1. A royal flush:

      Don’t
      Won’t
      Can’t
      Shan’t
      Cun’t

      I’ll believe it when we are out, the deals are at worst even, but preferably in our favour, and we control all our laws without any interferrence whatsoever from Brussels and the ECJ and the ECHR

  148. On Dresden and other German cities………..

    ”Churchill was not so certain: in 1943 he wept while viewing film of devastated Ruhr cities. “Are we beasts?” he asked South African prime minister Jan Smuts…..

    “Are we taking this too far?”

    https://archive.macleans.ca/article/2008/10/27/are-we-beasts-asked-churchill

    ”What did work to bring Germany to its knees was intense precision bombing carried out on war-machine targets, mostly the work of the U.S. Air Force. The Americans thought their approach better, both morally—they were responsible for a quarter of civilian deaths, the RAF for 75 per cent—and militarily. The record bears them out: Hitler’s production czar, Albert Speer, told postwar interrogators that the U.S. had struck such blows by day several times that British follow-up by night might have brought total collapse. But Harris, who begrudged every plane diverted from city obliteration, did not send his men to those targets. Hansen’s contentious conclusion? Bomber Command did not end the war—it prolonged it.”

    2. Have you never heard of the Baedeker raids? This was a deliberate targeting of our finest historic cities and cultural icons.

      Castle Street in Bristol and much of the old centre was destroyed and hundreds killed. In nearby Bath the blitz destroyed fine terraces and crescents and the Pump Rooms. A bunker in Kingsmead Square took a direct hit and everyone sheltering was killed. My English master described the scene as blood seeping from a collapsed concrete roof.

      1. Yes, it’s all vile and deeply shocking beyond words but two wrongs don’t make a right and it rather looks that Winston Churchill realized that fact, particularly as leveling cities was, according to experts, far less effective than strategic operations.

        As the link I posted explained.

        I think Harris was likely a psychopath in view of his behavior which would explain why Churchill snubbed him after WW2.

  149. This is my kinda gal:

    Suella Braverman, a passionate Brexiter who has threatened to “take back control” from an interfering judiciary, is Boris Johnson’s surprise appointment as attorney general – the government’s most senior legal adviser.

    Two weeks ago, the MP for Fareham published a searing attack on human rights litigation and the overuse of judicial review challenges on the Conservative Home website; a political stance likely to have found favour with No 10 insiders.

    Born and raised in north-west London, Braverman’s parents moved to the UK in the 1960s from Kenya and Mauritius.

    After studying law at Cambridge University, the Sorbonne and New York City University, the 39-year-old’s professional and political advancement has been meteoric.

    Braverman trained as a barrister in London, specialising in planning, judicial review and immigration cases. She was appointed to the attorney general’s Treasury panel and represented the government in hearings.

    She won her south coast constituency seat in 2015, campaigned for Brexit and briefly became chair of the European Research Group of pro-Brexit MPs.

    Rapidly promoted to ministerial positions, she began as parliamentary private secretary to Treasury ministers before becoming a junior minister at the former Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU), but resigned in November 2018 in protest at Theresa May’s proposed deal.

    Braverman became embroiled in controversy early last year over her declaration that: “As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against cultural Marxism.” She dismissed allegations that the phrase was an “antisemitic trope”. The Board of Deputies of British Jews later said they had held discussions and described her as “clearly a good friend of the Jewish community”.

    The Johnson loyalist told her local newspaper at the December election count that the result was “a great endorsement of Boris Johnson’s leadership – he’s got a very authentic manner when it comes to campaigning”.

    As attorney general she will play a significant role in both the proposed royal commission on criminal justice and the more controversial constitution, democracy and rights commission which will examine the relationship between the courts and parliament.

    In her Conservative Home article last month, Braverman wrote: “Restoring sovereignty to parliament after Brexit is one of the greatest prizes that awaits us. But not just from the EU. As we start this new chapter of our democratic story, our parliament must retrieve power ceded to another place – the courts … The political has been captured by the legal. Decisions of an executive, legislative and democratic nature have been assumed by our courts. Prorogation and the triggering of article 50 were merely the latest examples of a chronic and steady encroachment by the judges.

    “The catalyst for this proliferation [of judicial review challenges] was the Human Rights Act. Parliament’s legitimacy is unrivalled and the reason why we must take back control, not just from the EU, but from the judiciary.”

    In what was clearly a disapproving tweet, the Secret Barrister commented: “An entirely fitting attorney general for a Boris Johnson government.”

    The barrister and former Conservative MP Anna Soubry similarly tweeted: “Genuine concern that as a hardline, no-deal Brexiteer with little experience [Braverman] will not undertake the important role of AG – which invariably means giving firm legal advice a Govt/PM doesn’t want to hear because it doesn’t suit them politically.”

    Commenting on her appointment, Braverman said: “One of my first priorities is to continue the government’s work in rebuilding confidence in our justice system, particularly with victims.”

    Braverman, go get them!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/13/new-attorney-general-wanted-to-take-back-control-from-courts

      1. Well, she’s certainly smart enough to be, but nothing on Google to help. It doesn’t look like she is.

          2. What’s this, a female politician taking her husband’s surname. A bit old fashioned, sounds good.

      2. Not really; Mrs Braverman’s parents are of Indian origin, with family from Goa, Kenya and Mauritius. She and her husband have a lovely baby boy, less than one year old.

    4. She dismissed allegations that the phrase ‘cultural Marxism’ was an “antisemitic trope”.

      Allegations which will almost certainly have come from those anti-semites who dismiss criticism of Israel as anti-semitic. These will be the same people who piled into Farage for his comments on international finance, as though only rich Jews ever moved money around the world.

  150. This is my kinda gal:

    Suella Braverman, a passionate Brexiter who has threatened to “take back control” from an interfering judiciary, is Boris Johnson’s surprise appointment as attorney general – the government’s most senior legal adviser.

    Two weeks ago, the MP for Fareham published a searing attack on human rights litigation and the overuse of judicial review challenges on the Conservative Home website; a political stance likely to have found favour with No 10 insiders.

    Born and raised in north-west London, Braverman’s parents moved to the UK in the 1960s from Kenya and Mauritius.

    After studying law at Cambridge University, the Sorbonne and New York City University, the 39-year-old’s professional and political advancement has been meteoric.

    Braverman trained as a barrister in London, specialising in planning, judicial review and immigration cases. She was appointed to the attorney general’s Treasury panel and represented the government in hearings.

    She won her south coast constituency seat in 2015, campaigned for Brexit and briefly became chair of the European Research Group of pro-Brexit MPs.

    Rapidly promoted to ministerial positions, she began as parliamentary private secretary to Treasury ministers before becoming a junior minister at the former Department for Exiting the EU (DExEU), but resigned in November 2018 in protest at Theresa May’s proposed deal.

    Braverman became embroiled in controversy early last year over her declaration that: “As Conservatives, we are engaged in a battle against cultural Marxism.” She dismissed allegations that the phrase was an “antisemitic trope”. The Board of Deputies of British Jews later said they had held discussions and described her as “clearly a good friend of the Jewish community”.

    The Johnson loyalist told her local newspaper at the December election count that the result was “a great endorsement of Boris Johnson’s leadership – he’s got a very authentic manner when it comes to campaigning”.

    As attorney general she will play a significant role in both the proposed royal commission on criminal justice and the more controversial constitution, democracy and rights commission which will examine the relationship between the courts and parliament.

    In her Conservative Home article last month, Braverman wrote: “Restoring sovereignty to parliament after Brexit is one of the greatest prizes that awaits us. But not just from the EU. As we start this new chapter of our democratic story, our parliament must retrieve power ceded to another place – the courts … The political has been captured by the legal. Decisions of an executive, legislative and democratic nature have been assumed by our courts. Prorogation and the triggering of article 50 were merely the latest examples of a chronic and steady encroachment by the judges.

    “The catalyst for this proliferation [of judicial review challenges] was the Human Rights Act. Parliament’s legitimacy is unrivalled and the reason why we must take back control, not just from the EU, but from the judiciary.”

    In what was clearly a disapproving tweet, the Secret Barrister commented: “An entirely fitting attorney general for a Boris Johnson government.”

    The barrister and former Conservative MP Anna Soubry similarly tweeted: “Genuine concern that as a hardline, no-deal Brexiteer with little experience [Braverman] will not undertake the important role of AG – which invariably means giving firm legal advice a Govt/PM doesn’t want to hear because it doesn’t suit them politically.”

    Commenting on her appointment, Braverman said: “One of my first priorities is to continue the government’s work in rebuilding confidence in our justice system, particularly with victims.”

    Braverman, go get them!

    https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2020/feb/13/new-attorney-general-wanted-to-take-back-control-from-courts

    1. The present Duke is a staunch Remainer and still in the HoL. I wonder if he’s also received land subsidies from the EU?

    1. I don’t watch much TV and I don’t recognise who the bloke is meant to be. Please put me out of my misery, I don’t get the joke.

          3. Nah. Cummings has a bigger brain by far. Hislop is an establishment stooge who has defiled Private Eye, a once humorous rag, now an anti-Trump and anti-Boris non entity.

            Peter Cook would be turning in his grave.

      2. Boris is building a brexit cabinet and this is a sideline. Take no notice of it. We are not used to strong government.

      3. Boris’s cabinet consists of Boris and Cummings (Boris’s special advisor) – regardless of whom the others may be, they are irrelevant.

  156. Fossils of a turtle the size of a car have been unearthed in what is now northern South America.

    The turtle – Stupendemys geographicus – is believed to have roamed the region between 13 and 7 million years ago.

    The fossils were found in Colombia’s Tatacoa Desert and Venezuela’s Urumaco region.

    The first Stupendemys fossils were discovered in the 1970s but many mysteries have remained about the 4-metre long animal.

    It was about the size and weight of a saloon car and inhabited a huge wetland across northern South America before the Amazon and Orinoco rivers were formed

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-51485011

    3. This would explain global warming in prehistoric times

      Consider the level of greenhouse gases vented when that creature farted. On top of that, the amount of particulate emissions doesn’t bear thinking about.
      :¬(

    4. Blimey, that dwarfs our leatherback turtles and they’re damned big. We were anchored off Cabo Frio during a crew change and there were dozens of the them constantly surfacing and diving. We didn’t have a clue about the behaviour even though we had some local marine biologists on board.

  157. Rishi Sunak is of Indian rather than Pakistani origin as Sajid Javid is.

    Is he a Muslim like Javid or a Hindu like Priti Patel? Or is he an Atheist like Boris Johnson or a Christian like Jacob Rees Mogg?

    3. Who cares what colour or race he is, all we should care about is that he can do the job.

      A good chancellor must be able to stand up to the PM and not be a ‘yes man’. He should also have a wide breadth of knowledge on macroeconomic theory and be well read on the subject. He should also be open-minded and bold. It’s the most important government post.

      We’ve just been given a young Oxford PPE graduate ex-Goldman Sachs ‘yes man’.

  159. Listening to QT tonight, I think Scotland needs another referendum.

    This cannot be left to just fester on, let them decide, one way or the other.

  161. Question Time BBC1 10.35

    Panellists:

    Tom Tugendhat MP, chair of the foreign affairs select committee at Westminster, a Lieutenant Colonel in the Territorial Army until 2013, serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan, Conservative;

    Ian Murray MP, the last remaining Labour MP in Scotland and candidate for deputy leader of the Labour Party;

    Joanna Cherry MP, SNP justice and home affairs spokesperson at Westminster, and a leading litigant in the case against the UK government’s decision to prorogue Parliament;

    Val McDermid, bestselling, prize-winning crime writer; and

    Alex Massie, Scotland editor of the Spectator magazine.

    1. Oh dear. I feel another early night looming. I’m reading Catcher in the Rye for the second time. Just catching up.

      2. ‘The immature man wishes to die nobly for a cause. The mature man wishes to live humbly for one’. I remember reading that passage when I was sixteen.

        I love ‘Franny and Zooey‘ and ‘Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters’.

        Salinger was one of the great C20 American authors, up there with Saul Bellow.

        1. We recently went to Northumberland and the old station book shop in Alnwick. Thousands of books.
          It was mind boggling.
          Apart from an in between Reacher.
          My last read was a Hemmingway, Fiesta. His and my first. 2 quid in a charity shop.
          Just a load of rich boozy yanks living the high life in Europe.
          And few arguments, a bit of fishing, bull fighting some sexual activity.
          Not exactly riveting.
          One of my favourite reads has been Sketches by Boz. Charles Dickens. His insight into the life in London is fascinating.

        2. If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

    3. Dire. After my wife saw Val McDermid on TV for the first time 20-odd years back, she turned to me and said “what sex was that person”. McDermid writes crime novels and in the only one I ever read a lesbian couple had deep yearnings to have a child (adoption was not llegal then) and the criminals were (in the Manchester/Sheffield area) all white. I put the book in the bin when I was finished.

      1. Tigne Point Malta.

        Fort Tigné (Maltese: Il-Forti Tigné – Il-Fortizza ta’ Tigné) is a polygonal fort in Tigné Point, Sliema, Malta. It was built by the Order of Saint John between 1793 and 1795 to protect the entrance to Marsamxett Harbour, and it is one of the oldest polygonal forts in the world. The fort was extensively altered by the British in the 19th century, and it remained in use by the military until 1979.

        Fort Tigné was restored in the early 21st century, and it is now in good condition. It has been on Malta’s tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites since 1998, as part of the Knights’ Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Tign%C3%A9

          1. Hope so. Last time was an absolute nightmare. Which is why i have gone ‘all guns’ this time.

      1. Oooah, a dozen red roses, for moi? Ta ever so!! (Won’t tell Jack) xx
        How’s Dolly, I saw pictures of the Westminster Dog Show from New York, was not impressed! That poodle, no way!!

          1. She looks adorable, personally, I’m not too sure about dog shows, but she is yours and that’s all that matters.x

      1. Thanks, we decided to celebrate by a very nice lunch on Wednesday, before the hoopla tomorrow!! So it will be a nice quiet dinner for the two of us, steak with mushroom sauce and a green salad, maybe a shrimp cocktail as starter, (some traditions never die!) no dessert though, we are sweet enough!!

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