750 thoughts on “Thursday 29 August: Remainer MPs are in no position to accuse the Government of undermining democracy”

    1. And there are 10 types of people.
      Those who can count in binary, and those who cannot.
      Morning, Bill!

      1. Good day, Paul – 33ºC predicted for later this morning….. Nice house for sale…cheap…..

        1. Needs oiling!
          I can’t keep up with one house, what with work & helping out with the farm, let alone two. Even one as good-looking as yours… :-((

      2. Two types of people. Those who divide people into two types and those who don’t.

    2. I don’t know dear. It’s something about the Milibands being idiots, pouring Cointreau over their typing and fighting with the Bank.
      Must be for Mr Sartre next door.

        1. Oh no, that awful woman! She looked as if, if a man stroked her hair he would cut his hand, and if he kissed her cheek, there would be an imprint on her powder.

          Mind you, the slimy frog wasn’t much better, so I guess they deserved each other.

          Morning, HP

          5. No, my own English word for strawberries when I was learning to talk. It has stayed in the family ever since.

      2. One of Monty Python’s best sketches was the one in which a group of femmes de ménage were discussing an existentialist philosophical problem and decided they would consult Jean-Paul Sartre.

        They rushed off and crowded into a telephone box and tried to call J-PS up. When Mrs J-PS answered the phone they asked her if she could go and see if her husband was free. She returned to the phone and said he had been trying to answer that question for the last 50 years.

    3. ‘Morning, Bill. It occurred to me this morning that I haven’t seen any posts from our pushy nurse. Away on her hollies perhaps?

      1. There was extensive comment yesterday and, again, this morning. To save you the time – her laptop went off the air and she – being a woman – had no other means of annoying us.

        She’ll be back tomorrow…..sadly!

  2. Good Morning, everybody

    I want you all to know that I am Outraged!!, I tell you, Outraged!! because it’s obviously the fashionable thing to be.

    I’ll let you know later in the day what I’m Outraged!! about once I’ve figured it out.

  4. SIR – John Major prorogued Parliament in 1997. His hypocrisy apparently has no bounds.

    Graham W Swift
    Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire

    And….

    SIR – Will MPs’ salaries also be suspended?

    Geraldine Higson
    Constantine Bay, Cornwall

    1. Yes, Mr Swift, he did – and in his case it was in an attempt to keep the lid on the ‘cash for questions’ scandal. His version of hypocrisy is in a league of its own.

      Yesterday’s men should just shut up and reflect on their own conduct before daring to criticize others. Self-awareness obviously isn’t something that he understands – or even wants to.

      ‘Morning, Citroen.

  5. Since the Palace of Westminster is but a branch office, why are so many of those whose main allegiance is to the head office in a tizz?

    Also, if ‘democracy’ being the opportunity to thwart democracy isn’t irony on steroids, what is?

    1. That’s what I like about you, Peddy. (Good morning, btw.) All NoTTLers this morning are jumping up and down with excitement about the Remainers’ heads exploding because of Boris’ decision to prorogue Parliament. But you are looking on the bright side of things! You must have have some of Elsie’s baked potatoes with your main meal yesterday evening!

      1. “What good is sitting alone in your room,
        come hear the music play…”

        Had a super time in Cambridge today & squid & mussels for lunch.

        The last time I had one of your baked potatoes was about 10 days ago with cottage cheese & Cayenne pepper.

        1. Never heard of them, Peddy. Did Mr Cheese and Miss Pepper enjoy the baked potatoes too? :-))

  8. August 28 2019, 12:00am, The Times

    Constitution? Speaker Bercow can’t stomach Boris Johnson’s plan
    Quentin Letts

    John Bercow, Speaker of the Commons, was on his family holiday yesterday when he heard of Boris Johnson’s prorogation plan. How did it go down? Let’s just say you would not have wanted your new sandcastle anywhere in Mr Bercow’s orbit in those moments after he heard the news. He might have stamped up and down on it in a tantrum.

    The holidaying Bercow rushed out a statement to call the PM’s move “a constitutional outrage”. It was “blindingly obvious the purpose of prorogation now would be to stop parliament debating Brexit. It is vital our elected parliament has its say.” Have its say? It hasn’t talked of much else for the past three years.

    With that, Mr Squeaker returned to the queue for the pedalos and said he would venture no further molten comment until his holiday was complete. But his “constitutional outrage” became the Remainers’ cliché of the day. “A constitutional outrage,” cried Dominic Grieve, MP, QC, LDH (that last one stands for Légion d’honneur). Mr Grieve was speaking live on Radio 5 and sounded gulpy to the verge of tears. Mind you, he did concede that there was “plenty of time” still to depose Mr Johnson if the Commons so wished.

    Er, what’s the problem, then, Dom? “A constitutional outrage,” said Philip Hammond, the former chancellor. “A constitutional outrage,” said Caroline Lucas of the Greens. “Constitutional vandalism,” said the Lib Dems’ Jo Swinson, always one to forge her own path. “A constitutional outrage,” said Jeremy Corbyn. The Labour Party leader did add a rather English: “It’s not on.”

    “Love UK,” said Donald Trump, via Twitter. Mr Trump was not the only foreigner to offer his tuppence-worth. Guy Verhofstadt, a prominent Belgian MEP, commented that “taking back control has never looked so sinister”. Lovely Guy has himself occasionally been mistaken for David Mellor, so he knows what it means to look sinister.

    Soon the Outrage Olympics were in full swing. Alastair Campbell, once Tony Blair’s Rhodesian ridgeback, snarled at Boris for “destroying parliamentary democracy”. From Edinburgh a pheasant honked inside a metal watering-can. On closer listening this turned out to be Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, who said that it could prove to be “the day any semblance of British democracy died absolutely”. “Coup” (or did they mean “coo”?), said the Labour MPs Ben Bradshaw and Diane Abbott.

    Clive Lewis (Lab, Norwich South) puffed out his chest and said that the coppers would have to come and remove him from the Commons chamber because he did not intend to vacate his seat for any darn prorogation.

    Sir John Major, who once prorogued the Commons for weeks, said that he was “seeking advice on the legality” of Boris’s move.

    Oh yes. Things took a Cromwellian turn when Best for Britain, an anti-Brexit outfit, told HM she should watch her pretty step. “If the Queen is asked to help,” growled Best for Britain, “she would do well to remember history doesn’t look too kindly on royals who aid and abet the suspension of democracy.” Over on Sky News, Kay Burley asked a guest if it was “totally appropriate” for Boris to “drag in a 94-year-old woman from her holiday” to approve prorogation.

    From other MPs we had talk of “a slippery slope” (Labour’s Bill Esterson), “an assault on democracy” (Ian Murray) and “Boris’s latest wicked wheeze” (Jess Phillips). Anna Soubry, leader of that Change party that keeps changing its name, made the mistake of going in too close to the TV cameras and twisting her head to one side, like an inquisitive pooch. Miss Soubry was not happy. Is she ever?

    And the best moment? Adam Price of Plaid Cymru went on BBC telly at 2.20pm and worked himself into a tremendous rant about Boris being “cynical . . . the heckler in chief . . . a dark time in politics”. A globule of white spit, or maybe part-chewed sandwich, flew off Mr Price’s tongue and landed on his lower lip. Sensing it was there, he licked it off and swallowed it without pausing in his diatribe. Now that’s impressive.

      1. He’s not the pheasant plucker he’s the pheasant plucker’s son; he’s only plucking pheasants till the pheasant plucker comes.

    4. “Sir John Major, who once prorogued the Commons for weeks” – Yes – we need to keep reminding people of that! And, as I mentioned yesterday, I seem to recall that Major did it to stop being questioned over yet more Parliamentary scandal!

      As Guido puts it: “John Major has continued his recent campaign to make a fool of himself with a threat this morning to take the Government to court if it prorogues parliament to enable a No Deal Brexit to take place. Funny how Major didn’t have such a problem with proroguing Parliament when he abused his power to do so in 1997 in order to delay the publication of a highly embarrassing report into the “cash for questions” sleaze scandal involving his Government. Flagrant hypocrisy even by his standards, he must be glad no-one sued him then…”

      https://order-order.com/2019/07/10/john-major-prorogued-parliament-1997-avoid-cash-questions-scrutiny/

    5. “It is vital our elected parliament has its say.” Have its say? It hasn’t talked of much else for the past three years.”

      Did anyone else hear the R4 PM interview with IDS? Setting aside for the moment the extent of the rampant ‘Remainiac’ bias of just about the whole programme, and particularly that of the hectoring Quinn, this was the very point IDS made (he must have heard me shouting just that at the radio) and the exasperation in his voice was almost palpable. In a whole fleet of outrage buses passing through the PM studio his was the sane voice of reason, and it was a masterclass in how to stay cool and collected when being worked over by a Biased Beeboid. I recommended a visit to radio iPlayer for any who may have missed it.

  11. Hmmmm…….

    ‘A very British coup’: How Europe reacted to Boris Johnson suspending parliament in Brexit push
    *
    *
    *
    However, in private, EU officials said suspending parliament was a “massive poker move” that could help Mr Johnson get a revised Brexit deal through the House of Commons.

    “If the game becomes ‘constrain the options of MPs so very much that they have to accept any deal’, then maybe that reduces the pressure on Johnson to get substantial changes to the deal, and a narrow pathway could be found with cosmetic changes,” the official said.

    Another EU official said it was clear that the aim was to leave getting a deal “to the last possible moment”, referring to the final days of October before the UK was due to leave the bloc.
    *
    *
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/28/backstop-wont-withdrawn-back-promise-say-eu-leaders/

    1. I hope Boris understands the EU tactics and ignores any cosmetic changes to the WA agreement at the last minute or after the EU classic stopping the clock at 11.59pm on 31 October 2019 until they get their way.. Get us out cleanly on 31 October and get on with governing the UK.

    2. ““If the game becomes ‘constrain the options of MPs so very much that they have to accept any deal’, then maybe that reduces the pressure on Johnson to get substantial changes to the deal, and a narrow pathway could be found with cosmetic changes,” the official said.” That’s exactly my fear; Bojo will get some cosmetic, but meaningless, changes to May’s surrender document, which, as the clock has been reset, can now be re-presented to the Commons, and they will vote us into vassalage in perpetuity.

  12. Archaeologists discover site of largest ever child sacrifice in Peru. 28 AUGUST 2019.

    As many as 1,400 child sacrifices are thought to have happened in the town of Huanchaco during the time of the Chimu civilisation, which prospered on the northern coast of Peru between the 12th and 15th centuries.

    Well it obviously worked! Perhaps we should give it a try?”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/28/archaeologists-discover-site-largest-ever-child-sacrifice-peru/

  14. Some good insults herein…..

    The ecstatic outrage of Remainer MPs can’t distract from their bizarre failure
    SHERELLE JACOBS – DAILY TELEGRAPH COLUMNIST – 28 AUGUST 2019 • 9:34PM

    The only thing worse than a battle lost is a battle won in the surreal world of Westminster

    Just when we thought we were heading for another wretched round of ear-straining speculation about whether the mood music in Brussels is changing, the smell of the political air in Britain has been decisively transformed. The dull tang of caution has given way to acid self-resolve, as No 10 seeks to show the EU that it is capable of pushing through a no-deal Brexit. But, perhaps more interestingly, the rot is really starting to set in among the hypocritical and cowardly Remainers.

    Boris Johnson’s move to finally call the bluff of Remainer MPs by asking the Queen to suspend parliament is a game changer. And the whirlwind of outrage has been quite a spectacle to behold. While Ruth Davidson is set to resign as Scottish Tory leader, Jeremy Corbyn, Jo Swinson and Anna Soubry have demanded to meet the Queen.

    John Bercow – the man who has reduced the role of Speaker to a paradigm of law-bending goonery worthy of Putin’s Russia – has claimed that shutting down Parliament is “an offence against the democratic process” and accused the PM of committing a “constitutional outrage”.

    So has former Chancellor Philip Hammond. The one-time Goth, with his almost pathological aversion to sunny optimism, called the events “profoundly undemocratic”, even though he has spent the last three years spewing black resentment in the face of British self-determination.

    Meanwhile, Dominic Grieve, the MP who voted for Article 50 and then immediately launched a campaign to oppose Brexit, told the BBC in the metro-merican drawl that has become ironically fashionable among Europhile Tory backbenchers that the situation was “pretty outrageous”. He added, with a Hollywood gangster flourish, that the PM “will come to regret it”.

    But the prize for the most amusing reaction went to David Lammy, who cannot help but sound militantly bigoted no matter how thickly he marinates his hateful hubris in the mellifluous cadences of Martin Luther King. For the poundland preacher of Britain to blast Boris Johnson for acting like a “poundshop dictator” yesterday could not be more fitting.

    Try as they might, the Remainers can no longer even mildly pull off the charade that they are respectable constitutionalists who merely seek to uphold parliamentary procedure. In recent months, they have more closely resembled tax-dodging lawyers, searching for grubby legal loopholes to cheat the country out of Brexit.

    Do they think we have forgotten how MPs talked openly of a parliamentary coup to replace Boris Johnson with an anti-no deal leader? Or how John Bercow set fire to the parliamentary rulebook, Erskine May, in January, by allowing members to pass an amendment that gave Theresa May a three-day deadline to come up with a Plan B to replace her failed deal? Or how MPs stretched parliamentary rules to the very limit to pass a law, ordering the executive to seek a Brexit delay? Or how Labour forced the Government to publish the Withdrawal Agreement’s legal advice – which, irrespective of the quality of the deal, flew in the face of convention?

    The seething ululations of the Remainers seem even more absurd when one considers that events are unfolding in the sordid Westminster parallel universe, where nothing is as it seems and everyone is a liar. The Remainers may try to depict themselves as noble democratic warriors, committed to a final showdown with the Government, but in truth earlier this week they gave in.

    Arguably, Mr Johnson moved to prorogue Parliament because they showed weakness on Tuesday, exposing themselves as unwilling to back a no-confidence vote, even though it is the only realistic way to stop no deal; Mr Johnson seized on this chance to force the hand of the bluffing Remainers and focus minds in unbending Brussels.

    There is, alas, a disgraceful logic to the dissipating Remainer boldness. In Westminster, the only thing worse than a battle lost is a battle won. And while Jeremy Corbyn secretly favours an election after a clean break with the EU so his party can then cynically lambaste an “extremist” Tory Brexit, 
Jo Swinson is concerned that backing either the Labour leader or a Tory 
MP in an anti-Brexit emergency government would alienate swing voters who have switched to her party from both Right and Left.

    If they call a no-confidence motion it won’t be over principle, but to save face. Perhaps one cannot expect any better from two of the worst opposition leaders in British history. The Jo Swinsons and Jeremy Corbyns are to our terminal political system what nail bars and chicken shops are to our dying high streets – the last shoddy dregs clinging on for survival.

    There are two happy twists in this dismal saga. First, thanks to the Remainers, it is now more likely than ever that we will enjoy a clean break from the EU – as, in contrast with the Remainers, Brussels’ bluff cannot be called. Soon our PM will have no choice but to do a no-deal Brexit. And second, as MPs who have defied the referendum know full well, a swamp-draining general election is imminent.

    1. “So has former Chancellor Philip Hammond. The one-time Goth, with his almost pathological aversion to sunny optimism,…”

      Pure class!

  15. Rotherham child sexual abuse: six more men convicted. Wed 28 Aug 2019.

    Masaued Malik, 35, Aftab Hussain, 40, Abid Saddiq, 38, Sharaz Hussain, 35, plus two men aged 33 and 35 who cannot be named for legal reasons, were found guilty on Wednesday after an eight-week trial. They will be sentenced on 30 September.

    These two would be Bill Bloggs and Sid Smith one doesn’t assume!

    Though all this stuff is now emerging in dribs and drabs it’s important to remember that it covers an establishment plot to conceal from the public the systematic rape and exploitation of their children for political ends.

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/28/rotherham-child-sexual-abuse-six-more-men-convicted

    1. Not sure why we have such a big failure in our political system on this issue, I might not be factually correct but nearly all of these incidents of child grooming gangs have flourished in Labour controlled areas, why haven’t the Conservatives made more of it? I’m sure Labour would have had it been the other way around.

      1. Morning Bob. Because it undermines the Immigration and Diversity narratives! Better to keep it off the front pages!

      2. I’m amazed that similar rings have not been unearthed in London. Surely they’re not being protected from exposure by the PTB – that would never happen. Oh….

    2. …two men aged 33 and 35 who cannot be named for legal reasons…

      Hhhhmmmm?
      No reports of anyone in authority being disciplined or sacked for failing to protect the victims.

    3. Morning AS,
      Allegedly something like 16 plus years concealment and but for the Jay report, ongoing.
      The concealment had to have establishment employees
      in the know, councillors, etc,etc.
      But for the good name of the party ……..

      1. Let us not forget that the authorities only took action when the BNP’s campaign against the rapists began gaining publicity.
        On this occasion the BNP actually earned their salt.

        1. Morning B,
          Agreed, let us also not forget that Tommy Robinson as an anti paedophile
          journalist / political prisoner was given the certainly earned choice of topping on his porridge.
          PC / Appeasement policies condone
          mass murder / rape & abuse.

    5. There’s a common thread running through those names, but I can’t quite put my finger on it…

    6. Presumably Bill and Sid are facing further charges.
      Any chance the customers, not just the pimps, will be charged? Any chance that the police and social workers who conspired to permit theses crimes will be charged? Any chance that the local councillors who connived with social workers will be charged?

  17. Happy morning

    SIR – Rather than condemn the Government for seeking to deliver what MPs themselves voted for when they approved Article 50, wouldn’t Nicola Sturgeon, Jo Swinson and Dominic Grieve be better to train their fire on the European Union, which has so far steadfastly refused to negotiate?

    Their accusation that, in proroguing Parliament, the Government is undermining democracy is laughable when one considers that they wish to break the laws that that they themselves set, in order to overturn the 17,410,742 votes cast by the majority.

    They clearly believe in democracy only when it suits them.

    Alastair Muir
    Bearsden, East Dunbartonshire

    1. SIR – John Bercow has denounced the suspension of Parliament as a “constitutional outrage”.

      This comes from the man who dramatically broke precedent with Dominic Grieve’s amendment in January; then, in March, he invoked an archaic parliamentary convention that pre-dates the Gunpowder Plot and had not been used by a speaker of the House of Commons since 1920. All of this he did, it seems, with the partisan objective of interrupting the Brexit process.

      Mr Bercow has no authority on which to judge “constitutional outrage”, except in as much as he has plenty of experience of provoking it himself. It was members of the Remain establishment that weaponised parliamentary procedure to defeat Brexit, so we should not be moved by their crocodile tears when they can no longer exploit that procedure.

      Robert Frazer
      Salford, Lancashire

    2. “They clearly believe in democracy only when it suits them.”

      I think it is actually worse than that, Mr Muir: my simple mind tells me that in June 2016 the electorate delivered a clear and direct instruction to the government to get us out of the EU. In my view MPs should have no say in that simple and clearly understandable command. The wreckers and traitors in the H of C should not be interfering.

      Manners – ‘Morning, Epi.

      1. “This is your decision,” said Cameron in the Chatham House speech, “not MPs’, not Parliament’s”. Like his pledge to invoke Article 50 the day after the referendum (or should that be revolution?) and his assertion in the £9m propaganda leaflet that “the government will implement your decision”, it was a lie.

  18. Good morning all. The spitting out of dummies and gnashing of teeth of Remainers this morning has been wondrous to behold! They’ve used every parliamentary and legal trick in the book over the last three years to get their own way, and now they are crying when Boris does the same – suck it up losers!

    As I understand it, they will have about a week less parliamentary time than they otherwise would, and no changes will happen until the EU summit on the 17th – so what exactly are they complaining about? It’s not like he suspended Parliament until 1st November (shame).

    Our useless MPs have had three years to debate Brexit. What more is there to say that hasn’t already been said?

      1. Quite. We are still being set up for a BRINO. The Withdrawal Agreement is not Brexit, with or without the backstop. It is a slap in the face to everyone who voted to “take back control.”

        I’m done with the Tories, I don’t care how ‘charismatic’ the likes of Johnson and JRM may be. Anyone who could sign their country up to a treaty which they themselves have described as making us a “vassal state” of the EU is a traitor.

        1. JK,
          What does really amaze me is how quickly the
          party current membership / voters switch from
          one would be saviour to the next desperately
          hoping the latest is “the one”.
          In the case of the ersatz tories it ain’t come about since the post Thatcher era, lab are a complete lost cause, and the libs made no pretense ever of being anything but pro eu,
          thereby making the libs the most honest of a
          very bad political bunch.

          1. We’ve been fooled too many times before. At least Johnson made it clear from the start that he is pursuing WA minus backstop (i.e. BRINO) so we know where we stand with him. It took two years for Theresa May to reveal that Brexit means Remain in her world.

          2. JK,
            When I heard the cry go up, after we won the referendum, ” leave it to the tories” it took me as long as two minutes to realise that the onset
            of mass treachery was about to be triggered,
            may’s placement along with the nine month delay confirmed it.

          3. What will the parliamentary remainers do when Parliament resumes?

            Do they vote for BRINO (more of the same less the voting rights)? Do they push for a last minute revocation? Do they vote down the Queen’s Speech? Do they vote for a resolution forcing Boris Johnson to make a fool of himself in public (same as they did to Theresa May)? Just what do they do to frustrate the Halloween deadline?

          4. I’m surprised they didn’t vote for the WA, it’s worse than just Remaining and would set us up to rejoin in a couple of years anyway.

            I still think this is all political theatre. Johnson doesn’t want to deliver a clean-break Brexit, he’s not on our side any more than May was.

            Next week should be interesting for political junkies at any rate!

          5. ‘Twill be wonderful if the Queen’s Speech is voted down, since it is the same as a vote of No Confidence, allowing Boris 14 days from October 14th (Oct 28th) to reform a government or call a General Election – for about mid-November.

            By then, we will be out of the EU and the Remainers will be crying ‘Foul! How did that happen?’

        2. After yesterday’s shenanigans by Johnson it does not look likely that the opposition will support a modified May WA or any deal he brings to Parliament. BRINO is a concern but how will he get it through Parliament? The ERG are opposed to it and Johnson has told MPs that May’s WA is dead. Trying to resurrect that WA and becoming May v2.0 will cause problems for both Johnson and the Tory Party.

          1. Johnson does not want to deliver a clean Brexit. He voted for the WA with the backstop, all the No Deal preparations are just a negotiating tool to get a last-minute ‘concession’ from the EU, which he can then claim as a famous victory. He is not a real Brexiteer, he is not on our side any more than May was and he should not be trusted one inch.

          2. If you are correct then there will be a great number of disappointed Tories in the UK. Many are likely to become ex-Tories; how will that help Johnson with his plans for the future.
            The ‘Boris Bounce’ and buying off people with promises of extra this, more of that, will fade rapidly in the light of the realisation that he has conned them.
            I do not trust him but I do not see how he could be so stupid as to try and bring back May’s thrice rejected WA.

          3. I agree it would be political suicide, but he has made it pretty clear that his objective is to get a deal. The only deal on the table is the Awful Surrender Document and his only objection to that is the backstop. Who knows what is going on in his head, maybe this is just some grand strategy to show he tried to get a deal but either EU instransigence or Remainer shenanigans ‘forced’ him to go for No Deal. Either way, we need to watch him like a hawk and be prepared for a stitch-up.

    2. Quite. The Conservative Party has observed just how much parliamentary time has been spent this year, with a six month extension granted past the original deadline. Parliament has gone over the same ground over and over and over and over again, resolving nothing. Exploratory votes revealed that there was not one option that Parliament could agree on, and everything voted on was without exception completely negative.

      Theresa May may have put up with it, but then her party saw public confidence in that approach pour away to the Brexit Party like a breached dam, and it was time to plug the hole and drain the water to safe levels before the whole village got washed away.

      Prorogation opens up two options:

      1. Boris may, if he considers it wise, resubmit the WA package for parliamentary approval a fourth time without breaching the Speaker’s ruling that a proposal should not be voted on again in the same session without material changes in circumstances.

      2. The EU will have given their final opportunity to present an alternative to either allowing the Article 50 deadline to pass and the default contained in that notice come into effect from 1st November, or revoking Article 50 entirely, negating the instruction to Parliament gave by the public in 2016. Apart from passing the WA package (made possible by 1.), there are no other options, but there might be after the EU has their summit on 17th October. Boris is in fact banking on it, and hopes they will come to their senses and come up with something that can satisfy everyone as best as can be.

      1. Well said. As you and others have flagged up, a new session of Parliament gives the opportunity for the Awful Surrender Document to be presented again.

        I am very glad that Farage is gearing up his election machine, it’s only the threat of the Brexit Party that will keep Johnson honest (and can we please stop calling him Boris, he’s not a rock star, nor is he our friend). And even after Brexit I hope they continue in some form. We need a party which is made up of and represents ordinary people, not themselves and the EU like the current shower.

      2. Rather than waving placards outside Westminster, wouldn’t it more helpful if Remainer campaigners fanned out to the capitals of the 28 other member states, and to Brussels and Strasbourg, to put the case for a plan to be presented to the British on the 17th October that would win the confidence of the public, of the British Parliament, and the British Prime Minister?

        Almost certainly, this should contain a clause enabling a fast track readmission to membership of the EU rather than the flogging a dead horse approach the remainers are currently foisting on us.

        We can then decide in due course whether we are indeed better off on our own, or whether we should return, like the prodigal son, and be welcomed back with open arms and an open heart. That is up to the 28 to decide whether to make that an option. As for the British, having won back our sovereignty at last, we can make up our own minds what to do in the future.

        1. Having seen how the EU has treated us, who, in their right mind, would want to give up freedom to be ruled by that lot? If we had not already been members, how many would have said it was a good idea to join?

  19. Morning again

    SIR – Coverage of the tremors near the Cuadrilla fracking site (report, August 27) often refers to it as Britain’s only active fracking site. In fact Britain has been fracking – a technique first developed by the Americans in the Forties –using the process for many years.

    Wytch Farm in Dorset sits on the largest oil field in western Europe, and has been producing oil and gas for British Petroleum since 1979 using a fracking process. It is surrounded by trees and can really be seen only from the air. It has never caused any earthquakes.

    Those against fracking also fear that it the process causes contamination of the water table. This is unfounded, as the vertical pipe that drills down through the Earth or sea-bed is made of hardened steel. The hole that is drilled is larger than the pipe and the space is filled with concrete, so even if the pipe passes close to an aquifer it will not contaminate it. In almost 40 years, no one in the Wytch Farm area has complained that the water from their taps tastes odd.

    Adrian Foley
    Ringwood, Hampshire

    1. Anything that allows us fuel to promote our prosperity is protested against by the unwashed left retreating to their huts in the forest only to emerge for the dole queue.

    2. Isn’t Foley spouting nonsense? The fracked bedrock fissures are not filled with concrete. They are backfilled with large quantities of locally sourced fresh water and “chemicals” the cocktail of which is never properly disclosed.

      He also presumes that the contractors on site will be meticulous in the quality of their workmanship and can be relied on never to cut corners to help the profit margin, when targets are set by executives keen to up their bonuses, and when the inspectorate is selected and policed by those very same executives.

      1. That is pretty well on the button. The pipe material is mere mechanics and a side issue. The stuff pumped into the ground to displace the oil and gas is the concern. That and the physical damage deep underground.
        I heard a real scientist on the radio some years ago. He said it could all be done in the North Sea. Much safer than under peoples houses. But slightly less profit for the drillers and extractors. Ah!

    3. Those against fracking also fear that it the process causes contamination of the water table. This is unfounded, as the vertical pipe that drills down through the Earth or sea-bed is made of hardened steel.
      Hardened steel has nothing to do with contamination. In any case, they don’t use hardened steel, as this would be a)expensive, and b)result in a loss of toughness in the pipe, where surface hardness is not a requirement, but ductility is.
      Possible reasons for contamination of water supply would come from down-hole corrosion, leading to perforation of the pipe. Allied with cracks / poor cementing, and a lower pressure in the aquifer than in the pipe, oil or gas might escape into the aquifer.
      That this has not been reported for Wytch Farm may be due to the composition of the oil being rather more benign to steel than elsewhere – I have no knowledge of the contaminants at Wytch Farm, so cannot say.

    4. The possibility of significant earthquakes as a result of fracking are minimal in the UK. Our geology is just not home to the latent pressures and faults which cause them and is why we also don’t have any current volcanic activity. As for water contamination, I don’t know enough, local conditions and aquifers etc should be the basis of a case by case evaluation.

  20. Lament for remainer MP’s –

    Tears for souvenirs are all you left me
    Memories of a love Boris did prevent
    I just can’t believe you could prorogue me
    After all those happy hours in Parliament

    1. Do not prorogue me, oh my darlin’
      You made that promise as a bride
      Do not prorogue me, oh my darlin’
      Although you’re grievin’, just think of leavin’
      Now that I need you by my side

  21. Does Tony Blair think free speech isn’t for everyone?
    Brendan O’Neill – Coffee House – 28 August 2019 – 3:42 PM

    Not content with agitating against democracy with his relentless Remainer shenanigans, now Tony Blair appears to be aiming his fire at freedom of speech. Seriously, is there no civilisational liberal value this man doesn’t want to take down?

    A new report for Blair’s think-tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, says hard-right groups should be subjected to censorship even if they are not involved in any kind of violent activity. The report says the government should draw up a list of ‘designated hate groups’ — you mean a blacklist? — and these designated groups should be prevented from appearing in media outlets or engaging with public institutions.

    The report mentions four groups in particular: Britain First, For Britain, the British National Party, and Generation Identity England. These are all political outfits. They have constitutions, ideas, policies. Many, many people disagree with these of course. But to censor them – to deprive them of the means to express themselves in public, is an act of extreme political intolerance. It would propel Britain into the realm of tinpot dictators where the state gets to decide what is an acceptable political group and what is not. Goodbye to freedom of speech, freedom of association, and the right to political organisation.

    In the Blairites’ dystopian illiberal vision, these groups would be prevented from going on TV and from engaging with social media. They would be blocked by the state from expressing their views in public. This is explicit, brutal censorship. As the Guardian summarises it, ‘legislation would allow for hate groups to be punished before they turn to violence’.

    This is pre-crime territory, to borrow a phrase from Philip K Dick’s short story ‘The Minority Report’, which seems to have been one of the fictional dystopias that inspired this terrifyingly illiberal report.

    To use legislation to punish people before they have committed a crime, before they have done anything violent, takes us squarely into tyrannical territory where you can have your fundamental rights negated on the basis that you might at some point do something bad, or inspire someone else to do something bad.

    But then, in the minds of the authoritarians at the Tony Blair Institute, these ‘designated hate groups’ have done something virtually criminal — they’ve said things Tony Blair and Jacqui Smith, who wrote the report’s foreword, disagree with. How dare they. If this report were to be acted upon, it would set a dreadful precedent: it would open the door to the censorship of any group that holds edgy, difficult or, yes, hateful views.

    But here’s the thing about freedom of speech: it must apply to everyone. As its name suggests, everyone must be free to express their ideas. If the state bans just one political organisation on the basis that its views are horrible and hateful, then we no longer have freedom of speech; we have licensed speech, where you are free to speak in public so long as you do not offend Tony Blair, Jacqui Smith or anyone else who fancies themselves as a moral guardian of correct-think. The censorship of any political group would instantly make Britain an unfree country.

    What authoritarians always forget is that there are two freedoms in freedom of speech. There is the freedom to speak, of course, but there is also the freedom to listen and argue back. There’s the freedom of the speaker and the freedom of the audience. And in a liberal, open society, we don’t invite the state to silence hateful views — we trust the audience, the public, the people, to decide for themselves which ideas are good and which are bad, and to push back against the bad ones.

    The foul censorship proposed in this report would silence political activists and infantilise the rest of us, reducing us to the level of children who must have the public square cultivated and controlled on our behalf by the powers-that-be. As with all forms of censorship, it would insult us – the public – even more than it would insult the hard-right people who would end up being censored.

    You would think Tony Blair, of all people, would understand the risks involved in outlawing speech on the basis that it might provoke people to acts of violence. This is a man whose own speech, whose own myth-making, contributed to years of unspeakable devastation in the Middle East. None of the groups the Blairites want to censor has done anything even close to as bad as that. But don’t worry, Tony — we won’t censor you, we will argue against you, which is what grown-ups do.
    ********************************************************************************************

    BTL:

    Mr Grumpy • 16 hours ago
    I’m all in favour of free speech in general, but you have to draw a line somewhere. Letting Tony Blair speak is going too far.

    Dragnonwell • 15 hours ago
    Jacqui Smith – isn’t she the one who claimed parliamentary expenses for pornographic films (amongst other impermissible things)? No wonder she would like to shut down debate.

    mouseketeery Dragnonwell • 15 hours ago
    She also the one who, when Home Secretary, reportedly sent an email saying that the (Labour) government had decided that the victims of Muslim grooming gangs had made “a lifestyle choice” so no investigations or arrests should be made!

    1. Imagine the outrage on the Left if a Conservative government proposed similar restrictions on violent Hope not Haters or Muslims, or Racist stirrers such as Lammy.

      1. …which it jolly well ought to, if it imposes these restrictions on the right. But it won’t ever – Maggie had it right when she said they’re “frit”.

        Good morning, sos.

    2. “And in a liberal, open society, we don’t invite the state to silence hateful views — we trust the audience, the public, the people, to decide for themselves which ideas are good and which are bad, and to push back against the bad ones.” Since the referendum, it has become crystal clear that we are no longer in a liberal, open society, because the audience, the public, the people, showed that they couldn’t be trusted to come to the “right” decision.

  25. Morning, all. Mrs D cooked a wonderful meal for our friends. He has just been diagnosed with cancer and starts treatment on 9th September.

    1. Good grief! This immature, ‘head up their own backside’, ‘see, we told you so’ attitude of UKIP’s leaders seems purposefully designed to alienate them from normal people. All the points they’re trying to claim as unique to themselves were already known, since long before UKIP existed. The people who knew didn’t possess the political power to implement any counter either.
      I’d like to be able to say that it looks as though impostors are posting as UKIP leaders, but this seems to be for real.

      1. You are saying “they knew” yet they still continued the same voting pattern again & again, you will of course deny this .

        1. I’ve no need to deny anything ogga1, they only ever represented a very small, largely unheard, proportion of the electorate. As I have to keep pointing out to you, tackle the cause ( source ) of the lies, blaming the effect is akin to victim blaming girls for falling victim to the grooming gangs.

          1. All you keep pointing out to me continually is you are an idiot, sorry to be so blunt, but it is a recognisable fact.

          2. And there’s that, unable to logically reason, so just resort to insult, which is common to the lefties.

          3. “This immature, ‘head up their own backside’, ‘see, we told you so’ attitude of UKIP’s leaders seems purposefully designed to alienate them from normal people. ” sounds pretty insulting. Pot, kettle.

          6. Afternoon R,
            The times I get personal can be counted on 1/2 fingers and then ONLY in retaliation.
            Check back & please feel free to point out where I have rhetorically stepped out of line.

          8. R,
            It would be more understandable to me if their
            comments had a grain of common sense but that is sadly lacking.

          9. UKIP gave the country the referendum and were supported by 17.4M of the electorate. We know you don’t like UKIP so you don’t have to keep repeating yourself.

  27. The huge fuss about comes from those mp’s who are clearly pro rogue in terms of the referendum.

    1. Unfortunately for them the Queen has more knowledge of our constitution in the tip of her little finger than they do in the single brain cell they share.

      1. “… the single brain cell they share.”

        A whole brain cell between them, Grumps? You’re being a tad generous there! :•)

    3. Jess Phillips Esq.’s French family hid the resistance from the N-word Germans in their cellar did they?

      Either it was a very large cellar or the numbers in the resistance have been grossly exaggerated

      1. It only needed a very small cellar.

        However after the Resistance had single handedly beaten the Germans, all the Sports Stadia, concert halls etc would not be big enough to hold them

        1. The French may laugh at us – they are welcome to. But if we laugh at the French (who wouldn’t, given their history of small snails men with ambitions larger than their trousers), they don’t like it.

          We can laugh at ourselves – French and Germans especially have not got that ability. They would make good muslims.

        1. Don’t think so.

          Who met with the European Commission 80 times in 2018 and looks like controlling the EU ?

    2. Revue – some kind of vaudeville act, with wigs and ermines flying?
      ;-))
      Morning, Belle!

  30. Happy coincidences !

    Tony’s grandiose sounding Institute appears to have exactly the same objectives as the guy who met with the European Commission 80 times in 2018.

  32. Germany’s military has become a complete joke. Ross Clark. 31 August 2019.

    It is not hard to think of times when German military weakness would have been lauded as good news across the rest of Europe, but perhaps not when the German minister accused of running her country’s armed forces into the ground has just been named as the next president of the European Commission.

    The most recent embarrassment for the Bundeswehr — the grounding of all 53 of its Tiger helicopters this month due to technical faults — is just the latest in a long series of humiliations to have sprung from Ursula von der Leyen’s spell as defence minister. A country once feared for its ruthless military efficiency has become a joke among European powers.

    I would crow louder over this litany of incompetence were it not for the fact that we are little better served. The UK is a pale shadow of its former self while Europe as a political and military entity is probably weaker than it has been since the Mongols first brushed up against its borders in the 13th Century. It is literally a basket case. Its provocations of Russia resemble nothing less than an invitation to be attacked. One suspects that were it not for the overarching power of the United States that this would already have taken place.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/08/germanys-military-has-become-a-complete-joke/

    2. Good Morning Minty
      You of all people should have worked it out,all the Germans have to do is provide the Generals for the Hungarian and Polish armoured forces,the French air force(which will also use the two Brit carriers) and the mass of conscripts from all over the EU
      It’s called the EU army
      Still useless against any external foe but quite capable of suppressing any internal dissent……………..

    3. The answer is why would the Russians bother? what would they gain. They had a European empire in thrall to them and what a nuisance it was for about half a century until it fell apart. The Russians would quite like not to be niggled by the neighbours, a feeling common to most of us.
      Sending them to Coventry does not help either.

      1. Morning Horace. In the cockpit of geopolitics weakness is an invitation to attack

    1. What happened to Greece afterwards ?

      Oh……..

      It got pillaged by the EU.

      Good move, Kate..

      Not.

    2. How do nutters get elected? Is it cos their blak? Or jus preferd by Labor cos they reel in de votes of de losers?

    3. Her Wikipedia entry shows this woman has a shady history such as throwing a bucket of water over a Times , journalist and threatening to bash his face in with a bat before telling him to go forth and multiply. Her drug taking son also caused her problems.

    4. Scum who refer to Her Majesty as “The Queen” should be hanged, drawn and quartered!

  35. On BBC Radio 4 Today programme Jacob Rees Mogg was interviewed by John Humphries. He answered the questions politely and gave nothing away on his converation with the Queen yesterday. His trip to Balmoral yesterday was supposed to be a secret and his party flew on an early morning BA plane to Aberdeen. 15 minutes into the flight the secret was leaked and as the Queen was unaware of the visit a hurried phone call from Downing Street informed the Queen before the news was published.

    1. Seems surprising the Queen didn’t know he was coming….

      Supposing she was out walking the corgis ?

      1. Perhaps I misread the DT article. The purpose of the visit may have been concealed although that also seems unlikely. If the Queen was out with the dogs her loyal subjects would have waited for her to come back.

        1. Maybe Jacob could have gone out to help and come back carrying those little bags ?

    2. Because I am not covered by any vow of confidentiality that privy councillors have to adopt, I can disclose the conversation between the Queen and her Trusted Minister, and the Advice (with a capital A) offered up:

      Cgs x 4 or 5: Woof! woof! Snap snap!
      TM: Ouch! Damned these vermin! You should have them put down.
      E2: Not on your nelly.

        1. You’re right, alas. She’s down to two dorgis now.

          I think she felt concerned about leaving such sensitive creatures to the Princess Royal, who I believe was once convicted under the Dangerous Dogs Act for her pitbull making doggie confetti out of one of the York princesses’ favourite mutt, and necessitated the appointment of a Royal Canine Psychiatrist to sort out the traumatised corgis.

    3. Who leaked it?

      He or she should be put in the stocks and pelted with rotten tomatoes.

    1. Morning G

      Mindless thuggery against animals and birds seems to be endemic now .

      What can we do to stop it . We can do our best by shouting out , but that isn’t enough .

      1. Morning, M.

        As I never tire of repeating; crime can only be curtailed by proper punishment. Thrash these bastards soundly, with a stick or a whip, and they will have time to reflect on their chosen lifestyle and then they may make adjustments as appropriate.

        Prison and fines are only a virtual punishment. The birch rod, the cat o’ nine tails and the scaffold are proper punishments.

          1. Go’ Morgon, Spikey.

            Not only that, with 7·6 billion people on the planet and rising exponentially, I see capital punishment as similar to pricking out plants!

        3. First apprehension, then punishment. The second won’t happen without the first!
          Howdy, Grizz. You got Biblical rain? Here, trains stopped (power supply tripped out by lightning), roads flooded, avalanches across the roads, buses stopped in huge puddles… a house struck & burned… sploosh!

          1. Howdy, Paul.

            We’ve just had a gorgeous week-plus of hot (32ºC) sunny and cloudless weather that was not a bit humid. Utter bliss.

            Tuesday night we had a humdinger of a thunderstorm but it cleared up afterwards. Yesterday two short-lived showers then, this morning, a torrential downpour for about four hours. It’s stopped now but it’s still cloudy but the temperature is still up around 26ºC.

    1. Not often I agree with Piers Moron, but he’s made a few sensible statements recently!!

    2. Good morning Maggiebelle

      What an odious woman she is. But she must be given ‘black privilege’ to counterbalance the dreadful shame that white people at the BBC have because they are white and have ‘white privilege’

      I wonder if she realises that her efforts, with a bit of luck, will bring about the WTO Brexit the people voted for. If she hadn’t interfered May’s surrender would have gone through unopposed.

      1. Her sex and black privilege were precisely why she was selected for the job of fronting the Remain legal campaign.

      2. Miller is anti constitution .

        How strange that so many people are outraged , who on earth do they think they are .

        Good morning Richard

    3. She does a lot of bluster on democracy. However, she shows her true heritage by trying to buy her point of view rather than accept a vote. Much like the darker parts of the world.

    1. Time the ga-ga old twat was sent to a home. A secure one preferably.

      “Come on now, Mr Clarke; try to drink you soup without spilling all over your vest!”

    2. There would be one great advantage. Most parish councillors are not paid so we could scrap all MPs’ salaries and remove their over-lavish expense accounts.

      That would really wow your fellow MPs, wouldn’t it you silly old idiot!

      (I am using the left’s habitual approach – when reason and politeness fail resort to mindless abuse!)

  41. ‘Morning, Peeps

    Dellers on good form, but I particularly liked the leading BTL comment by Brother Antony:

    “Today I sat through 37 minutes of the Grauniad on Air – a.k.a. ‘The Jeremy Vine Show’ (I normally switch off after the BBC 12 o’clock News…disinformative drivel though it is!) – and he and his Leftard friends were not amused.

    Some Leavers got to speak briefly but priority was given to the long-winded vitriolic verbiage of the usual Remainer suspects… Soubry, Chakrabati, some screechy female SNP MP who’s name I didn’t catch and Grieve wielding threats about a secret pact to stop prorogation that he couldn’t reveal; in fact all of the usual suspects ranting on about ‘subverting democracy’ which is precisely what they have been about for the last three years. I’m surprised Vine didn’t call Tusk, Verhofstadt and Drunker for their 10 eurocents worth.

    No words of wisdom from Corbyn, mind you, even though Soubry brought some of his rants into the conversation whilst failing to mention that all Grandpa Cob has left are his allotment and his heart warming old man’s memories of his itinerant years…long motorbike journeys across Europe to Stasi HQ with Dianne flatulating away on the pillion.”

    Priceless…

    2. Jeremy Corbyn has the look of a man who sees a Leprecaun wearing a raincoat in the distance that keeps flashing him. He is keenly aware that nobody else can see it, and he is unsure whether to tell anyone. It gives him that “distracted” air that we see so often.

      He cannot pursue his socialist dream while trapped under eu control, but his party has been taken over by young knuckle-dragging proto-facists demanding that we surrender to the EU globalists. If Corbyn’s mind was confused, then the twisted maze of contradictions inside the head of a Labour Momentum fanatic must be bordering on psychosis.

    2. Let me know when it hits $2000/oz. I did some independent research not long ago, from which I concluded that the purchasing power of gold is now about four times what it was before the Great War stood the world on its head.

  44. Just back from the tip. What a difference from the one in Fakenham.

    Clean and tidy; well marked; one friendly and helpful chap to give a hand. They take everything.

    In Fakenham a gang of surly, unhelpful, wazzocks who snarl. “Can’t take that” – “Nah, not that bin” – “Use your eyes”… etc etc.

    And it is 27ºC. Time for a coffee.

        1. I’ve used both the one at Hempton and the one at Sheringham. Not much to choose between them.

    2. Our local one is the same. I have never seen anyone turned away and the people working there are extremely helpful.
      It’s not open every day, but there are bottle banks, clearly marked large containers and similar outside the gates for “standard” rubbish. The site is always “propre”.

  45. OoH Brucie Bonus time???

    “During prorogation,
    MPs keep their seats and ministers remain in their jobs – but no
    parliamentary debates are held and no laws can be passed – while any
    remaining bills or motions are either killed or taken over to the next
    session.”

    Read more:
    https://metro.co.uk/2019/08/28/what-is-proroguing-parliament-and-is-this-what-is-happening-in-the-uk-government-10642887/?ito=cbshare

    Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/
    Does this include the idiot climate bill and joining the UN migration pact??

  46. There have been suggestions that we are at our greatest crisis since WW2. Some MP said this on TV when objecting strongly to Boris’ actions in proroguing Parliament. It may even be true.
    Now I am a bit blurry about the political management of the UK during WW2, but was not democracy effectively put on hold for the duration?

  48. The Queen’s former surgeon was accused of bullying colleagues, referring to some as ‘hairy-a***d Muslims’ when they missed work for Friday prayers, a tribunal heard.

    Professor Zygmunt Krukowski, 70, admitted that he said: ‘What’s more important? Patients or prayers?’ when some Muslim colleagues were absent from work.

    But he denied referring to them as ‘hairy-a***d Muslims’ during a conversation with NHS Grampian’s chief executive Richard Carey.

    He claims he has ‘never used that phrase in his life’ and ‘strenuously denied’ the accusations.

    Professor Krukowski used to oversee the medical care of the Royal family at Balmoral and was suspended from Aberdeen Royal Infirmary after a misconduct investigation was launched in 2015.

    He was cleared by the General Medical Council in July of that year and has now launched an employment tribunal into his ‘unfair dismissal’.

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7405973/Queens-former-surgeon-Professor-Zygmunt-Krukowski-called-colleagues-hairy-Muslims-tribunal-hears.html

    That is always the worry , isn’t it. Mid operation and the theatre staff walk out for prayers!

  51. I wonder if certain countries have socialist progressive policies because someone has paid for them ?

  52. GOOD NEWS – the pushy nurse’s laptop has been cured (I knew the enema would work).

    BAD NEWS – she expects to be annoying us sometime tomorrow, Friday….

    1. I don’t know what the legal loophole is, but flying drones in or near an airport is highly dangerous, and closing down an airport is an offence.
      There should be new legislation with very severe punishments – enough to stop it. Defence lawyers should also be banned.

      1. I suspect there is suitable legislation, there usually is, but our PTB don’t have the guts to use it in the most draconian fashion.

          1. Then the fluckers will weep and wail and say they really, truly, cross my heart and hope to die, promise that they never meant to hurt anyone….

        2. I am pretty sure that flying a drone within a specified distance of an operational airfield is already illegal.

          1. I believe so too, but whether the penalties are suitably severe and will be used to their maximum I don’t know.

    2. “Right, you have asked us to this
      meeting to discuss how you might fly drones in the Heathrow exclusion zone. In
      order to consider your application we will need names of the intended
      operators, an examination of the airworthiness of the drones. We propose a meeting
      in a hangar at an air-drome near Heathrow. To minimise your carbon footprint we
      can also arrange transport for you”

      “Seems reasonable to me”

  54. Good Morning all – I’m still following “that” petition and see it now stands at over 1.27 million votes, amongst the plethora of overseas votes we now have the Vatican City represented and also the French South Pacific Island group of Vanuatu ( {“name”:”Vanuatu”,”code”:”VU”,”signature_count”:11} ). Locally the most intense voting seems to be centred in the larger University towns, just a pure coincidence I’m sure.

    edit – votes are increasing at at a steady 100-120 every 8 seconds, no definitely not a Bot

  55. Boris Johnson is trashing the democracy fought for with the blood of our ancestors. Owen Jones. Wed 28 Aug 2019

    Call the suspension of parliament what it is: a coup d’état by an unelected prime minister. Brexit, we were promised, was about restoring the sovereignty of the House of Commons and taking back control of our laws. That institution is now to be shut down, its ability to pass legislation neutered. Just days now remain for elected representatives to have any say over the greatest upheaval since the guns fell silent in the second world war. It must be, and will be, resisted.

    Morning everyone. These would be the White, Homophobic Imperialist Racist Ancestors one would assume? There is no provision in General Elections in the UK for electing the Prime Minister. They become such when the Party they lead gains a majority in Parliament.

    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/aug/28/boris-johnson-trashing-democracy-blood-ancestors-brexit

    1. Trust little Owen to start the day with a hissy fit. The ‘democracy trashing’ (ugh) started some time ago when Grieve and his fellow traitorous collaborators decided that the decision of the little people was simply wrong and therefore had to be overturned at the earliest opportunity.

      ‘Morning, Minty.

    2. Morning, Minty. A silly little LibDem Remainer name of Ross in the Colchester Gazette argues that Boris was only elected by a minuscule fraction of the electorate (something like 0.01% I think he claimed) and was therefore “unelected”. As if Jo Swinson were elected by more than 0.0001 % of the electorate! I am convinced that large numbers of British people are born without a brain. Or are deliberately being devious about what they believe.

      1. Morning, Elsie,

        IMO, unfortunately I agree that large numbers of “British” nowadays are born without a brain. It takes a mind (or possibly even a least a brain) to work out the notion of inconsistency, let alone apply that concept. It takes a decent mind to work out the consequences and act in a decent way. There are very few of those in our Parliament.

        On a cheerier note, would you kindly let me have the recipe for your baked potatoes, please? I missed it previously.

        1. Hejsan min vän!

          Elsie är borta, så jag skriva detta får dig…

          Take a large baking spud, scrub it, prick it all over (I use a 2-pronged corn on the cob holder), smear it with olive oil & then coat it with crystalline sea salt. 220C fan for 90 minutes gives a good, crunchy coating & a fluffy inside which you can smear with butter or any other filling that you fancy.

        2. As I explained to Peddy, it’s not mine but rather a Delia Smith recipe, from her original cookery book. If you don’t have a copy or can’t find it on Google, let me know and I will post it on this site.

      2. Nobody voted for Nick Clegg as deputy PM or indeed, a coalition government of which Swinson was a member.

        How quickly (and conveniently) they forget these things.

    3. Indeed, Minty. The office of Prime Minister is not mentioned anywhere in English/Scottish law other than in granting the use of Chequers.

    4. “a coup d’état by an unelected prime minister”

      Remind us again, Mr Jones, how many of our rulers in Brussels are elected by the hoi polloi?

      Morning Araminta.

      P.S. As for our ancestors that Jones mentions, didn’t they put potential enemy aliens in camps during the war to prevent them undermining our war effort?

    5. I don’t recall Owen Jones having a similar hissy fit when Gordon Brown became an unelected Prime Minister! Anyway, as Monty Python reminds us “You don’t elect Kings” … or PMs?

      1. Owen Jones is one of the most repulsive turds floating on the surface of the cesspit of left-wing shít that is the Guardian

  56. “So Johnson went and did it. He sent the Leader of the House of Commons,

    currently Jacob Rees-Mogg, to see The Queen and ask for her consent to

    prorogue Parliament. Once the news had been leaked (see below) all hell

    broke lose.

    Our esteemed MSM, especially TV and radio,

    filled the airwaves, interviewing Remainers nearly exclusively. It was

    wall-to-wall, and those not interviewed tweeted as if their lives

    depended on it.

    Their main screech was ‘a coup!’ – as if

    the government can make a coup against itself. Calls on Twitter went

    out for a general strike, for, ahem, doing to the Queen what was done to

    Charles I, and for mass demos that evening. The attendance at those

    demos was, I am being kind, pathetic.

    Voices of reason were there none, not even

    Sir John Redwood could penetrate the dense Remain outrage in his

    interviews on SKY and the BBC. It was inevitable that Gina Miller would

    spearhead the movement to get an injunction in court (here).

    It was also inevitable that the plotting MPs who plotted on Tuesday – we wrote about that yesterday

    – were the most outraged, only topped by the outrage of the Speaker,

    John Bercow. He was on holidays but so far isn’t planning to come back

    early, crisis or not. In any case, the Speaker is a bystander when the

    HoC is in recess.”

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-thursday-29th-august-2019/

    More details on the plotting here

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/from-behind-the-paywall-on-the-gathering-remain-forces-attempts-to-stop-the-prorogation/

  57. Former Sky Sports News presenter Ian Payne reveals injuries after being glassed
    He revealed he needed stitches after being left with two nasty cuts on the side of his face

    2. When I hear the name ‘Boris Johnson’ I get confused about the difference between letter boxes and bank robbers.

      1. Whenever I see walking letter boxes I get confused between letter boxes and bank robbers…

        Good day, Angie

        1. Afternoon Hertslass,

          There was a time when British Rail ran an Intercity Royal Mail train with a letter box in the side of the mail coach.
          I used to buy a platform ticket for the station at which it stopped and catch the very latest post to London.

          1. Funny how things just seemed to work in the uncomplicated primitive days of my youth.

            Excuse pleezz. “What is platform ticket??

          8. Looks complex… but yes, I do remember them. In the days when travel was a wondrous thing, relatives would “see you off” at the station.

          9. Angie there was a film made of the post train journey. I haven’t seen it for a while.

    3. When I hear the name “Philip Pullman” for some reason the words “arrogant”, “useless” and “twat” come to mind as well as he being a pointless and unreadable writer.

      Glad to get that off my chest………..

      1. May I borrow your words to answer him, please? (Obviously no reference to you, like BoB.)

      2. I cannot honesty believe that these people are the same species as me,

        I think it is high time for a taxonomical split in the human species; not based on race, but based on intelligence.

  59. NoTTLers can be counted upon to be vigilant night and day…..

    BTL@DTletters

    Max Bonamy 29 Aug 2019 3:34AM
    A glorious morning spent bathing in the pool of Remoaner tears.

    —-

    A Remainiac ululates:

    “Its a pigment of Brexiters’ imagination that people voted for Brexit because clearly ‘people’ are not equal. no way!

    Its been scientifly proven Remainers have a bigger IQ and so like our opinion is worth three times as much as 17.4m Brexit fascists. That’s how come the Referendum was obviously won by Remain!

    Frankerly its totally stupid to let White Van Man who would rather Torremilinos to the frescoes of Leonardo di Caprio in the Cistern Chapel and couldnt tell the difference between Vivaldi’s Requiem and Verdi’s Four Seasons to have a vote in the first place! If there isn’t a law against it, I’ll make one!

    Its proof we are better off in the EU where brainy people can save millions upon millions of thick racist brits from themselves by making all the important decisions on their behalf.

    Yer know, the national anthem of the EU is Mozart’s Yodel to Joy. 17m Brexit retards just need to accept that overturning their vote is for their own good and learn to hum along with Placebo Domingo.

    Facts, not emulsion, Emily!”

    Owen Jones was being interviewed by Lady Nugee at 32 Smith Square.

    1. Unfortunately it is a case of ‘dream on’. Imagine the outrage of the MSM and lefty, illiberal lot if she tried that. It would be too confusing for their tiny minds – which cause would most deserve their attention – anti-Brexit or defending the indefensible.

    3. But what about his human rights? He could be in danger if returned to his home country!

      You can just see the tear stained placards being waved by rental mob.

    2. Poor chap on the right at the back must be REALLY poor, he can’t even afford a colour printer.

      1. Because they are living off the taxes that people who do work are paying, natch.

        I’d rather be less “enriched” – wouldn’t we all, here? Typical political-speak – “enriching” when it is in fact impoverishing the new home nation.

    5. They’ve got us completely fooled.
      (The BBC are showing lots of these pictures, all with a typical cross-section of native British people.)

    3. Eh? The child was a passenger on a super yacht manned by experienced crew during an uneventful summer crossing.
      Oh, and you are wrong about the other thing, too. We must not deliver on the demands of people around the world. They may be permitted to catch up with us over the next 300 years. The “global climate crisis” is a lie but you are happy to sin your immortal soul by perpetuating it because that is what got you your job.

    4. Determination & perseverance my arse! Once the boat had set sail, she had very little choice.

      1. Remainers and their ilk will never work it out. Their intellectual processes, their “logic”, their emotions, their empathy are all bound up in their own totally self-contained onanistic dialectics.

      2. The African people don’t seem to have worked out how to be human and civilised yet.

  69. BBC and Labour are in a real old froth.

    I am listening to old bunkum.

    Boris has staged a blinder .. it is so enjoyable watching the likes of Labour twerp Barry Gardiner apoplectic with hot air. .

    Morning all, sunshine here , but what a cold night .

  71. Labour forget what Tony Blair did when he was leader .. he was an absolute mad man .. no one , no one was allowed to discuss Iraq.

    Ian Blackford just cannot mind his mouth or his manners.

    1. Morning, Maggie,

      Blair IS, as well as was, a madman. He should be (let’s be charitable) locked up with no favours, for life.

  72. How Important is Eye Makeup?

    It’s very important that guys read this too. Just so they know to what extremes women will go to attract them.

    Ladies, the best way to attract a man is with your eyes. That’s why it’s so important to have your eye makeup perfectly applied. Remember, if it weren’t for the excellent application of proper eye makeup this young lady probably wouldn’t get a second look from most men.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ab1d755b041bd5bc653b537b4498d8d6dc52ab151cdb5980ee90143af865f16.gif

    I could be wrong – I’ve been wrong Before!!

    1. As I have said before, for me the face is the most important thing.

      My Caroline has a lovely kind face full of good humour and intelligence – how could I have resisted?

  73. Thank goodness that the Fatso Lezbo perv Ruth Davidson has resigned as Scots Tories leader, lets hope she leaves the Tory party altogether & joins the Pervs Central Alliance AKA the Liberal Party . If the Tory party really stood for family values then she would not have been allowed to join!

    1. Afternoon, Hatman.

      I think you mean the “Illiberal Undemocratic” Party. She’ll do well there.

    2. Afternoon all.
      I actually liked Ruth Davidson (tho not her stance on Brexit) and no, I am not a “Fatso Lezbo perv” or, indeed, a skinny one! I thought she had great capabilities.

      2. Well she did not did she. Fell at the first fence. All talk and no action. I would revue how you assess people.

    3. Last time I was asked “How do you view lesbian relationships?”, apparently “Preferably in 4K Ultra High Definition” was the wrong answer….

      1. Good afternoon Jules, if I have offended anybody ( including my 2 non-favorite female Nottlers ) please delete my post . There are a number of politicians in the UK who I find totally immoral in their personal lifestyle & Davidson is one of them.

        1. I’m less worried by politicians’ lifestyles (though I’d rather they were kept private) than by their politics. She seems to have been a capable woman, though not a Brexiteer.

          4. Not one ounce of sense. No positive suggestions. In a perpetual reactive rage. So, yes.

        2. Keep going. There’s a couple of ex-Prime Ministers whom I would like to incarcerate.

          10. No, no, no. Locked up, tortured, I’m wanting cruelty, pain, suffering, not an easy way out.

          1. Before my time & my reading up on him shows him to be a person of ability but with contradictory views & opinions that put him on the wrong side of history several times.

  74. Andrew Neil to be given his own Brexit show, BBC announces. 29 AUGUST 2019 • 12:17PM.

    The BBC’s veteran political interviewer Andrew Neil is to be given his own television programme centred on Brexit, the corporation has announced.

    Mr Neil, 70, presents the BBC’s Politics Live on Thursday lunchtime, and until recently fronted the late-night politics show This Week.

    The new programme, named the Andrew Neil Show, will begin next Wednesday, September 4 at 7pm on BBC 2.

    Hmmm. I’ll set that on record!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/29/andrew-neil-given-show-bbc-announces/

    1. I have just read that on another channel and have checked the live Sky listings for next Wednesday on BBC2 at 07:00PM and there is a program called “The Repair Shop” from 7-8.

      I hope this is just Sky being late to update their schedule. “This Week” was the only program that I watched on the BBC. Apart from very rare documentaries. I would watch this one though.

      1. This Week” was the only program that I watched on the BBC. Apart from very rare documentaries.

        Same here Meredith!

    2. Wait for transmission to be stopped – “on operational grounds” – or jammed.

  75. Julia Hartley-Brewer, Sherelle Jacobs and Allison Pearson are all lucid and sensible female journalists. They are far better than most of the men who write for the DT and I bet the feminists loathe them! This is my response to this article by Julia Hartley-Brewer which I shall paste here if somebody asks me to do so.

    Sorry, millennials. It’s time for the Bank of Mum and Dad to close its doors

    The problem is that too much money supply has forced up property prices beyond most young people’s means.

    When my generation was young the maximum mortgage you could get was 3 times your income or, for a married couple, 2 times you joint income. In addition you had to provide a minimum deposit of 10% of the property price. This sort of restriction on money supply would bring property prices back to an affordable level. In France, where property prices are more reasonable, the amount of money you repay each month on a mortgage is set for its term at outset and this amount is restricted by the level of your net income after all other loans have been taken into account. This means that people are far less likely to default.

    People have to sell houses as well as buy them and the price vendors will be able to get will be determined by the money purchasers can raise. Keeping the money available restricted would mean that house prices would adjust to a sustainable equilibrium.

    We have a valuable house. We do not want to sell it – it was bought to be our home not to be a money making investment. We get no advantage out of its high value as we have higher rates to pay and if we did have to sell it we would have to pay a great deal in fees, commissions, stamp duty and all the other associated high costs of buying another house for ourselves. Indeed this is why many old people do not want to downsize. In addition. when we die the high value of our house will swell the value of our estates and increase our death tax bill.

    We would be happier if our house – and all houses – were worth a fraction of their current market value and so would most young people who would then be able to get more easily onto the ‘property ladder’ if all houses were far less expensive

    But what do our foolish politicians always do? They come up with schemes to ‘help’ which put more money into purchasers’ hands and this forces prices up still further making the problem worse.

    1. High and ever increasing house prices are now taken by politicians as an indicator of the health of the economy. An indicator that is worshipped and flaunted by financiers and banks and financial comics (Press not real people).
      Yet what you say is completely correct. You do not mention the buy to let industry. When I was little, banks and building societies would not provide mortgages to landlords. The buy to let industry is no more good for the country than Rachman.
      The real health of the economy might shown by the number of people under 30 who buy houses every year and the overall ownership of houses by people under 30.

      1. The Building Societies would not allow you to have more than one mortgage. The banks did not normally lend to ordinary people, only to the affluent.

    2. Women going out to work has also had an impact on house prices. It used to be possible for a man on an average wage to provide for his family, with the wife staying at home with the children. But this happy and natural state of affairs was not deemed to be ‘progressive’ so women were encouraged to leave their children with nurseries at the earliest possible age and go out to work. Two incomes means higher mortgages and higher house prices. Now women have to go out to work, whether they want to or not.

      Modern feminism – making women and children miserable!

      1. It also destroys the parent child bonding, the close family relationships and make for a less cohesive, less trusting and less pleasant society in general.

      2. I have been blessed to know “real women” for most of my life. They infuriate those who call themselves “feminists” by laughing at them and calling them silly little girls. A real woman does not need a trembling snowflake to give them special status. They have real status already.

        1. Well said. Most women I know are pretty tough cookies (my wife included!) and make their own choices in life. They are not oppressed by men, they live their lives as they choose. Some women choose to be with their children rather than earning more, and good luck to them.

          1. My husband and I both agreed that I would give up my career until our children were settled in primary school. Money was tight, car was old, holidays were visiting family and simple camping in our beautiful country. When I finally returned to work, it was not full time and was at a lower level but paid enough to make a difference. Have we any regrets? None whatsoever.

          2. I’m sure you have many happy memories of spending time with your small children, and they will grow up to be happier and more confident members of society, because of the love and attention they received from their mother when they needed it the most.

            Far better than going back to work to help close the ‘gender pay gap’ (bleugh!).

          3. So true. I actually earned more than my husband at the time. Budgeting is an alien concept to so many young parents. Material things are trivial. I am also shocked by parents who, rather than reading to their children at bedtime or any other time, lazily use screens to passively ‘entertain’ their children while spending so much unnecessary time and money on their own screens or on such trivial matters as having their ridiculously impractical nails ‘done’, or buying trendy trash to tart up their homes. No wonder they claim to be unable to afford for one parent to stay at home. Priorities!

          5. I know, it does sadden me when I see even very young children with smartphones. They lose the ability to socialise and take pleasure in interacting with their environment, but hey, it makes the parents lives easier so what the hell!

          6. Even in the garden, or a walk to the park, we point out little details to our young grandchildren. Naming flowers and trees, identifying petals, stamen, pollen, leaf shapes, insects. All good, free fun while expanding their vocabulary, knowledge and conversation skills.
            When their parents take them to the doctor or dentist, or they are waiting for food in a restaurant, they take along books to read to them while waiting. Children who are read to and see their parents enjoy reading, develop their own reading skills sooner.

          7. To a small child, everything is interesting. Fruit on a tree, the moon, a letter box. It is so easy and rewarding to stimulate their interest in the world around them, if one only has the will to do so. I don’t claim to be perfect as a parent by any means, but I do think that if one limits screen time (especially for younger children) then it is far more beneficial for parents and children.

            Saying that, it’s been a long summer holiday and my kids have probably watched far too much tv!

          8. Parenting is so much more rewarding when fully involved in all these stimulating activities. Benefits all members of the family. My wonders late Mum really enjoyed spending quality time with my children. When I was a child, her housework really was time consuming, hard work but she tried to do as much as possible in the mornings to give herself time with me and my brother in the afternoons. I learnt much and have happy memories of most of my childhood. My Dad was typical of his generation, expecting cooked food lunchtime and teatime, along with a clean house! And she spent her evenings knitting and sewing our and her clothes.

          9. ‘Afternoon, JK, I think this might have a response to the teaching of new (sweary) words:

            Two hours into my
            first day of work as an Asda greeter, an ugly woman came in with her two kids.

            Hearing her swear
            at them, I said, “Good morning, welcome to Asda. Nice kids, are they
            twins?”

            The mum answered, “Fück no, they ain’t twins. The oldest one’s 9,
            and the other one’s 7. Why would you think they’re twins? Are you blind or
            stupid?”

            I replied,
            “I’m neither blind nor stupid. I just couldn’t believe someone slept with
            you twice. Have a good day, and thank you for shopping at Asda.”

            My
            supervisor said I probably wasn’t cut out for this line of work.

    3. Julia is mistaken on her maths.
      As someone of a similar age, the normal income multipliers were 3.75 single or 2.75 joint income back in the late 1980s. My first mortgage was a 2.75 x joint salary loan.

        1. Interesting.

          While I was doing conveyancing between 1959 and 1996, the deposit was always 10% – until the late ’80s when, grudgingly, a 5% deposit was agreed. Mainly because of the increase in the price of property; but also because 95% mortgages started to become common.

        2. We paid 5% deposit in 1981 and I seem to remember being in some sort of mortgage ‘queue’.

        3. And the maximum mortgage you could get was £25,000. The Northern Rock gave 110 per cent of the cost with self-certification of income, and the roof fell in because a certain Prime Minister did not have the guts to challenge it,

          1. The Building Societies Act 1962 was the primary legislation and apart from minor changes over the years so-called “special advances” were limited to a very small % of the total number of mortgages granted. From recollection the figure was £12,500 which was gradually increased as the societies grew and house prices rose.

            The real rot set in when the banks enetered the domestic markets very heavily and the Building societies were permitted to borrow in the capital markets rather than funding all mortgages through their members deposits.

            When the Building Societies Act 1986 was passed all Hell broke loose and the Tories allowed them to demutualise.

            Lots of “free money” for the carpet-baggers as they converted to banks with shares allocated to investors.

          2. He encouraged it. Most of the mortgagees were in Northern Rock’s homeland in the North East and good Labour voters with large rosettes.

    4. The drawback of choking off house prices by restricting funding is that those who have bought (often with considerable struggle) under the “old” scheme will end up with a house worth maybe half the mortgage. That would be extremely unpopular, to say the least.
      It would have been better to not have allowed the price rise in the first place than to try to undo the mess later.

      1. Yes, politicians, reporters etc. seem to forget that the worth of your house to you now is not the price you could sell it for minus the price you bought it for. All the interest we have paid since buying will make the purchase price of the house far higher. They all seem to overlook that.

    5. The problem is housing is not a market. Government controls both supply and demand. It’s increasingly also price fixing by buying a fixed number at whtever the developer sell it for.

      People can’t compete with a state that has endless amounts of our money in housebuying so are priced out. Thus government fiddles again to try to rig the market for political gain, not understanding it is the root cause of the problem.

      Although heck, if government realised just hwo cretinous it was it’d shut itself down out of shame

          3. Hi, Lass.

            I once attended an excellent Stranglers gig in Sheffield. They played a wonderfully tight set until Jean Jacques Burnel hit a bum note on his bass, causing Hugh Cornwell to repeat the lyrics of the wrong verse when playing All Day And All Of the Night.

            The song stopped promptly, Hugh walked across to Jean Jacques and shouted, “TWAT!”, apologised to the audience, then without missing a beat commenced playing a perfectly accurate and very tight version of the song.

            Brilliant band.

          4. Wotcher, Grizzly,

            I never managed to see them live, always really liked them. To be fair, two wrongs don’t make a right!

  77. The US Government celebrated Greta’s arrival in the US by relaxing the EPA’s rules on methane emissions.

    While sheep may safely graze, now cows may safely fart…

    1. Inscription a Dorset tombstone…

      “Always let your wind go free
      wherever you may be…
      for keeping it in was the death of me.”

  79. The Union Flag has not been properly hoisted

    It should be re-raised ‘upside down as “a signal of dire distress, that the country is in extreme danger to life or property”;

    2. No matter how hungry I am, when I see “Brawn” on a menu the appetite lessens somewhat. It is an acquired taste, I know, but still… For those who do not know then buckle-up or skip the rest of this message:

      “Brawn or Head cheese is a cold cut that originated in Europe. A version pickled with vinegar is known as souse. Head cheese is not a dairy cheese, but a terrine or meat jelly often made with flesh from the head of a calf or pig, or less commonly a sheep or cow, and often set in aspic. The parts of the head used vary, but the brain, eyes, and ears are usually removed. The tongue, and sometimes the feet and heart, may be included. It can also be made from trimmings from pork and veal, adding gelatin to the stock as a binder. Sometimes it is made with nothing from the head. Head cheese is usually eaten cold or at room temperature.”

      I know that kebabs and mass produced burgers are little better, but I do not eat those either. Give me a good steak burger from a local butcher.

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/51403f029702ce40999040256a2fa43bc8485dd4b4d6ba027edf2ab6f6bd6d8d.jpg

      1. Makes me think of Gordon Brawn… Certainly an acquired taste – but never for me.

        1. Even the Roman snacks from “Life of Brian” sound tastier than Brawn:

          “Larks’ tongues. Wrens’ livers. Chaffinch brains. Jaguars’ earlobes. Otters noses. Wolf nipple chips. Get ’em while they’re hot. They’re lovely. Dromedary pretzels, only half a denar. Tuscany fried bats.”

          2. I suspect it was a fantasy menu made for effect in the film, although they did have some exotic dishes. I bought some roman cookbooks based on some writings of the time and the closest they could get with today’s ingredients. I didn’t bother trying to make anything from it though. (Damn that took me a long time to find a picture of it.)

            I cannot remember if it had the dormouse recipe in it. I think that their thinking was lots of tiny animals rather than a big steak. 🙂

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/88b4ce4e594a14f24f0b795b16ae0dd799cee7c5bfe0352e90c0e982cb6f6bd4.jpg

          3. Da mihi sis bubulae frustum assae et solana tuberosa in modo gallico fricta.

            Mmmm ….. delicatus!
            :¬)

      2. Nothing wrong with it. I used to have it from time to time in Germany. Look up Saumagen – Helmut Kohl’s fave. Also good.

          1. Delish! What do you think black pudding is?

            My friends in Poland who have a farm, raised a pig twice a year & processed the whole beast into the most wonderful comestibles. The BBQ’ed blutwurst was too die for.

          2. What do I think black pudding is? Schweinblutwurst. Pig’s blood sausage of course. Had it in Kitzbhüel when we had a holiday there in 2000.

          4. Delicious. Probably the best black pudding I’ve had. We had it in the restaurant at the top of the Hahnenkamm,

          8. They raise a pig twice a year and processed the whole beast into comestibles. What, the same pig?

            There is a similar case in the ancient annals of Ireland when ‘Mucca Mhannanain’, the pig belonging to Mannanán Mac Lir, regenerated its flesh providing food for feasting by the Tuatha Dé Danann at the Fleadh Goibhneann.

            Not many people know that …….

    3. Did they sink after lunch and before dinner? All that food going to waste. Looks like drinks were extra.

          1. It took about 4 hours. It was after dark when it struck the iceberg, which was why the latter wasn’t seen until it was too late to avoid.

    4. Proper food from a proper age when men were men, women were women, and the sheep were nervous.

        1. You ought to try my home made cider!
          Got round to bottling 3 gallon this afternoon.
          Still have another 2 gallon to bottle that was jiggled about a bit too much and needs to settle out again.

  82. The rage against Boris
    Brendan O’Neill – Coffee House – 29 August 2019 – 2:04 PM

    This morning, a petition demanding ‘Do not prorogue Parliament’ is doing the rounds. At the time of writing, more than 1.4 million people have signed it. Remainers are very excited. They’re holding the petition up as proof of a mass outpouring of democratic disdain for Boris Johnson’s decision to suspend Parliament for a few more days than is normal. It is no such thing. It looks more like yet another middle-class hissy fit against Brexit and the people who voted for it.

    As the petition map demonstrates, the signatories are strikingly concentrated in certain parts of the country, especially the leafy, super-middle-class bits of southern England. There are very high numbers of signatures from Brighton, Hove, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire; and in London from Islington, Dulwich, Wood Green, Hackney, Richmond and Twickenham.

    All of these areas have large numbers of working-class and poor inhabitants, of course. But they are also known, correctly, as the heartlands of the metropolitan middle classes. Some of the parts of London in which people have enthusiastically embraced the petition are especially posh: Dulwich, Richmond, Twickenham.

    Far from being an expression of national fury with Boris’s proroguing plans, the petition strikingly confirms the massive class-based and geographical divides over Brexit. So where, at the time of writing, 7.4 per cent of voters in Caroline Lucas’s Brighton Pavilion constituency have signed this anti-Boris, anti-proroguing petition, just 0.6 per cent of constituents in Doncaster North have signed it.

    So far, in Islington 6.3 per cent of constituents have signed; in Dulwich, it’s 6.1 per cent; in Richmond, it’s five per cent. But in Rochdale, it’s 0.7 per cent; in Boston and Skegness, it’s 0.5 per cent; in Merthyr Tydfil it’s 0.8 per cent; in Dagenham it’s 0.5 per cent.

    And so on and so on. The posher the area, the more likely people are to have signed. The more working-class the area, the more likely people are to have thought to themselves: ‘Sod that.’

    And it isn’t hard to see why, because for all the claims that this is a pro-democracy petition, it is nothing of the kind. Take a look at the wording of the petition. It is quite extraordinary. It says:

    ‘Parliament must not be prorogued or dissolved unless and until the Article 50 period has been sufficiently extended or the UK’s intention to withdraw from the EU has been cancelled.’ (My emphasis.)

    Take that in. This petition isn’t even against the proroguing of Parliament as such — it is only against the proroguing of Parliament by Boris Johnson for the purpose of forcing Brexit through. The petition explicitly says that proroguing or dissolving Parliament is fine once Brexit has either been kicked into the long grass (through extending Article 50) or destroyed entirely (through cancellation).

    This is in keeping with the broader hypocritical hysteria over Boris’s plans to suspend Parliament for a few more days than normal. The furious reaction against Boris is not driven by a desire to defend democracy, whether of the parliamentary or any other variety. Rather, it is driven by anger at the fact that MPs, the majority of whom are Remainers, will be temporarily robbed of the ability to continue thwarting and potentially even killing Brexit. They rage against Boris for being anti-democratic on the basis that he is making it more difficult for anti-Brexit MPs to frustrate the largest act of democracy in the history of this country — you couldn’t make it up.

    Just imagine what is going through the minds of people around the country, outside of the woke, Brexitphobic bubbles in the south that so many politicos and commentators inhabit. Imagine what they think as they watch MPs who have spent three years trying to frustrate the democratic will suddenly present themselves as defenders of democracy against Boris the ‘tinpot dictator’. Imagine what they think as they see footage of middle-class people having a picnic, complete with olives and bubbly, in the middle of yesterday’s protest against proroguing.

    This petition gives us a glimpse of what they think. From South Wales to the Midlands, from the North West to Essex, so many people must be looking upon the metropolitan elites that loathe Brexit as eejits, hypocrites and liars.

    *******************************************************************************
    BTL:

    maresuke • an hour ago • edited
    I suspect the petition represents the Peoples Vote network built and consolidated by Campbell and others over three years, linked by e-mail and ready to become any kind of popular surge required at a moments notice.

    Jolly Radical • an hour ago • edited
    The Independent is reporting today that, when the prorogation begins, Bercow intends to chair parliament anyway and conduct sittings with or without any government MPs being present in the building.
    Apparently Bercow knows he’ll be deselected by the Tories for the forthcoming election and wants to ‘leave a legacy’ before he’s sacked.

    This isn’t ‘what if’ speculation, but a serious report on his intentions, i.e. it must have a credible and verifiable source.

    Fencesitter Jolly Radical • 23 minutes ago
    I might tune in to BBC Parliament for that one. They could do a whole series on it called Potemkin Parliament. That’s what it has been since Maastricht.

    1. The reality is Parliament sits for 3 days next week and then it is in recess for 5 weeks anyway

  83. In spite of the protest Parliament actually voted for No deal. They voted against Mays deal and voted against taking no deal off of the table and they voted for us to Leave on the 31st October

  84. E are getting Project fear Super heated now, The NHS is going to be sold to the US, We will have no medicines and we will have massive shortages of food and fuel

    It is all total bunk though

    2. Any changes to the NHS, Agriculture, Working rights etc will be decided by our sovereign parliament once we have left the EU. There is nothing to fear.

      1. Acksherly, I don’t think our sovereign parliament at the moment would do anything but make the fear come true. Most MPs are that petty, mean-minded and nasty.

  85. OT – a tale from rural France.

    Locals in this (and other) villages put a plastic bottle full of water on their doorsteps. Years ago, intrigued, I asked why.

    Well, the conte de vieilles femmes is that a passing dog, about to pee, will observe the bottle, assume that the resident may shortly reappear, and push off to pee elsewhere.

    I know, I know….but it is France and most of them do it. Hoever, from my observations over the last 30 years, the dogs appear to be unaware of the reasoning…{:¬))

    1. Good afternoon, Bill. I noticed in Spain they have designated areas where dogs are free to perform their natural functions.

      They call these areas, ‘calles‘.

          1. Apparently the mincing gait of homosexuals derives from them having to clench their buttocks together when walking to prevent leakage.
            CAUTION:- NOT TO BE READ JUST BEFORE A MEAL!

          4. In San Francisco, this is/was a well-known thing. Some have had to have an operation to correct it…

          6. So that’s what was going on in that video clip from the football pitch yes’day!

          8. Yo Bob

            Just steer clear of them, after they have Number Two’d and played with the babies

          9. I have that problem when laughing or coughing. But on the front-side, so to speak. I just delicately cross my legs, I don’t need to mince.

  87. The BBC’s veteran political interviewer Andrew Neil is to be given his own television programme centred on Brexit, the corporation has announced.

    Mr Neil, 70, presents the BBC’s Politics Live on Thursday lunchtime, and until recently fronted the late-night politics show This Week.

    The new programme, named the Andrew Neil Show, will begin next Wednesday, September 4 at 7pm on BBC 2.

    The BBC said the show would have “in-depth analysis and forensic questioning of key political players” in the lead-up to Britain’s departure from the EU on October 31.

    It will air on Wednesday nights, and feature analysis of the day’s Prime Minister’s Questions and other political events of the week.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/29/andrew-neil-given-show-bbc-announces/

  88. Good afternoon from Saxon Queen with longbow.

    Disqus is being a pain for me today, it keeps telling me I am
    logged off even when I can post, I have to log off and on repeatedly
    and even with this post, it will say I can only post if I am the
    ‘ author of the post ‘ . Seriously odd .

      1. The Samsung tablet is suffering an awful lot,
        even with 2 factory resets, the battery isn’t in good shape.
        I’ve ordered a laptop from John Lewis but it’s not in stock
        yet. Even so I’d rather this thing not give up the ghost,
        I’ll still use it far more then a book as it’s small and easy to
        dip in and out of.

  89. Good news. The main internet switching centre for this part of the Aude has been ablaze. Many phone and internet cables have been destroyed. There will be intermittent or no service until 6 September. Thus I may suddenly disappear (Oh how sad).

    Better news. On Sunday we go to Cap d’Ail for a fortnight where I may or may not have access to NoTTL. You lucky people. I’ll think of you while I am swimming in a sea where the water temp is still 26ºC…..

    And on that happy note, I’ll say farewell. I’ll try to log on tomorrow but, who knows (or cares – I hear you say).

  92. I’ve been busy packing as going down to Devon
    on Saturday for a week, the weather a much cooler 18c
    so packing slightly warmer things which seems strange
    considering how hot it has been. I’d preferred 23c but shan’t
    complain too much.

          2. It’s specifically Devon where Ethul is going.

            The word is also used in Dorset.

  93. As from tomorrow we won’t be sending as many Civil Servants to Brussels. Only those with essential meetings to attend will go. Another good milestone on the Brexit trail. Perhaps MPs should not be allowed expenses to go to Brussels now unless it is to support Brexit negotiations.

    1. As from tomorrow we won’t be sending as many Civil Servants to Brussels
      As from tomorrow we won’t be sending as many Civil Serpents to Brussels
      There that’s fixed it for you!

          7. When I rolled them out (between my fingers) they had holes the size of the chunnel!

            They closed up as they rose.

          8. From the picture it looks like they did when they went in.
            You can make out his paw-print on some of them.

          9. Ditto, except for horseradish sauce & no onions. A light supper after a substantial lunch.

  95. RIP, another hero.

    Major Richard Hargreaves, who has died aged 99, won an MC in Italy in 1943 while serving with the Parachute Regiment and subsequently had a
    successful career in business.
    On the night of September 15/16 1943, Hargreaves was in command of “B” Company 4th Battalion The Parachute Regiment (4 Para). His orders
    were to capture the Laterza Bridge, some 20 miles north-west of Taranto, which was vital to 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade’s advance from the
    beachhead.
    A long night approach march over difficult terrain was followed by an uphill assault on well-prepared and strongly defended German positions.
    Despite heavy mortar and machine-gun fire, B Company fixed bayonets and the attack, led by Hargreaves, was pressed home with great dash and
    courage.The enemy, driven from its position, abandoned heavy weapons and equipment and sustained considerable casualties. “B” Company lost four
    men in the action. Hargreaves was awarded a Military Cross for his bravery and inspirational leadership.

    Richard Strachan Hargreaves was born at Port Weld, Malaysia, on September 26 1919. His father owned a rubber plantation and had been one of the original officers in the Royal Flying Corps in the First World War.
    The family returned to Cornwall in the 1920s. He and his brother went to Amesbury Preparatory School, Hindhead, where the headmaster had served
    alongside their father in the First World War. Young Richard went on to Dauntsey’s School, Wiltshire. Always known as Dick, he joined the 12th Bn Royal Fusiliers in May 1939. He was commissioned in December but his unit became a reinforcement battalion and, determined to see action, he volunteered to join the Parachute Regiment.
    In May 1943, 4 Para embarked for North Africa. They disembarked at Oran,Algeria, and, after rigorous training, they landed at Taranto on
    September 9 as part of 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade. Hargreaves witnessed the sinking of the minelayer Abdiel in Taranto harbour after it had struck a magnetic mine. It sank within a few minutes with considerable loss of life He and 4 Para fought to the River Sangro and deployed fighting patrols from Casoli, in the Abruzzo region, into the Majella mountain range. In July 1944, they moved up to Rome to practise the airborne assault for Operation Dragoon, the Allied invasion of southern France. On August 15 at 0100 hours, they flew from Rome and jumped near Draguignan, Provence. There was a heavy ground mist and many of the men in Hargreaves’s stick feared that they were jumping into the sea. Hargreaves collected two of his platoons and, having assembled at the battalion rendezvous at 0620 hours, he moved off to capture the high ground overlooking Le Muy. He was hit while trying to carry a wounded American paratrooper back to the British lines. The casualty was shot and killed during the rescue attempt.

    After three weeks in France, 4 Para returned to Italy where Hargreaves was treated for his wounds. The Germans were pulling out of the Peloponnese and it was decided to deploy to Greece and speed their departure.
    In October 1944, elements of 4 Para parachuted in daylight on to Megara airfield, west of Athens. They landed in an olive grove and high winds and large boulders on the ground caused many casualties. Hargreaves commandeered several fishing caiques to get “B” Company into the city quickly.
    After 10 days in Athens, Pompforce was formed. Its main elements were “B” and “C” Companies from 4 Para and two squadrons of the Special Boat
    Service. Pompforce was commanded by Lt Col Lord Jellicoe and its role was to harass the retreating Germans.
    They travelled north in jeeps equipped with Bren guns, blowing up bridges and attacking troop trains until they were recalled by HQ Cairo after the decision was made to leave further pursuit to the Russians.
    In December, Hargreaves left 4 Para for the Staff College at Haifa. At the end of the course, he returned to Greece to take up a posting to 10th Infantry Brigade as brigade major.
    He was demobilised in 1946 and for 12 years he was a main board director of Gallaghers, the tobacco manufacturers. For 10 years, he was chairman of JA Devenish, the West Country brewers. Hargreaves was a City of Westminster councillor for four years and Deputy Lord Mayor in 1977. The following year, he was Master of the Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Blenders Livery Company. He was a special constable from 1958 to 1970 and finished as a chief inspector on the Surrey force.
    While living in Dorset he was a founder member of the Joseph Weld Hospice, responsible for raising £3.5 million and for the design and building of
    the hospice. He was chairman for 12 years and the Prince of Wales became Patron.
    In 2005 he was appointed a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur. He relished his commemorative visits to La Motte and Le Muy, the two towns that he had helped to liberate, and was always deeply touched by the warm welcome he received.
    Dick Hargreaves married, in 1945, Kathleen (Kay) Nightingale who was an officer in the WRNS. She predeceased him and he is survived by their
    three daughters and a son.

    Major Richard Hargreaves, born September 26 1919, died August 10 2019

      1. To be honest Grizzly and possibly due to doing many other things at the time, I missed much of the music on offer during my younger days. Most of what I heard came from a juke box or via Radio Luxembourg.

        Had it not been for stumbling across the following video and being seriously impressed with the acoustic guitar intro, I’d never have known of the lad.

        https://youtu.be/3eaVTnhtUfw

        Although holidays are a thing of the past for me, I reckon I could have a good week’s one playing ‘catch-up’ on YouTube, such is the amount of good stuff on there.

    1. As far bas I know the end date for leaving is the 31st October. If there is no deal on offer that date can be bought forward

  100. So why are remainers so besotted with the EU? my theory is they hate and look down on their fellow countrymen so much that they don’t want them to have any say in their collective future whatsoever.

    1. There’s something to that.
      We were in discussion about the EU and Britain with some friends last week. One had almost nothing positive to say about Britain, blamed us for just about everything wrong in the world, slavery, Israel, you name it. Needless to say, he voted to remain.

    2. My wife and I lunched at The Plough in Coton earlier today. We sat inside in order to avoid the flies and other insects bothering us. At an adjacent table a couple of University academics were rattling on in loud voices with relish about the possibility of a Peoples’ Parliament.

      These two idiots were comparing the relative merits of Jeremy Corbyn, Jo Swinson, Caroline Lucas, Anna Soubry, Harriet Harman and Ken Clarke as their prospective temporary Prime Minister. They concluded that Ken Clarke was the most suitable candidate to restore our country to the EU.

      I sat and listened, wanting for all the world to insult the two of them. At the end I thought what a sad indictment their conversation was on the state of Britain and more to the point, the dire state of a Cambridge education.

      1. Unfortunately it’s what many Cantab ‘intellectuals’ do. The things I sometimes overhear in Côte!

        1. Burgess, MacLean, Philby… it is a Cambridge University tradition for alumni to betray their country.

      3. One of my neighbours has recently moved here from Cambridge. She is a leaver, but felt she had to keep quiet about it in Cambridge. She said the academics were worried about losing “EU money”. When I pointed out that the EU had no money apart from what it got from net contributors like us and then they gave us a bit back and told us what to do with it, she was astonished. She had no idea.

  103. Evening, all. I finally got down to doing some artwork today; first time for a loooooong time! It felt good.

      1. Just playing around, Grizz. I was using watercolours, which isn’t my favourite medium, but meant I could just experiment with washes and dry brush work. A few loose landscapes and some skyscapes.

          1. I forgot to take a sponge with, me, Grizz 🙂 I do have some nice ones for effect when using watercolour, but I ended up with only one pencil and rather too much watercolour! That’s what comes of being in a rush. I think I lost all the photos of my work in the major computer crash I suffered, where the drive died.

      1. I believe Food Standards have found human faeces on some recent specimens. Are they also “finger lickin’ good”?

        1. I have reported here what a Food Inspector told me what he found under all the “meat” on the kebab sword.

          Hundreds of worms chewing away….

      2. Hello J,

        Yes, how did the people in the kebab place know that they were lesbians? Because they were flaunting it in everyone’s faces, perhaps?

        1. Flaunting the kebab?

          Or maybe just drawing attention to themselves like the pair on the bus.

    2. Unlss they were somehow advertising the fact, how would the staff know they were lesbians?

      2. Let’s face the reality: many muslims are deeply uneasy with the concept of unchaperoned/unprotected females in the evenings (or days) – their womenfolk are either in the house or nearby in a burqa.

        1. I suspect that that is a more likely explanation for the “attack”, particularly if they were scantily clad.

        2. Of course muslims are uneasy with the concept of unchaperoned females etc. Other muslims might rape those females….

    5. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6577cbc3f08903f136ae401a8a4d58d748157afa6a4cf1de525c62854c696c85.jpg

      Some of those on “the left” are going to have a very sharp shock in the near future as the real world of islam dawns on them. Briefly, anyway. It is about time that they woke up to what REAL homophobia actually looks like.

      Try being openly gay in an islamic country and see what happens to you. Try it outside of the “Westernised areas” and see what happens really quickly.

      1. I was going to say, “Brain-dead wankers”, but I forgot:

        To be brain dead you once had to have a brain.

        To be a wanker you once had to have something to wank!

        2. My Bro-in-Law always posited that there are two types of people in the world, Wänkers and Liars.

      2. I just can’t believe that those people are so stupid that they don’t understand what Islam proscribes for homosexuals.
        I have never approached any demonstrators like that, but hasn’t anyone ever asked Owen Jones what would happen to him in an Islamic country?

        1. Med förlåt…

          I just can’t believe that those people are so stupid that they don’t understand what Islam proscribes prescribes for homosexuals.

          2. Prescribes in the sense of metes out (a punishment), authorises (being thrown off a high building), etc.

            The practice of homosexuality is proscribed by Islam, i.e. forbidden.

      4. Or, as Douglas Murray once said: ” Gays for Palestine, give me a break, if gays for Palestine were in Palestine, they’d have to move to Israel!

  105. From the DT:

    Rogue landlords who housed tenants in garden sheds were snared after a council flew an infrared plane above homes where suspected migrants resided.

    Oxford City Council deployed an aircraft equipped with thermal imaging technology to identify illegally built structures where people were found living in “appalling” conditions.

    The aircraft uses a sensor to detect high heat emissions from buildings that have not been “officially mapped” on the Ordnance Survey Mastermap produced by the council.The sheds, which were rented out for profit, were often constructed without planning permission or building approval.
    Twenty-one sheds have been shut down by the local authority with 31 enforcement notices served on landlords since it began its search in January last year.
    Two landlords have been prosecuted but the council is unable to provide details as their cases are still “in progress”.

    2. West Midlands Plod “discovered” several cannabis factories like that. Only this time they were industrial sized factory units.

    3. I’m sure the illegal immigrants who were occupying them will be found somewhere nice to live.

          2. Words fail me.

            Apart from these. All the gay men the MR and I know ABHOR this strident rainbowisation. They hate it as much as we do.

          3. They have completely hi-jacked rainbows and the word pride, just as they changed the meaning of gay.

          6. Hi Belle.

            Whatever happened to your account yes’day? Did a certain person hijack it for a while?

          7. Hi Peddy,

            What happened .. this is the first I have heard of it .

            Yesterday morning late I had to travel to to Bournemouth to visit my orthodontist again for the all clear .

          8. One or two remarkable comments calling for a 2nd refo re Brexit were made under your av. They were not written in your style so we concluded that your ol’ man was having a go.

            Glad you got the all clear from the dentist – the pain will recede gradually.

          9. Horrid things, dentists, I had my check up yesterday
            and made it clear that nothing was wrong before he
            did his counting of teeth. Mind you he wants me to
            see the hygienist and she is quite brutal .

          11. No I didn’t but if she uses her poking things near my
            gums I shall bite her fingers ( accidently of course ).
            Wretched people in that surgery,horrid .

          13. No, my Irish dentist Dominic was a delight and the
            hygienist very gentle but they both left ( not together)
            he on his boat somewhere retiring at 52 years of age
            and she just moved elsewhere.
            the current ones are not as nice as previous,
            I did know one dentist who pulled teeth out when when
            the patient was screaming due to the pain relief injection
            not working and everyone in the waiting room hearing but that
            was eons ago and very rare – I hope .

          22. Anything you would do with any other friend. They are excellent company, incredibly intelligent, and more trustworthy that many so-called ‘normal’ people. They never exploit their sexuality and if they didn’t tell you, you would never know.

          24. ‘Evening, George, why, in an article about the Chesterfied Police Farce supporting Homosexual ‘Pride’, is a picture of a rather scuffy looking plod, together with the Derby Cüntstabulery Badge shewn?

    2. Black shirts are an anathema; we have lost the identity of the British Bobby – the traditional, trustworthy community policeman …

    1. Good night Peddy. I’ve only just popped in here (5 minutes after your post) so quickly skim through today’s posts before I go off to bed myself.

        1. Ah, I caught you just in time. (I hope you weren’t busy brushing your teeth and got toothpaste all over your computer!)

          1. No, the electric t-brush is upstairs. Missy has said goodnight & has curled up on her fave chair.

    1. Yes, Tony, I am. And just to let you know, when I went outside after feeding “Lucky” the cat his breakfast yesterday, I discovered lots of pigeon feathers. As I bent down to pick them up one by one to dispose of them, Lucky lunged forwards and tried to grab them off me with his paws (claws extended). Turned a straightforward job into a game of cat and mouse Elsie.

      1. Yes, Elsie, cats are clever. Yours would make a good P.M. I can see him doing a tar and feather job on the remainers.
        Time for bed. Good night and sleep well before Friday’s Brexit News !!

        1. Do you know something that I don’t, Tony? Since today is now Friday, “tomorrow” means Saturday the 31st (of August). It’s the 31st of October I am looking forward to! Anyhow, good night to you and to all NoTTLers as I am now off to bed.

      1. I know, Bob, that’s why I withdrew the comment. I have a friend coming round tomorrow who may be able to help

  121. I sent this to the RNLI a few days ago:

    I remember when the RNLI fired a man who would set sail in a Force 10 at night, for free, to rescue ANYONE, because they thought his coffee mug was “sexist”

    Reap as you sow.

    RNLI faces ‘perfect storm’ of more lifeboat callouts as funds fall.

    I cannot feel sorry for you and will no longer support you as long as you bring politics into a humane rescue service.

    Today I have response.

    Dear Mr Hunn

    Thank you for taking the time to email us about the standing down of two crewmen at our Whitby lifeboat station last year. I can categorically confirm that the situation is very different from that portrayed in a few one-sided and deliberately misleading/destructive articles in the media. The Daily Mail article, in particular, was typically totally unfair, inaccurate and above all, very much one-sided and unbalanced, with the sole intention of selling their paper and discrediting the RNLI in the process.

    The decision to stand down members of the Whitby lifeboat crew is not ‘political correctness gone mad’, as some media articles have suggested. We hold the bravery of our volunteer lifeboat crews in the highest esteem, and this is not a decision that we would take lightly under any circumstances. One of the difficult things about working for an institution like this is that there are times when we cannot, for legal reasons, come out and give our side of the story. This is one of those, and as a result the public have been given a one-sided and sensationalised version in the media. And reading some of the media reports, we can understand how you feel. What we will say, though, is that sadly this goes far beyond ‘banter’, or indeed acceptable behaviour.

    A lifeboat crewroom is a semi-public space that is used by a variety of people, young and old, male and female. At times, the crew will often bring survivors into the crewroom too, to warm up or recover after their experiences on the water. The mugs were absolutely not jokey ‘saucy seaside mugs’, as they were portrayed in the media. They carried graphic hard-core sexual images and were being openly used within the lifeboat station crew room. This was compounded by associated social media activity of a sexual nature, directed at a RNLI colleague. This well-loved organisation cannot overlook this, and nor
    would the public at large wish us to do so. It is certainly not a trivial
    matter, and this is something that we take very seriously.

    We have been asked why we did not reprimand the men before standing them down. We did. We discussed the fact that this is unacceptable behaviour with them, but a few of the crew refused to accept that – so for the sake of the Institution, our reputation and our future, we had to do what we did.

    We absolutely recognise that the crew members are ordinary people who do, and have done, remarkable things to keep people safe. But we equally believe that it is up to every one of us to conduct ourselves as members of the RNLI to the highest levels of probity, so that the people of the UK and Ireland can feel genuinely proud of supporting the charity, and our lifeboat crew must play their part in this.

    The lifeboat station should be an environment where people can expect to be treated with dignity and respect. We cannot allow inappropriate behaviour in what should be a safe and inclusive environment, and there will rightly be serious consequences for anybody who demonstrates this behaviour within the RNLI. By challenging this, we are standing up for the thousands of volunteers, both male and female, who are committed to doing the right thing as they operate our 238 lifeboat stations, saving lives at sea around the clock, 365 days of the year. Our dedicated volunteers represent the values and principles of our organisation and we absolutely cannot allow any behaviour that brings the work of the RNLI and our people into disrepute.

    The RNLI is an organisation that is fundamentally decent; where people respect each other; and where we all go out of our way to help others in need. These values are timeless and they and not negotiable. They define the nature of the RNLI. We are not perfect; we have not got everything right, and we try to learn from our mistakes. But at the same time, we do a priceless job on behalf of the people of these islands. Despite the senseless and destructive articles in the media, we are carrying on today doing the thing that we do best – saving lives at sea. And we will carry on doing that as long as there is a need for us around the coast. That is a job that we all take immensely seriously.

    I do hope that in time, when the dust has settled, that you will come to see this not as rampant bureaucracy running wild, but as a necessary response to unacceptable behaviour in order to protect the standing and the reputation of this great organisation.

    Very best wishes
    Adrian Boyd
    Supporter Care Department
    RNLI
    West Quay Road
    Poole
    Dorset, BH15 1HZ

    Tel; 0300 300 9990
    Email; adrian_boyd@rnli.org.uk

    1. They don’t understand. They did not know how to handle the situation, except by ticking boxes.

    3. Mr Boyd’s second paragraph states that “there are times when we cannot, for legal reasons, come out and give our side of the story”. Yet in the very next – and subsequent – paragraph(s) Mr Boyd does “come out” and give his side of the story. What has changed since the original sacking? Did the sacked men appeal? And, if so, why would the RNLI be unable to give their side of the story when the sacked men did just that by speaking to the Daily Mail? Can Bill Thomas shed any light on this?

        1. Please direct his attention to my post when he wakes up then, Peddy. Thanks in advance!

      2. Thank you Elsie, I really have no idea how to handle any possible response. Yours was the self-same thought I had but was there then a ‘D’ notice preventing anyone from a robust response.

        Sounds very flaky to me and I shall not be supporting them in the future.

        1. I thought that “D” notices were only issued by the Government of the day in matters of National Security, which clearly sexy/obscene tea mugs are definitely not.

      4. “They carried graphic hard-core sexual images and were being openly used
        within the lifeboat station crew room. This was compounded by
        associated social media activity of a sexual nature, directed at a RNLI
        colleague”
        This bit sounds a little more than “sexist mugs” if a particular collegue was being victimised. This may be why they didn’t give the other side of the story – to protect that colleague.

    4. There’s been a couple of times when I knew the facts of an event, where the newspaper story bore absolutely no relationship to the reality, but were sensationalised beyond belief, so this explanation rings true to me.

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