689 thoughts on “Thursday 3 October: Party cheer at Boris Johnson’s embrace of capitalism and a quick Brexit”

    1. A red dawn. I hope it’s not presaging Corbyn becoming caretaker PM. A caretaker, certainly, that’s about his level.

      2. Good morning, Korky. Sorry, but I disagree – he’s not a patch on Derek Guyler from “Please Sir!”

  2. Morning everyone. I note that many of us (as well as the blog itself) have had the number of comments and upvotes removed from our profiles overnight. This is nothing to me personally but I seem to remember Hatman mentioning this phenomena a few weeks ago and saying it was hostile action and though he specified some negative consequences I cannot for the life of me remember them.

    Any information welcome!

    1. Good morning, Minty. I was rather surprised to see yesterday’s comment count was only 50 when I logged on this morning, but scrolling down showed this to be incorrect. A look at the Analytics page, visible to moderators, shows a comment count of zero for two recent days. I very much doubt that it’s ‘hostile action’ – more likely that Disqus is broken. Again…

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/621455f90cb2ddfe1b70c88b3e904fa456eb6fb095f1e8e1ce3cc6c300d89242.png

      3. Good morning, yes it says no comments on lots
        of sites including a small American site I visit,
        even the moderators comment count is null.
        I believe disqus was doing maintenance work last night.

        1. Morning. A quick trawl around other sites using Disqus shows the same issue. It appears that the comment count is only including the comments on the ‘first page’ – i.e. down to the first ‘load more comments’ button.

    2. I remember Hatman’s warning about an autobot that removed upvotes but didn’t pay much attention to the specifics. Hatman thought that the objective of the autobot was to wither the overall upvote count of anyone suspected of being ‘right wing’ and, over the long term, curtail their credibility on any site they visited. Truly pathetic.

      I visited one of Hatman’s sites and thereafter noticed that my upvote total went down by anything between 30 to 80 each time I posted on NoTTL. A week or two later, I ran CCleaner and the autobot disappeared.

      Geoff’s observations just below seem to be a more plausible explanation of Disqus’ current inability to count proper.

          1. And the registry cleaner is very useful, especially when cleaning out slow computers of non-savvy relatives.

    4. ‘Morning, Minty, when I opened the site just now and entered my contribution, I noted that there were 73 comments and it was sorted by ‘Best’. As I prefer to read in chronological order, I selected ‘Oldest’ and refreshed. Now there are only 68 contributions!

      I see Geoff’s on the case.

  3. Good Morning, all

    SIR – Having read the Supreme Court judgment on prorogation, I took the advice of Juliet Samuel (Comment, September 28) and read the Policy Exchange publication with the critique by Professor John Finnis.

    He demonstrates that the judgment is “through and through political” and that, contrary to previous judgments by the Supreme Court, it converts non-justiciable conventions into justiciable ones by the invention of new rules.

    I hope many other lay people will take Juliet Samuel’s advice, because studying Finnis will confirm in constitutional terms what many had already suspected – that 11 Remainers used their position to injure a Government seeking to give effect to the people’s decision to leave the EU.

    It was also interesting to note, in the Supreme Court’s narrative of parliamentary proceedings since the 2016 referendum, that it failed to mention the Speaker’s actions that enabled a Remain majority to take control of Government negotiations with the EU – unprecedented actions by him and the legislature, of greater constitutional importance than a prorogation that the court admitted would (because of its timetable allowing for party conferences) lose Parliament only seven days of sittings.

    Jim Sillars
    Edinburgh

    It so refreshing to read this to the background noise of Ian Blackford on the Today programme.

    1. SIR – Any future government will now have to legislate to clip the wings of the judiciary to prevent similar judicial interference in political decisions.

      John Earl
      London SW14

    2. Blackford seems to be on the BBC’s speed-dial. It suits their purpose, of course, in their never-ending opposition to a clear ‘Leave’ majority in the referendum. When politics is back on an even keel again and we have a government with a working majority, the abolition of the licence fee must be at the top of the to-do list. It is no good insisting that the daily breaches of the BBC’s Charter must cease as we know that it is unenforceable, and anyway they will not take a blind bit of notice. The only way now to bring their blatant bias in news and current affairs to an end is to make them directly accountable to viewers and listeners by means of subscription. This could be regarded as a kind of referendum on their performance, as well as an end to the damage they have done over the years, but in particular since June 2016. What a delicious irony that would be. And they would have no one to blame but themselves for their poisonous lefty bias.

      ‘Morning, Citroen.

      1. Good morning, Hugh. Here are the UK’s top priorities for the government to tackle:

        (1) Get us out of the EU with a clean break on October the 31st.

        (2) Hold a General Election to give Boris a good majority in the House of Commons.

        (3) Drain the swamp (which used to mean the MSM mainly, but now includes the Judiciary and a bonfire of the Quangos).

        (4) Deal firmly with those pesky “deranged Methodists”. This cannot be done until after the first three have been completed.

  4. Seeing racism everywhere is not OK. Spiked. 3 October 2019.

    The biggest white-supremacist protest in recent decades, in Charlottesville, Virginia, attracted only a few hundred people. Richard Spencer, the most prominent figure in the white supremacist movement, has 77,000 followers on Twitter (and presumably not all of them subscribe to his views). And the claim that the OK symbol is white supremacist started off as a joke, on an internet message board, intended to troll self-styled lefties.

    So who is artificially inflating this movement’s strength? Who is empowering it? Oddly enough, it is the very people who are dedicated to opposing it.

    White Supremacist as used here might well stand in for Far-Right that ephemeral grouping forever cited by the MSM that has no actual presence or membership. No problem though, they will simply describe some existing political body or person of the right of centre as such and create their own bogeyman. Why for? Well the neoliberal narrative is failing and they need an enemy to keep up its appearance with the people and it permits the demonization of opposition to their policies. It also allows them to justify the use of violence and propaganda against political opponents such as Farage or Tommy Robinson; organise mobs (Antifa, ADL, Hate not Hope) to attend their meetings and provoke a backlash; dismiss people from employment for having the wrong opinions while supporting the appointment of supporters. Use the police to intimidate dissenters with threats of prosecution for expressing their views and last but not least the MSM itself, a vast purveyor of lies and propaganda at almost every level with the not inconsiderable advantage of preventing any countervailing narrative, i.e. the truth, being voiced.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/10/03/seeing-racism-everywhere-is-not-ok/

  5. Freddie rides again……!!

    SIR – Among the many casualties of the litany of incompetence befalling our country we must now count our national language and the meaning of words. We are told that “no deal” must be swept off the table. But “no deal” is not a presence, it is an absence and by definition you cannot abolish an absence.

    The only deals realistically before us are “no deal’ or Michel Barnier’s deal, which he has told us many times is not for variation by so much as a comma. And that deal requires the United Kingdom to live on its knees forever.

    I never cease to be surprised at the number of mediocrities in high office who seek my vote (when I am allowed to have one) to support them in this grovel.

    So please let us have our general election as soon as possible so that we may, with silent votes rather than abusive placards, usher the useless appeasers back to that oblivion for which nature so amply equipped them.

    Frederick Forsyth
    Beaconsfield, Berkshire

    I’m sure Freddie realises that the ‘useless appeasers’ have been put in the catbird seat by Bercow and are not going to allow us to have a General Election until they have finished their appeasing of anyone supporting the EU cause.

      1. Me too. (I hasten to add that I am commenting on Bleausard’s post, and not suggesting that Freddie has squeezed my upper thigh!)

  7. Two things that put me off Boris’s speech yesterday and suggests that he is not a new Trump, his jumping on the climate change scam bandwagon late in the day, just like he did with Brexit and the snide comment about Farage, it brought back memories of Cameron’s stuck up attitude towards Leavers,

    1. Morning Bob. I have not yet made up my mind about Boris’s proposals but suspect some hidden protocols that will make it Mrs Mays Withdrawal Agreement on exposure!

      1. I think you could well be right, he keeps mentioning compromise, how can one compromise on a Surrender Treaty that isn’t leaving the EU.

  8. Morning all

    SIR – Following years of downbeat, visionless torpor, can anyone now doubt the ability of Boris Johnson to enthuse and inspire? A Conservative conference hall with smiling faces welcoming the PM’s unapologetic embrace of free-market capitalism in the face of Corbyn’s Marxist alternative, and his determination to get Brexit done against Corbyn’s prevarication, will surely carry the country.

    Tim Coles
    Carlton, Bedfordshire

    SIR – Boris Johnson delivered the most buttonholing conference speech of any British prime minister since the end of the Second World War.

    He spoke of a supposed democracy where it had become easier for the electorate to dismiss celebrities from junk TV shows than it was to dismiss their own politicians.

    Mr Johnson is entirely correct in pointing the finger at that bourgeoisie shedding crocodile tears for the poor whose squalid hand-to-mouth or underworld existences provide cosmopolitans their lives of Riley.

    Mark Boyle
    Johnstone, Renfrewshire

  9. SIR – If the Duke of Sussex wants to take media pressure off his wife (report, October 2), he should seek less publicity and keep a lower profile.

    M Annabel Burton
    Cheltenham, Gloucestershire

    1. The sad thing is that he is an ambassador for the country. She doesn’t seem to realise that either. Their whole lives are sacrificed to the service of this nation and her people. It’s going to be horrible.

    1. Good morning, Uncle Bill. Mr Lime and I hope you have a happy and productive day. May serious house-buyers descend on you in waves!

  11. This is now beyond a joke…..

    SIR – Would the people who wrote the NHS guidelines that say transgender patients can choose between male or female wards (report, October 2) be happy for a patient with “different genitals” to occupy a bed in a regular single-sex ward next to their 18-year-old daughter or elderly mother?

    If trans patients are to be asked their preferences, are those in neighbouring beds to be asked theirs?

    Barbara Smith
    Stafford

    1. Oh, what a tangled web we (they) weave, Barbara Smith! Walter Scott was ahead of his time.

      ‘Morning, Epi.

      1. You is rite. I had to check; Rabbi Burns was my first thought, but the language sounded too comprehensible; Google was my friend.

    2. Barbara Smith, NO! Haven’t you realised that minorities rule. Please get on message asap.

    3. Given the open all hours bazaar that NHS wards resemble these days I’m surprised there are still separate “Male” and “Female” wards…

  12. Never forget this photograph….plenty of well deserved Mick bashing BTL.

    Leo Varadkar has painted himself into a corner by cynically using the Irish border to stymie Brexit
    LIAM HALLIGAN – 2 OCTOBER 2019 • 8:00PM

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/news/2019/02/10/TELEMMGLPICT000187656664_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqDHhMJdyAdWy12tDbI1cVz3STCLC3r8_kjmzj7JzMqMs.jpeg?imwidth=1240
    The inexperienced leader realised that there were votes to be won through Brit-bashing CREDIT: TWITTER

    The 320-mile Irish land border runs through towns, along rivers and even divides individual farms. Most of the 270 or so crossing points are marked, if at all, by a simple sign or a white line on the road. Since the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, this largely invisible border has replaced the sentry posts and security checks of the Troubles. Nobody wants them back. Yet the Irish frontier has been cynically used in an attempt to stymie the biggest act of democracy in British history.

    Boris Johnson’s “alternative arrangements” for the Irish border didn’t exactly go down well in Dublin yesterday. While the European Union has said that it is open to talks, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the plan as “not promising” and said that it “does not appear to form the basis for an agreement”. On cue, the outrage machine was cranked up.

    Britain’s Brexit impasse owes much to home-grown shortcomings – Theresa May’s weak leadership, venal party politics and an overwhelmingly pro-Remain political and media class. But Dublin has also played a big role.

    Varadkar teamed up with Brussels to adopt a maximalist, ultra-legalistic approach to the Irish border which made a no-deal Brexit far more likely – an outcome that could harm the Irish economy more than that of Britain. He has also imperilled the huge progress in UK-Irish relations since the precious 1998 agreement.

    Soon after the 2016 referendum, under Varadkar’s predecessor Enda Kenny, UK and Irish civil servants set to work, examining Authorised Economic Operator and trusted trader schemes in a low-key, constructive manner, looking to facilitate the cross-border trade vital to communities in the area.

    It was only in June 2017 – when May lost her majority, becoming reliant on the DUP, and Varadkar replaced Kenny – that the Irish border issue became toxic. Brussels saw a chance to raise the political stakes by falsely asserting “the impossibility of avoiding a hard Irish border” unless Britain stayed in the customs union. This would stop the UK cutting global trade deals while compelling us to keep sending Brussels billions of pounds annually under the EU’s common external tariff.

    On taking office, Varadkar vetoed direct UK-Irish co-operation. His poll-ratings went up – there are votes in Brit-bashing and, as leader of a minority Fine Gael government, he needed support. Since then, he has been pressured by Sinn Fein, Fianna Fail and his own deputy, Simon Coveney, to turn the screw even more.

    Now, having gone in so hard at the outset, this inexperienced Taoiseach has little domestic political room for manoeuvre – even though flexibility, loosening the backstop to avoid no deal, would be in Ireland’s interest.

    The UK accounts for €1 billion of the Republic of Ireland’s trade each week and one in 10 jobs. Around 55 per cent of Irish exports of timber and construction materials come to Britain, along with 50 per cent of beef exports. And three-fifths of Irish goods exports use Britain as a “land bridge”, crossing the Irish Sea then travelling by road to southern and eastern UK ports, bound for EU and global markets.

    No country would benefit more from a UK-EU free-trade agreement than the Irish Republic. A no-deal Brexit, meanwhile, poses serious logistics challenges. That’s why John McGrane, head of the Irish Chamber of Commerce, is now “beyond nervous” about no deal.

    The backstop was always a contrived hoax – cooked up by Dublin and Brussels to keep the UK in the customs union. New infrastructure on the Irish border could indeed be targeted by sectarians, but no such infrastructure is needed. Today’s barely visible frontier already copes with different currencies and tax rates.

    But while Johnson has put forward productive and reasonable proposals, Varadkar has painted himself into a corner. As a result, I see almost no possibility of any deal before the crunch EU summit in a fortnight. Brussels will then signal its willingness to grant an extension – why not, given the prospect of £1 billion a month and potentially a second referendum?

    That would leave Johnson with no choice but to confront the Benn Act and the Remainer Parliament that created it. This Brexit impasse, ultimately, will have to be solved not in Dublin or Brussels but closer to home.

    1. There never were “sentry posts and security checks” except in a few places such as Armagh, and Heathrow. There was no “Iron Curtain”. The NI border has always been wide open, even at the worst of times. It has been wide open for 100 years. It is delusional to think that that needs to change or that it will change. People do have a way of ignoring things and the people of Ireland have ignored the border for 100 years, except when claiming subsidies for transporting pigs around roundabouts, of course.
      We do need a boycott on all things Irish. I have already implemented one chez nous.

  13. The pressure does seem to be om the EU now to accept a deal. It will no doubt want to make some changes but a deal is now looking possible. Whether Ireland or Labour and the Lib-Dems will want to try to scupper it remains to be seen. . The constant message though from the EU which has been a big change is them saying they want a deal

      1. They certainly have not got what they wanted. It remains to be seen whether they will accept it and what the full details of the deal are

        1. They have no choice but to accept it, if the don’t
          we’ll leave without a deal and the rest of the world will
          know that we have been more then reasonable unlike
          the EU.
          Husband downloaded the deal from the government
          website this morning and is reading it atm, he pointed
          out free trade is imperative ( written in the agreement )
          but whether they’ll throw toys out of the pram we’ll find out
          soon enough .

          2. Husband says he went to the BBC news clicked
            on it and they said the government documents to
            The EU are available. Husband clicked on them and
            had them printed off the computer.
            They are substantial in content but not a huge amount of
            pages about 8/ 10 pages but that’s it, they can be reasonable
            and accept it but if they don’t we’ll still leaving on the 31st of this month.

          4. My assumption is that this is a modification to the previous offer to the EU but there have been so many I have not a clue as to what the last offer was.

            WE need to see it in a single document

      1. There is no such thing as that. WE will have to have various agreements in place with the EU

          2. BJ,
            Why ? in the main the people are calling for a NO DEAL stance, walk then talk should now be the order of the day.

    3. Germany is just about to go into recession.
      EU problems not helped by 7.5 Billion worth of tariffs hit by the US.
      If I were the EU I’d sort out my own problems and
      accept the UK are leaving by the end of the month .

  14. Fake News? . I’m trying desperately to find some reference to or credibility of this in the MSM before I mention it to any remainer I may encounter, it does appear in several small and/or little known web sites. If its true there surely cannot be a better demonstration of the overweening ambition and arrogance of the EU. ( I know its referring to German Law but . . . . . .)

    https://iotwreport.com/germanys-upper-house-passes-bill-outlawing-burning-or-disparaging-eu-flag-and-anthem/

    1. It was reported by the express a couple of days ago UB,I had a link,look back through my comments
      ‘Morning

      1. It has also been reported by Breitbart , but citing this source along with the Express and DM and other non left/pro-EU sources is only likely to have derision heaped on you by a blinkered remain enthusiasts for being a far right racist bigot Brexshitter ( this has happened).

  16. Boris’s Deal

    I still have not found the full text but it appear to be the last offer made to the EU but with removing the backstop

      1. Isn’t it better than the WA ?

        If it’s free trade for Brits, no customs union, no single market and control over regulations such as fishing, surely that’s an improvement ?

          1. I only read the outline. We’ll have to wait awhile for the full expert analysis.

          2. What outline? All that was released yesterday was a brief outline of the proposals regarding replacing the back stop in NI

  17. Uncle George will have to run through the Boris deal so there’ll probably be a delay until he tells Jean Claude and Verhofywaffle wot to say..

  18. Brussels reacts in FURY as Germany’s Volkswagen shuns Europe and opts for ‘cheaper’ Turkey
    VOLKSWAGEN has come under fire from the European Union for choosing to build a huge new factory in Turkey.

    1. ……but the EU helped fund the move of Ford’s Transit van production from Southampton to Turkey……funny that…. hmmm…. .could it possibly be that the EU are the business of protecting and promoting German industry/jobs but destroying UK industry/jobs?

          2. Especially the ruddy yanks. The EU would go on sweetening their subsidy offer until such point that it was unaffordable to the UK taxpayer. The person to whom you are responding knows SFA about business and finance.

          3. Oh Dolly, that’s not very nice and certainly it doesn’t look as though your car manufacturer was much good as you ended up in a field. Or was that because you’re a very basic low cost economy model ?

            Still, Brits could have played a fun game by bidding up the EU, and then letting them have a really expensive deal.

            Instead of meekly giving in as you want.

          2. Because we are ‘Good Europeans’.
            Unlike those ‘Bad Europeans’ – the French and Germans.

        3. I thought that state intervention in industry was verboten except in France and Germany.😎

  19. The Boris speech was funny, but there were no changes to the progressive policies of before, and I did wonder if Tony wrote it.

  20. Last evening Belle put this up:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/c575df2bb82604c8e3705356823896cb2af0d3f292baa5824439771918f27557.png

    By coincidence I’d read an article (from 2017) earlier in the day re UN Agenda 21 that could have a bearing on Lagarde’s rather sinister message. Now, this article could have been written by an hysterical conspiracy theorist doing an Abbot i.e. adding two and two and getting any number other than 4.
    However, looking around and seeing what’s happening and then joining the dots as we’re advised to do in the article, events are creating a shape that resembles the UN’s plan. The recent attack on meat eating by linking it to climate change, mass immigration, and the construction of huge conurbations e.g. May’s awful idea of building on the agricultural land between Cambridge and Oxford and in my area the ‘Garden Communities’ that will commence the joining of Colchester to Braintree and possibly extending to the Harwich and Clacton-on-Sea areas.

    “Effective execution of Agenda 21 will require a profound reorientation of all human society, unlike anything the world has ever experienced a major shift in the priorities of both governments and individuals and an unprecedented redeployment of human and financial resources. This shift will demand that a concern for the environmental consequences of every human action be integrated into individual and collective decision-making at every level. ” (excerpt, UN Agenda 21)…

    When you analyse Agenda 21, many of the things we see happening around us are pointers: the determination to remove national borders and undermine national sovereignty, the global warming agenda, immigration and unfortunately it appears: depopulation…

    John Key’s government in New Zealand has embraced Agenda 21. There has been a drive to turn Wellington into a super-city by amalgamating a lot of the surrounding area and towns within its city limits. There’s a strategy here and Agenda 21 offers the clues. While Agenda 21 talks about improving health care, when you read the text, you’ll notice this is aimed at mainly younger people and those in the prime of life: productive people.

    One of the more hidden suggestions of Agenda 21 is that medical care for the over 70s be withheld. I did have an older copy of Agenda 21 where this was stated explicitly, it is still referred to elsewhere though. I was talking to a Kiwi recently and he was telling me how the health service in New Zealand refuse to do surgery on the over 70s. Unless it’s very urgent they’re fobbed of with medicines to mask the symptoms. More than a coincidence I think.

    Independence Daily – Human Cattle and Agenda 21

    1. They could start with a Global decision to reduce population growth which is out of control.

      1. Couldn’t agree more. Why oh why don’t those who profess concern for the environment say anything about contraception?

        2. Perhaps the PTB are waiting until ‘old whitey’ has been overwhelmed by the Third World population explosion. Then…

        3. The only people who actually practise contraception are white Westerners. Everywhere and everyone else are contributing to a burgeoning population. Population growth has probably never been as prodigious at any time in the past.
          Do not imagine for a single moment that the UN is doing anything at all that will ever benefit the UK or Europe as we knew it.
          Example: The population of the Democratic Republic of the Congo is over 90m. In 1992 it was 40m. It has more than doubled in less than 30 years.

          1. It’s a similar story in most African countries. Most of the population is under 30, and you seldom see an old person.

    2. I expect Uncle George has had a lot of input into Agenda 21.

      Everything in there is the same as his policies.

    3. Morning KK

      Agenda 21 raised alarm bells when I first read about that a few years ago. They are taking our three score years and ten too literally .
      All very sinister , and now we are reading scare stories about essential drug supplies and the shortages that are anticipated re the Brexit plan .

      In fact I have just Googled Agenda 21 population control and scared myself rigid.. and now we know .. and guess what.. Soros’s name reared his ugly head.

      1. If GS is a driver of this perhaps he can volunteer for euthanasia to show us the way seeing as he’s 89.

    5. Well our GP and the surgeon who operated on my husband on Tuesday must have missed the instruction not to do surgery on the over 70s. In fact, the consultant, when we saw him the first time, said that 15 years ago, that might have been the case, but nowadays,”and rightly so” it was important to keep older people mobile and healthy.

  21. Sustainable Population

    Should we have legislation to define a maximum Sustainable Population in the UK ?

    This would take into account land availability , water resources, ability to produce sufficient food, pollution levels, congestion levels, housing availability of raw resources etc

  23. Ted Baker shares plunge 30% as sales slide

    Another of the endless number of fashion retailers in trouble. The supply still far exceeds demand

  24. The Brook
    by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

    I come from haunts of coot and hern
    I make a sudden sally,
    And sparkle out among the fern,
    To bicker down a valley.

    By thirty hills I hurry down,
    Or slip between the ridges,
    By twenty thorps, a little town,
    And half a hundred bridges.

    Till last by Philip’s farm I flow
    To join the brimming river,
    For men may come and men may go,
    But I go on for ever.

    I chatter over stony ways,
    In little sharps and trebles,
    I bubble into eddying bays,
    I babble on the pebbles.

    With many a curve my banks I fret
    By many a field and fallow,
    And many a fairy foreland set
    With willow-weed and mallow.

    I chatter, chatter, as I flow
    To join the brimming river,
    For men may come and men may go,
    But I go on for ever.

    I wind about, and in and out,
    With here a blossom sailing,
    And here and there a lusty trout,
    And here and there a grayling,

    And here and there a foamy flake
    Upon me, as I travel
    With many a silvery waterbreak
    Above the golden gravel,

    And draw them all along, and flow
    To join the brimming river,
    For men may come and men may go,
    But I go on for ever.

    I steal by lawns and grassy plots,
    I slide by hazel covers ;
    I move the sweet forget-me-nots
    That grow for happy lovers.

    I slip, I slide, I gloom, I glance,
    Among my skimming swallows ;
    I make the netted sunbeam dance
    Against my sandy shallows.

    I murmur under moon and stars
    In brambly wildernesses ;
    I linger by my shingly bars ;
    I loiter round my cresses ;

    And out again I curve and flow
    To join the brimming river,
    For men may come and men may go,
    But I go on for ever.

    (National poetry day)

    1. God of our fathers, known of old,
      Lord of our far-flung battle-line,
      Beneath whose awful Hand we hold
      Dominion over palm and pine—
      Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
      Lest we forget—lest we forget!

      The tumult and the shouting dies;
      The Captains and the Kings depart:
      Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
      An humble and a contrite heart.
      Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
      Lest we forget—lest we forget!

      Far-called, our navies melt away;
      On dune and headland sinks the fire:
      Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
      Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
      Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
      Lest we forget—lest we forget!

      If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
      Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe,
      Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
      Or lesser breeds without the Law—
      Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
      Lest we forget—lest we forget!

      For heathen heart that puts her trust
      In reeking tube and iron shard,
      All valiant dust that builds on dust,
      And guarding, calls not Thee to guard,
      For frantic boast and foolish word—
      Thy mercy on Thy People, Lord!

      Kipling,1897

  25. ‘Morning All

    This is the most dangerous and distubing thing I have seen for some time Inshallah

    https://twitter.com/CindersWoody/status/1179190257666932736
    Islam is expert at using our Democracy and rule of law to destroy those two pillars of our society,they are useful tools to use for our eventual destruction.
    The other day I watched the Sherrifs and saw yet another scene that is becoming a common theme on these programs,High Court officers attempting to enforce a writ on another dodgy Moslem business,it followed a regular patten
    “wrong address mate”
    “no one of that name here”
    “different company”
    But the officers had already entered the office and photographed all the evidence they needed(subsequently vanished)
    Then the threats began,when that didn’t work a phone call was made and hey presto a gang of thugs is called up and the threats get serious,the police are summoned (taking forever to appear)
    When they eventually arrive the worst offenders slope off their threats unpunished and the business owner realising he has lost this one and his vehicles will be seized pays the judgement.In cash,cash that;s been nowhere near our tax system.
    So to paraphrase the Monty Python sketch “What has Islam in the UK ever done for us”
    Apart from rampant corruption,a large part of the heroin trade,mass murder of our citizens,mass rape of our children,FGM etc etc.
    Demographics are destiny,we pay for the incomers to outbreed us,I see no outcome for my descendants in a few generations but conversion,the slave block or the Janissaries
    I despair

    1. Morning Rik

      Viewing the the lack of enthusiasm re the empty seats in Doha , and the miserable scatterings of Arabs who are present , the world could become the dullest most miserable place to live without sport, music, theatre, art , laughter, participation of any sort , applauding, pleasures, paucity of spirit and drabness of human experience .. as they either live in extravagant dwellings or insure many are living in poverty and warzones forever .

      Iran is just a small example .

      1. Phrases such as, “We went out on the town in Bradford, painted it red, and really whooped it up in the night clubs”, will drop out of use.

  28. A woman goes into Bass Pro Shop to buy a rod and reel for her grandson’s birthday.

    She doesn’t know which one to get so she just grabs one and goes over to the counter.

    A Bass Pro Shop associate is standing there wearing dark shades.

    She says, ”Excuse me, sir. Can you tell me anything about this rod and reel?”

    He says, ”Ma’am, I’m completely blind; but if you’ll drop it on the counter, I can tell you everything from the sound it makes.”

    She doesn’t believe him but drops it on the counter anyway.

    He says,”That’s a six-foot Shakespeare graphite rod with a Zebco 404 reel and 10lb. test line. It’s a good all-round combination and it’s on sale this week for only $20.00.”

    She says, ”It’s amazing that you can tell all that just by the sound of it dropping on the counter. I’ll take it!”

    As she opens her purse, her credit card drops on the floor.

    ”Oh, that sounds like a Master Card,” he says.

    She bends down to pick it up and accidentally breaks wind.

    At first, she is really embarrassed, but then realizes there is no way the blind clerk could tell it was she who tooted.

    Being blind, he wouldn’t know that she was the only person around. The man rings up the sale and says, ”That’ll be $34.50 please.”

    The woman is totally confused by this and asks, ”Didn’t you tell me the rod and reel were on sale for $20.00? How did you get $34.50?”

    He replies, ”Yes, Ma’am. The rod and reel is $20.00, but the Duck Call is $11.00 and the Bear Repellent is $3.50″

  29. “Others in the group”

    A teenager has been warned by a judge that he is at risk of going to

    custody after he admitted his part in “mindless vandalism” that

    desecrated a church.

    Muhammed Mughal, 18, appeared at Bradford Crown Court yesterday charged with entering All Saints Church, Highfield Lane, Keighley, as a trespasser on December 3 last year with intent to do unlawful damage.

    Mughal, of Cliffe Street, Keighley, pleaded guilty to the alternative

    offence of causing criminal damage to the church and that was accepted

    by the prosecution.

    His barrister, Peter Byrne, said the teenager had no previous

    convictions and urged the court to adjourn the case for a pre-sentence

    report from the probation service.

    Mr Byrne conceded that Mughal and the others in the group, who got

    into the building through an insecure fire door, had committed “mindless

    vandalism.”

    https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/17893352.teen-admits-part-39-mindless-vandalism-39-church/
    So he hasn’t named his Moslem buddies then?
    No because coopoerating with the filthy Kuffar police isn’t on the agenda

    1. Plea bargaining is a denial of justice. It has become routine because the prisons are full and the Government(s) are reluctant to build more.
      How would someone feel if their spouse was murdered and the charge was reduced to involuntary manslaughter (or whatever) because the murderer had no previous convictions?

    2. …but didn’t someone who threw bacon at a mosque get life imprisonment, or something?

      ‘Morning, Rik.

    1. Good morning, Peddy. Good gardening weather over here, so I will be off shortly to plant some bulbs around my new arbour, then dig three holes (left, back and right) to take three creepers which I bought a week or so ago.

        1. Well, Peddy, they weren’t brothel creepers! In fact, two clematis and a Black-eyed Susan.

          2. Good grief, man, you have now forced me to go outside and look.

            Back, now. They are both Heracleifolia Stans. (I hasten to add that I bought them all at my local garden centre, and did not pinch them from Stan’s allotment!)

  31. “The road to a greener future seems paved with rinsed yoghurt pots that
    no one knows what to do with and I grow weary of being guilted,
    particularly by people who only recently learned to tie their own
    shoelaces. A couple of months ago I ran the gauntlet of a junior school
    ‘save our planet’ demo. I’d have liked to stop and talk to them about my
    alleged role in destroying the oceans, but I haven’t been DBS vetted so
    I thought it best not to linger.”

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/young-recycling-zealots-are-talking-rubbish/
    Amusing vignette,we used to recyle better

  32. There once was a girl called Alice
    Who pee’d in the Vatican Palace
    It wasn’t dire need
    That prompted the deed
    But sheer Presbyterian malice
    #NationalPoetryDay

  34. Rod Liddle on fine form,I laffed,remember to read the whole article tapping rapidly on the esc key as the page loads defeats the vpaywall

    “I crossed the road and stood directly outside the shop window with my

    arms outstretched, mouthing at those inside: ‘Where’s my book? Where’s

    my book?’ Six weeks previously I had wandered into the shop to see if

    they were stocking The Great Betrayal: they weren’t. And when I

    asked the lady behind the till she became somewhat evasive. This time,

    after watching me standing there like a loon in the rain, the same woman

    came forward and opened the door. ‘I’m sorry, Rod,’ she said, ‘but I

    don’t stock political books.’

    ‘But…’ I began pointing to the large array of political books in her

    window. ‘Apart from those dealing with feminism, the environment,

    climate change and gender issues,’ she replied. I said wasn’t it a pity

    that a book which was written 150 metres from her shop, which quoted

    local people and had reached number four in the Sunday Times

    bestseller list, couldn’t find room among the interesting tracts about

    why maths is racist and how we’re all going to burn to a crisp very

    soon, but our conversation was cut short.

    Another woman, with long straggly hair and a face like the blade of a

    freshly sharpened hatchet, got up from her chair and said, ‘This is a

    private meeting, goodbye’, and slammed the door in my face — and that

    was that. Community justice in action. A pity. The first woman seemed a

    rather likeable soul, to be honest, and yet still captured by the

    totalitarian impulses of the liberal left.”

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/sorry-sir-we-only-stock-books-we-agree-with/

  35. Mr Redwood says……………………………

    The UK offer for talks
    By JOHNREDWOOD | Published: OCTOBER 3, 2019
    The Prime Minister’s letter yesterday to Mr Juncker offered sustained talks for a new Agreement in the next few days, and proposed a way through the difficulty of the Irish backstop.

    It also said something more significant that has enjoyed scant attention. It said “the backstop acted as a bridge to a proposed future relationship with the EU in which the UK would be closely integrated with EU customs arrangements and would align with EU law in many areas. That future relationship is not the goal of the current UK government. The government intends that the future relationship should be based on a Free Trade Agreement in which the UK takes control of its own regulatory affairs and trade policy”

    The government seeks a major rewrite of the Political declaration to reflect this different future relationship. It leaves open the other issues surrounding the existing Withdrawal Agreement, which would need to be changed to avoid its provisions stifling the intent of a genuine Brexit with a possible Free Trade Agreement for the future relationship.

    The government is right that the most objectionable feature of the old Withdrawal Agreement is the way the Irish situation is used to lock the UK into large areas of EU law for the future, alongside the close subservient relationship envisaged. There is a long way to go to get an Agreement which does allow a proper Brexit, but the very different approach to where we wish to go is most welcome. I have urged successive governments to just table a Free Trade Agreement and then leave, with GATT 24 allowing tariff free trade on departure if the EU agrees to such talks.

    Posted in Uncategorized | 9 Resp

  36. Nicked comment puts politicians to the sword

    “Crap politicians…I was listening to Dale last night and he was speaking to a
    Finnish Green MEP about Boris’s letter. She hadn’t read it but felt able to
    opine and hold forth in a negative way about it. Credit to Dale, he kept asking
    her how she could discuss on the letter when she hadn’t read it. She said he
    was being challenging – naturally Dale said that of course he was, how can you
    come on here to talk about the letter
    when you haven’t bothered to read it. Green MEP was clearly not used to being
    taken to task in the most basic way. Very satisfying.
    Then another politician came on who hadn’t read the letter, I
    can’t remember who, I wasn’t taking notes. Dale was becoming exasperated. Finally,
    the LibDm Edinburgh MP came on. Dale pleaded for her to confirm that she had read
    the letter. Of course she hadn’t, but had been “briefed”.
    These people are complacent and lazy. It took me five minutes
    read it and figure out an outline of what was going on. Five minutes. These are
    professional bloody politicians emoting and opining on our mass media and they
    can’t be arsed to make even the most perfunctory effort to do their jobs
    properly. They are contemptible.”

    2. I heard it … she was Vice-President of something in Brussels … she was an ignorant, prejudiced, Green slimebag … Iain Dale is rather good at showing such people up.

    4. It didn’t say ‘we’re cancelling Brexit so of course they didn’t read it.

      Politicians are not clever people. They’re not somehow magically competent at international affairs. They’re just the winners of a popularity contest. In most cases, a rigged one.

    1. Well thats criminal damage. It seems unlikely they could have done that without being seen and or being on CCTV

  40. If this is accurate then The Brexit Party it is

    The United Kingdom is to be split until at least 2026, more likely 2030

    The UK will not leave the Single Market and Customs Union until at least 01 Jan 2022, more likely 2024

    The six counties of Northern Ireland will then in effect stay in the EU Single Market for four further years

    Northern Ireland will, however, be outside the EU’s Customs Union, but only after the Transition Period

    The UK as a whole will enter a ‘Transition Period’ on 01 Nov 2019 – under EU laws but with no say over them

    This Transition Period will last until at least 01 Jan 2022, and most probably until at least 01 Jan 2024

    At the end of the Transition Period Great Britain will finally be free, but Northern Ireland will not

    Positive: UK Government no longer intends to ‘align closely’ with EU laws after the end of the Transition Period

    https://facts4eu.org/news/2019_oct_boris_plan#

          2. I didn’t see any upvotes, either for you NtN or for Ogga, so I have given one to each of you – it seems to have registered.

    3. “If this is accurate”. Indeed, Rik. My problem is that I no longer know who to believe. And my attitude of waiting until November the 1st to see if I can really trust Boris is that if he leaves with a “clean” Brexit which in fact turns out to be not that at all, it will then be far too late to do anything about it.

      1. Morning EB,
        Precisely, the pen is mightier than the sword, the peoples are leaving far to much to chance on a joker.
        Future generations won’t be laughing that is a certainty.

    4. That seems to be from the NI alternative to back stop document and seems to be specific to NI. but until we see the full document that covers NI and the rest of the UK wee dont really know. At present people are just making assumption

    5. Doesn’t this apply to NI only?
      NI voted tor Remain, so it would be up to Stormont to make the ultimate decision.
      The same applies to Scotland and Wales if they choose to do so.
      The three smaller UK countries need to grow up and take responsibility for their decisions.

    6. Just like the Mickey Mouse so called supreme court, the EU have no legal legitimacy, and as yet, no military power to enforce their illegitimate ‘laws’ on us. We’ve been confidence tricked for our entire membership captivity in the EEC / EU.

    3. The Great Repeal bill was enacted into UK lw and become effective once we leave the EU. It makes a nonsense of the Lib-Dems & Labours claim that all environmental and workers rights legislation will be torn up

        1. Afternoon Is,
          To my mind it matters little because a great many of the electorate put party first regardless, and many check the parties manifesto’s then go for the best of the worst.

        2. Yep,they’ve always ‘whispered’ their true intentions of an empire, then followed that up with such interminable ‘shouted from the rooftops’ denials of the ‘whispers’ that anyone mentioning the ‘whispers’ is immediately branded a conspiracy theorist. Of course, not many had the recall or access to recordings of the ‘whispers’, so effectively they could ‘hide their true intentions in plain sight’.

  43. Yesterday someone posted something regarding the ridiculous over-publicity that the Great Thunderbug gets compared to an unknown 25 year old Dutch engineering student drop-out who has devised a nifty way of clearing up plastic in the oceans.

    Here is more about his scheme which sounds promising in the medium to long term.

    Ocean cleanup device successfully collects plastic for first time
    https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/ee18e6b7288f7419c5db09ac3fb9aa961c93c1ac/0_97_2000_1200/master/2000.jpg?width=940&quality=85&auto=format&fit=max&s=2d78f130370de4e10303072b0727ed3f
    The floating boom skims up waste ranging in size from a discarded net and a car wheel complete with tire to chips of plastic with diameters as small as 1 millimetre.

    https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/oct/03/ocean-cleanup-device-successfully-collects-plastic-for-first-time

    4. Looks the same as the chain of floats that have been used for some years, and are patented, for containing oil spills.

    1. Bollocks to Mr Verhofstadt is a Silly Sausage!

      (Sorry, but I had to use my strongest language, hence the change from B to S S.)

    1. Fingers crossed.
      Have we heard what is happening over fishing, the armed forces, open border and subjugation to the ECJ?

        1. Will he apologise to The Joker fans like Monsieur Trudeau has done to people of a different hue?

    2. Probably not that easy to fool and it could also result in people being kidnapped in some cases

        5. It is a vain hope that those responsible will be provided with buckets and suitable materials to get it all off.

          1. It’s apparently a water-based colouring agent, so should disappear with the next rain.

    2. Extinction Rebellion ‘lose control of fake blood hose’

      A Met Police spokesman said three men and one woman had been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.

    3. If they are that concerned about the evils of capitalism why don’t they refuse to take welfare payments?

    4. Seriously? Anyone can drive up to a government building and start spraying some unknown substance over the building without the police intervening,

      Just wait until Putin sees this, it will be more than a perfume bottle that the Russians use next time.

    5. They need to be locked up and made to watch videos demolishing their climate emergency arguments.

    6. Good God. Still, there will be plenty of CCTV footage to identify the perps, won’t there, and a prosecution will soon follow.

      They should e made to clean it off, bl..dy vandals.

    7. That looks like a real fire appliance. If so was it nicked??

      Edit: Just seen Rik’s post below.

  49. I have yet to see the full text or any considered forensic analysis of Boris’ latest proposal to Brussels. Just for starters, it doesn’t appear to do anything to reverse Hammond’s gift of £40+billion of value in the EIB plus beaucoup contingent liabilities or the donation of our Armed Forces, Intelligence Gathering, Five-Eye membership (which surely would be cancelled by the USA) etc., etc., and much else to the EU.

    If Gina Miller hasn’t filed a legal action seeking to stop the proposal in its tracks by breakfast time on Monday, we will know that it is a lousy deal for the UK.

    1. I will always pay heed to John Redwood’s assessment of WA/PD matters ahead of my embedded cynicism……perhaps

      BTL@DTletters

      Sharon Jagger 3 Oct 2019 7:41AM
      This is interesting!

      “The UK offer for talks

      By JOHNREDWOOD | Published: OCTOBER 3, 2019

      The Prime Minister’s letter yesterday to Mr Juncker offered sustained talks for a new Agreement in the next few days, and proposed a way through the difficulty of the Irish backstop.

      It also said something more significant that has enjoyed scant attention. It said “the backstop acted as a bridge to a proposed future relationship with the EU in which the UK would be closely integrated with EU customs arrangements and would align with EU law in many areas. That future relationship is not the goal of the current UK government. The government intends that the future relationship should be based on a Free Trade Agreement in which the UK takes control of its own regulatory affairs and trade policy”

      The government seeks a major rewrite of the Political declaration to reflect this different future relationship. It leaves open the other issues surrounding the existing Withdrawal Agreement, which would need to be changed to avoid its provisions stifling the intent of a genuine Brexit with a possible Free Trade Agreement for the future relationship.

      The government is right that the most objectionable feature of the old Withdrawal Agreement is the way the Irish situation is used to lock the UK into large areas of EU law for the future, alongside the close subservient relationship envisaged. There is a long way to go to get an Agreement which does allow a proper Brexit, but the very different approach to where we wish to go is most welcome. I have urged successive governments to just table a Free Trade Agreement and then leave, with GATT 24 allowing tariff free trade on departure if the EU agrees to such talks.“

      1. Hi Z, that provides some comfort at least. I am surprised that the EU haven’t picked on that and trotted out the usual “Nothing can change”.

    1. I’m the woman in Dr Hook’s song – they wrote it after me! (With apologies for a Mother’s Pride marketing slogan.)

  51. The death of civilised debate. Douglas Murray. 5 October 2019.

    Young people growing up in this world are unfairly derided as ‘snowflakes’. But why wouldn’t they grow up to become ultra-cautious? Nearly all the adults are. On issue after issue the adults learned from the public ruin of figures such as Professor Tim Hunt (for the crime of making a mild joke at a conference in South Korea) and simply did a cost benefit analysis. If it has become impossible for men to talk about women then why try doing it? Why not just agree to whatever it is insisted that we have agreed upon since yesterday? If there are only negatives from raising an eyebrow at the latest LGBTQI claim, why not just keep those eyebrows absolutely still? If the cost of trying out ideas is this exponentially high, why risk it? And if the cost of maintaining a truth is greater than the ease of maintaining a lie, don’t be so sure that most people won’t be happy to help sustain a lie.

    Douglas’s description and diagnosis of the present situation is correct insofar as it goes though he makes no mention or provision of the cause of this sickness which is of course Cultural Marxism. Its requirement that blatant lies be accepted as Truth and propaganda as Doctrine has poisoned the Political and Social Narratives beyond redemption and there is no relief in sight. One suspects that only an effusion of blood will see its demise.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/the-death-of-civilised-debate/

  52. Fastest rise in empty homes since recession

    The figure is very suspect and for the definition of Long Term empty they use 6 months which is not sensible Over 12 months would be more sensible. The probably reason for the small increase is the housing market as slowed down so they are not long term empty but just waiting for a sale

  53. Defeat for women in state pension age challenge

    Not a surprise the increase in the state pension age has been phased in over many years and was widely publicised. In fact as the court found the legislation removed an historic discrimination against men

    Equality works two ways you may benefit from it but you may also be disadvantaged by it. You cannot pick and choose

    1. Mrs HJ is a WASPI. I don’t think anyone could seriously dispute the need to equalise the state pension age. What upsets so many of them, and particularly the Waspis, is the fact that their state pension age was raised not once but twice, which for many made retirement planning very difficult.

    2. What the government could do is introduce a flexible state retirement age so if these woman want to retire at 60 they can but with a reduced state pension also for Benefit they would be assumed to be getting the full state pension so hat they cannot claim a reduce pension and then have it topped up with benefits

  54. Why Your Used Shirts Are Destined for the Dump and Not the Recycling Center

    Mixed Fibres mean clothes last longer and are easier to iron . They can be recycled but little investment has been made in it.

    The basics of recycling mixed fibres is natural materials remain solid man made fibre when heated will melt

    An avalanche of worn clothes is landing in landfills as the use of mixed fibres and a lack of recycling technology mean only 1% of clothing is being turned into new garments .

    1. There are natural fibres, man made fibres and synthetic fibress. Most synthetic fibres will melt most man made fibres will not. It is very expensive to recover these fibres and it is not as easy as you think. We used to shred mixed fibres and sold them to be used as stuffing etc.

    3. ♫ “If you go down to the woods today
      You’re stupider than you look
      If I were you, I’d probably stay
      At home with a decent book
      There’s wolves and snakes and petulant bees
      Aggressive ants in swarms round the trees
      And worse, you may end-up as a teddy bear’s picnic” ♫

    4. Meanwhile, over in the Express newspaper:

      https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1184507/us-snow-forecast-nws-winter-weather-warnings-california-oregon-snow-radar-us-weather

      US snow: ‘Historic’ winter SNOW storm hits California, Washington and Oregon – record snow

      Is anyone talking about by his in our news? While Extinction Rebellion are blockading London because of a “climate emergency” ie we’re all going to die of heat, this is being ignored. When farmers weren’t able to harvest crops because of a sudden change from summer to winter without passing autumn, this is the real potential emergency…

      1. That is why they now call it climate change, not global warming!

        I think that they had forty inches of snow in Montana at the weekend, schools were closed on Monday. You will probably find that none of the snowploughs were set up ready for use.

  57. The people’s flag is deepest blue

    Yet we’ll project a different hue

    And for they voted not as told

    Elite’s’ blood dyed in every fold

    Then raise the starry standard high

    Beneath its folds we’ll live and die

    We cowards flinch we traitors sneer

    We’ll keep the blue flag flying here

    It waved above our infants’ gaze

    We’ll tranfix them in Gaia’s haze

    It witnessed many a deed and vow

    We mustn’t change it’s color now

    Raise the starred blue standard high

    Beneath its folds we’ll live and die

    As cowards flinch and traitors sneer

    We’ll keep the blue flag flying here.”

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/03cbfd9e2f99c727db42cace7a027f5f94ec8f12d5226fb930c0dcf7ff96fe7d.jpg

  58. Ouch

    “From where I stand, after a lifetime on the Africa beat, I see that

    many of the political outrages I covered on this continent in our sad

    past are becoming the daily norm in British politics today. I have been

    in several African states that refused to respect the majority of

    voters’ wishes. In all of them, Western nations, together with the

    Bretton Woods institutions, began steps towards imposing sanctions. If

    leaders describe voters as idiots who do not know what they are voting

    for, you might think you are in a past tyranny in Sudan, Nigeria or

    Mugabe’s Zimbabwe. If you promise to cancel a national vote altogether,

    as the Lib Dems have, that puts you in the league of Ethiopia’s Mengistu

    Haile Mariam or Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi.

    Can you imagine the reaction of international donors if the President

    of Malawi stood up at his ruling party’s conference and promised — as

    Labour’s John McDonnell recently did — to ‘reduce average full-time

    working hours to 32 a week — with no loss of pay…’ Even Britain’s

    leftist aid wing DfID would find it hard to justify dishing out cash to a

    regime like that. What would people say if Tanzania’s President John

    Magufuli decided to seize the assets of 2,500 schools, ‘redistribute’

    the cash to his cronies and sling 615,000 kids on to the streets? And

    finally — in Britain, Jeremy Corbyn gets to hang out with the IRA and

    call terrorist groups his ‘friends’. Had he done that in contemporary

    Somalia, US Africa Command forces would probably have taken him out with

    an MQ-9 Reaper firing hellfire missiles. ‘No civilians were injured or

    killed,’ the press release would say.

    It may come as a surprise, but many African political systems today

    would never tolerate the sorts of things that are currently going on in

    the United Kingdom”

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/britain-is-following-in-the-footsteps-of-africas-former-failed-states/

  59. Boris Johnson has just seemingly said that the EU defence arrangements will remain unchanged. Fairly empty house for the debate on his EU plan. Things don’t look too good for a clean Brexit.

      2. Don’t worry Canada and the US will continue to send troops to defend eastern Europe, especially if the trade war duties with the EU kick in

      1. PS. It also underlines why so many people are distrustful of his Brexit intentions.

  60. Brexit LIVE: Furious Corbyn threatens to kick out 20 Labour MPs if they back Brexit deal

  61. Paris stabbing: Police officers knifed outside HQ – several hurt and attacker shot dead

  62. You have to love the Greens for being Green

    Someone from the Green party was banning on about how Boris’s proposal was so unacceptable. She could not answer any specific questions about it that the interviewer put to her. He then asked her if she had even read it and had to admit she had not

    1. You should hear the greens in our Canadian election. No chance of more than a couple of seats so it is no holds barred in promises.

      Carbon free by 2035? Hell no, we are going to backdate it to 1835 and bring back the horse and buggy – well no horses, they fært co2.

        1. But carbon free manure! Well maybe not but it fits their agenda.

          Anyway we have a lot of snowploughs that sit idle during the summer.

      2. Have you not got a bit of a problem with battery powered cars in places like Calgary. Lithium batteries tend to not like those sort of temperatures

        1. Not just out west. Last winter a journalist tried to drive an EV from Toronto to Detroit (maybe six hours), with a manfew topups along the way they managed but drove the last hour or two with heat turned off (only -15ish).

  63. NHS Madness

    So you can now self declare whether you will be more comfortable in a male or female ward. So as Rapist could say he preferred to be in a female ward

    Will it be extended as well to people self declaring themselves as a child?

  65. When the EU crushes Boris’s chaotic Brexit plan, his only way out is no-deal
    SHERELLE JACOBS – DAILY TELEGRAPH COLUMIST – 3 OCTOBER 2019 • 7:00AM

    So, is the PM’s ‘delusional’ offer deliberately designed to fail?

    The strength of the Conservative Party is that it doesn’t know its own weakness. After three years spent on life support, the Government is almost supernaturally resurrecting: Theresa May’s botch-up has become an establishment stitch-up. An extension no longer necessarily spells Boris Johnson’s extinction. And the ease with which the Tories have swapped the sallow benevolence of austerity for the warm glow of Brexit populism has left Corbynistas incredulous.

    Still, the natural party of government seems dangerously close to squandering its recovery in a fit of typical Tory complacency. No 10’s mindboggling proposal for a divorce deal is already a serious communications problem. The PM’s vow in his speech closing Conservative Party conference to deliver Brexit “come what may” has now been lost in the maelstrom of debate about checks on animals and customs borders. His quips comparing Parliament to the pizza wheel of doom were submerged beneath vaporous claptrap about ensuring “renewable democratic consent” in Northern Ireland.

    Boris Johnson thrives on cutting through the Brexit pandemonium with the clarion cry: “the people versus Parliament”. But the very process of seeking a deal with the EU complicates this devillishly simple message. And the PM’s proposal – which involves two borders, and Northern Ireland leaving the customs union, but staying in the single market for agriculture and industrial goods for a period – is monstrously complicated.

    It may well be possible to negotiate a free trade agreement on the basis of the divorce deal that No 10 has proposed. But three years of Tory lies and Brussels doublespeak have bred distrust. The public have acquired a sophisticated sixth sense for can-kicking measures disguised as clever solutions (like keeping Northern Ireland in the single market for four more years).

    The Government’s silence on other problematic aspects of the Withdrawal Agreement has only heightened suspicion. (On thorny issues like fishing and European Investment Bank contributions, we are still none the wiser about its plans.) Nigel Farage was quick to suggest yesterday that Johnson is readying to “reheat” Mrs May’s “dreadful deal”. Many Brexiteers will be minded to agree.

    Let us hope there is an intriguing twist to this story. It is rumoured that the PM has designed his proposal to be rejected by Europe after a few days of phoney talks, because he knows that no deal is his only route to a majority. Johnson understands all too well that if the narrative swings back from establishment conspiracy to Conservative catastrophe, his party will be eviscerated. He also no doubt senses that the Opposition is aching to deploy Brexiteer language against him, with accusations of “betraying” the union.

    And the PM is not the only player in this game who thrives on chaos. Like all bureaucracies, the EU derives its power from never-ending problems, rather than neat solutions. It also exists in a fifth logical dimension where things don’t necessarily work in theory, even if they work in practice. It will therefore almost certainly throw out the PM’s proposal over the next few days, and opt for an extension. Negotiating with the EU is like being waterboarded by a librarian. Its decision to entertain talks with Britain is driven by the box-ticker’s disdain for rule breakers and weakness for passive-agressive vengeance. It will delight in dragging Johnson to Brussels in order to demolish Britain’s offer with slow, pedantic viciousness.

    As Johnson has said himself, if (or rather when) Brussels refuses to budge, no deal is the only alternative. No doubt, the Prime Minister’s 287 colleagues will try to cajole and flatter him into sticking lipstick on the existing Withdrawal Agreement. A lazy hypothesis has also taken root in Westminster that the amorphous grey human matter known as “public opinion” just wants “Brexit done”. Politicians have clearly forgotten how disastrously Theresa May’s deal polled. They also wrongly calculate that they can gaslight Leavers with the small print, deluging debate with arid detail to confuse the public’s gut instinct. It won’t work. Voters know that Brexit should smell like Brexit, not the exhumed Withdrawal Agreement.

    Bogged down by their own dastardly brilliance, “centrist” Tories are blind to the bottom line. Most still do not grasp that they cannot win a majority with the promise of a half-baked Brexit compromise. They can, however, bring about a Leave landslide by signing up to a WTO exit, and agreeing a pact with Nigel Farage. This is not just because exasperated Eurosceptic Tories have one foot out of the door. Life-long Labour voters who want Brexit will never switch sides for the sake of a dubious Tory plan, but they could well rally to the anti-establishment rhetoric of no-deal.

    And then there is the small point that it may well be later rather than sooner that Labour grants Mr Johnson his election. The PM must at all costs avoid being left both neutered by Parliament and clutching an unpopular deal. His popularity may defy the political odds, but he does not so much walk on water as on quicksand.

    1. Let me guess. Lone wolf, big city, to be expected, diversity is our strength.

      Usual Parisian name like Mohammed Ackbar or some such, nice boy, people liked him don’t know what came over him.

  67. Original EastEnders cast member Sandy Ratcliff, 70, died from an accidental overdose alone in her care home, inquest hears

    Back then Eastender’s was watchable now it is a load of badly written and badly acted rubbish

  69. Good morning, all.

    Has anybody else experienced difficulties with their online banking?

    For the last fortnight, I’ve been unable to log in to my bank account. In addition to the normal password and security questions, it’s now necessary to put in a one-time “Strong Customer Authentication Number” which your bank is supposed to send by text message to your mobile phone. A new SCAN is required every time you log-in.

    Problem is, the text message with the SCAN is not coming through despite assurances from my bank that it has been sent. Nobody that I spoke to at the bank could provide any explanation or suggest any solution, so in my frustration I sent an email to my bank’s CEO. It seems to have lit a fire! I’ve received a solicitous call from the bank’s IT people and, hopefully, the problem will soon be solved.

    “Why do we need this SCAN?” I hear you ask. Well, it may come as no surprise to you that it’s down to the feckin’ EUSSR.

    On 14 September 2019, new requirements for authenticating online payments have been introduced in Europe as part of the second Payment Services Directive (PSD2)

    And here’s me wondering why we are still implementing EU Directives when we’re leaving that wretched organisation at the end of this month?

        1. There is always a queue in my local bank for which they appologise.
          Appologies not required ….it means people are using them!

        2. Me too, Peddy.

          EDIT: What I mean is that I check my balance on line and not yours!

          :-))

      3. Well, I reckon that’s you sorted right enough!

        Unfortunately I don’t have a high street bank, nor indeed a high street in which a bank might be situated. To visit my local branch involves a thirty mile round trip to Inverness.

    2. I used online banking earlier this morning, supposedly requiring a one time authenticating number as you describe, but it never came through. However my transaction worked.

      1. Not all have implemented it yet and my understanding is it will not be required for all transaction. For high value transactions it will probably be automatically required but for low value transaction it will probably be using a security algorithm if it spots anything unusual the secure validation will be required

    3. I sympathise with you Duncan. But the answer is that – until November the 1st – we are still a member of the EUSSR and thus have to abide by their edicts. The same applies to low power vacuum cleaners, no subsidies allowed to local Post Offices, same-sex “marriages”, data protection rules, etc, etc. Roll on November the 1st I say.

    4. There are a number of ways this is being done. One requires a Smart phone and an app which needs to be the latest version. You are referring to a text which seems to indicate it is that. Another method is they send a code to your mobile phone which you then need to enter on the log inn screen. A further method is you can do it y phone

      You banks web site should tell you what methods they have available

    6. Morning Duncan The BoS and Natwest send a message by phone immediately with a simple 4 number password to enter to complete the transaction on line. . For Natwest it is to my mobile and BoS allows me to accept it on my landline. At the moment I have no problems with supermarket transactions or, as this morning ,I got my haircut [£5.50] through on my B0S card without needing the extra security number. Perhaps there is a ceiling at which the extra number is required. BT are trying to get my landline acceptable, for text messages but I am resisting that.

      1. Watch out for having your haircuts online, clydesider. Wasn’t it Malta where the EU gave all Maltese bank accounts a “haircut”, i.e. appropriated 10% of their balances?

      2. He is say text which seems to indicate it is a method used with Smart Phones. It requires the latest version of an App in order to work though

      3. HSBC supply you with a little keypad which you use after entering your username, answered a question and then put your pin into this little keypad and press another button and a six-figure code appears that you put into the relevant box and press ‘submit’. It works OK.

        1. Just as well that HSBC do it that way. I dread to think of the need to get my wife to start using phone messaging before she can log on to her mother’s account – assuming that they would text to an overseas number that is.

          Maybe we would need to start using a UK mobile before we received the texts, there again you need a UK credit card to pay for a phone. Haven thought this all the way through have they.

    1. No evidence to support the claim it will harm Ireland’s economy in fact there is no reason it would

      How much detail do they want seems to be more then enough

      It does not put it under the custody of the DUP. It will be decided by the NI Parliament but that is suspended at present so if the NI parliament is not in session it would be put to the people of NI in a referendum

      1. They want more detail because it ensures even more of a delay until they get what they want.

        It’s a gift to Boris as he could say ‘we’re adding detail’ until the 31st.

    2. No, it’s re-writing your old, bad ideas. Oh well then. We’re leaving under WTO terms. Bye bye Guy! We’ll remember to burn you in our celebrations.

    1. I cannot remember the last time that I believed anything that came out of the EU with regards to their real political intentions. It is almost as if they cannot tell the truth about what they intend to do to us all.

          1. Afternoon EE,
            Sorry so late getting back, try Disqus bug report , hold on that
            just come back on 3.15 PM.

  73. King’s Cross station is evacuated as Standard Liege football fans set off flares ahead of the Belgian club’s Europa League clash with Arsenal tonight

    Standard Liege fans are arriving in London ahead of tonight’s game with Arsenal
    Group set off flares and fireworks in King’s Cross tube, sparking evacuation

  74. To my way of thinking our negotiators never go the whole nine yards, always just enough to keep the electorate satisfied, just,but NEVER total
    severance.
    If the boris chap could be satisfied with remaining PM for decades and not
    have aspirations of higher office in brussels then his next & last move should be to get on the horn and inform brussels we have left yesterday
    any further contact will have to be brussels / London & not before the UK
    has a 6 month celebratory / back to reality break.

  78. We have all seen reports of many of our gastarbeiters refusing full time work as 16 hours plus bennies is far more lucrative (tax credits housing bennies etc)
    The calls for an increase of minimum wage are a joke what we need is a major increase of personal allowances to make full time work worthwhile
    Topping up minimum(actually maximum) wages at the likes of Amazon by taxpayers while they offshore profits made in the UK also leaves a sour taste in the mouth

    2. I’ve suggested several times that companies should face an extra tax of 110% of the in-work benefits their employees receive.

  80. The Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894

    By the late 1800s, large cities all around the world were “drowning in horse manure”. In order for these cities to function, they were dependent on thousands of horses for the transport of both people and goods.

    In 1900, there were over 11,000 hansom cabs on the streets of London alone. There were also several thousand horse-drawn buses, each needing 12 horses per day, making a staggering total of over 50,000 horses transporting people around the city each day.

    To add to this, there were yet more horse-drawn carts and drays delivering goods around what was then the largest city in the world.

    This huge number of horses created major problems. The main concern was the large amount of manure left behind on the streets. On average a horse will produce between 15 and 35 pounds of manure per day, so you can imagine the sheer scale of the problem. The manure on London’s streets also attracted huge numbers of flies which then spread typhoid fever and other diseases.

    Each horse also produced around 2 pints of urine per day and to make things worse, the average life expectancy for a working horse was only around 3 years. Horse carcasses therefore also had to be removed from the streets. The bodies were often left to putrefy so the corpses could be more easily sawn into pieces for removal.

    The streets of London were beginning to poison its people.

    But this wasn’t just a British crisis: New York had a population of 100,000 horses producing around 2.5m pounds of manure a day.

    This problem came to a head when in 1894, The Times newspaper predicted… “In 50 years, every street in London will be buried under nine feet of manure.”
    This became known as the ‘Great Horse Manure Crisis of 1894’.

    4. ….. the average life expectancy for a working horse was only around 3 years….
      Hands up all girlie NOTTLers who were traumatised by the death of Ginger.

  81. Just been chatting to chums on a small American site
    I know who have mentioned Disqus reinstating the down votes,
    It’s a pity disqus themselves cannot be down voted for bad service .

    1. Someone has been going to town with downvoting over on the Spectator blogs.
      There are some seriously strange people that comment there…

  83. Why do the British drive on the left?

    There is an historical reason for this; it’s all to do with keeping your sword hand free!
    In the Middle Ages you never knew who you were going to meet when travelling. Most people are right-handed, so if a stranger passed by on the right of you, your right hand would be free to use your sword if required. (Similarly, medieval castle staircases spiral in a clockwise direction going upwards, so the defending soldiers would be able to stab down around the twist but those attacking (going up the stairs) would not.)
    Indeed the ‘keep to the left’ rule goes back even further in time; archaeologists have discovered evidence suggesting that the Romans drove carts and wagons on the left, and it is known that Roman soldiers always marched on the left.
    This ‘rule of the road’ was officially sanctioned in 1300 AD when Pope Boniface VIII declared that all pilgrims travelling to Rome should keep to the left.

    1. That explains why driving on the left is a good idea, but it doesn’t explain why most of the rest of the world drives on the right.

      2. his ‘rule of the road’ was officially sanctioned in 1300 AD when Pope Boniface VIII declared that all pilgrims travelling to Rome should keep to the left.

        This continued until the late 1700s when large wagons became popular for transporting goods. These wagons were drawn by several pairs of horses and had no driver’s seat. Instead, in order to control the horses, the driver sat on the horse at the back left, thus keeping his whip hand free. Sitting on the left however made it difficult to judge the traffic coming the other way, as anyone who has driven a left-hand drive car along the winding lanes of Britain will agree!
        These huge wagons were best suited to the wide open spaces and large distances of Canada and the US, and the first keep-to-the-right law was passed in Pennsylvania in 1792, with many Canadian and US states following suit later.
        In France a decree of 1792 ordered traffic to keep to the “common” right and Napoleon later enforced the rule in all French territories.

      4. A strange fact (backed up by a Shell map of the time) is that until the Anschluss, part of Austria drove on the left.

    2. A more useful question to answer would be ‘why the blithering heck do people not indicate any more and, what can be done to cause them great pain when they disrupt traffic with their arrogance?

    3. Very interesting indeed.
      Also Interestingly enough, I’m doing a Thursday course on
      Iron Age Britain. The long straight Roman roads across England
      were named conquerer roads but what i found interesting was the
      industrial equipment with wheels and carts that predated the
      Romans some with very narrow wheels that could’ve only
      travelled on actual roads, so roads were around before the Romans .
      I found the hill forts interesting too .

      1. Iron Age forts, and anything “ancient” in the landscape, are beautiful places to absorb the past. Standing there looking out over the land, with the breeze blowing and the Sun shining down is so relaxing. Thinking of other eyes seeing the same landscape 2,800 years ago, and the different world that they lived in. That is a morning / afternoon well spent.

        https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/534a52e79116e5d0bb3c5316b45a6dedb7575daaedbeaac03379778f6dca96f9.jpg

        Battlesbury Camp, Wiltshire.

          1. Of course, that snap was taken in the middle of summer. Global warming, doncha know.

          2. Well if Dr Valentina Zharkova is correct that could well be Summer in a couple of year’s time…..

        2. Interestingly enough that image was very similar
          to the hill fort we were speaking of this morning
          but that one was in Wales ( the Welsh/ English border)
          and with no Roman influence. It’s amazing to
          look at our landscape, those chalk drawings in
          Wiltshire too .

        3. “Thinking of other eyes seeing the same landscape 2,800 years ago, and the different world that they lived in.”
          Those bronze drones they had must have been very hard to control.

          1. LOL. I needed to look at that comment for a full 15 seconds before I worked out what the hell you were talking about. 🙂

    1. No-deal Brexit risks people’s safety, says sister of murdered teenager

      Alice was murdered by Arnis Zalkalns, a Latvian man who lived in the UK and had murdered his wife but whose criminal record did not emerge before he killed Alice.

      I’m confused by that logic.
      The girl was murdered in 2014, well before the Brexit referendum, so where exactly does Brexit come into it?
      If we’d not been in the EU, the murderer probably wouldn’t have been here to kill this girl, as he wouldn’t have been a to use freedom of movement to come here.
      I would suggest that not having Brexit risks our safety….

  86. Words from a man with sense –

    “Putin, chairing a session at an energy forum in Moscow,
    said: “I may disappoint you but I don’t share the common excitement
    about the speech by Greta Thunberg.”

    “No one has explained to Greta that the modern world is complex and
    different and … people in Africa or in many Asian countries want to
    live at the same wealth level as in Sweden.”

    Putin said young people who paid attention to environmental issues
    should be supported, adding: “But when someone is using children and
    teenagers in personal interests, it only deserves to be condemned.”

    “I’m sure that Greta is a kind and very sincere girl. But adults must
    do everything not to bring teenagers and children into some extreme
    situations.”

      2. He’s a ruthless, vicious dictator.

        If Bercow had started to interrupt him, he’d find his wife disappeared. Then his children. If he still didn’t come to heel, he’d be the one in the shredder.

        While I have often said I am sick of their childish prattling and wish them hung by their necks, I would much prefer the enemies of democracy lived – so they cna see that we were right and for their smug, sanctimonious little faces screwed up with rage and pain at their utter, abject defeat and sacking.

    1. What’s that on the bin handle?

      A chum had something left on his bin the other day. Not reading it, I took it off and put it in the bin. Apparently we’re supposed toread these council notices busy body tells me.

      I said to the bin man – when the council listens to me, I’ll listen to it. Until then, I’ve a job to go to to pay your salary.

    1. Almost word-for-word what we need in this country now. Especially when he is pointing to those behind him.

  90. I see that the Hindoo Teapot is saying that a majority of people in the UK want to stay in the EUSSR and that moves to LEAVE are “undemocratic”.

    Perhaps he could just p!ss off and try to run his own poxy country.

          2. Of course they won’t. Even if it made sense, the Irish would never vote for a return to the UK.

    2. Just cos they voted against the Lisbon Treaty and then voted for it he thinks we’re the same.

      1. Jawohl – zu befehl.

        How do, Paul. Much snow your way. It was down to 22ºC here today – needed a pullover.

  91. By the way, I forgot to say that we watched Episode 3 of the beeboid docu about Norn and The Thrubbles.

    Stomach turning – but they had a very good go at Murderer Adams – showing clips of his bile and venom. Then adding, “Gerry Adams declined to take part in this programme or to make any comment”.

    No comment of his was required. All his murdering mates dobbed him in the shyte.

  92. That’s me for another day. Maybe I’ll survive until tomorrow.

    Just watch out for deaf computer experts with a grievance (and a kitchen knife). Doesn’t sound like a slammer….first name Mikhael

  93. BBC reporting that there is a suggestion that theParis police killer was a recent convert to Islam. He was in the intelligence branch of the Police

  94. What is this all about .

    Despite Brexit, the Government has covertly signed us up to the EU’s defence agenda

    Britain is signing up to be involved with the European Defence Agency, the European Defence Fund, the European Defence Industrial Development Programme and PESCO. This is in the Withdrawal Agreement and Political Declaration. All of these together are openly described the EU as the beginnings of its military unification project – ‘integration’ which leads to the ultimate creation of ‘a Common Defence’ in just over five years’ time. Some people ask why it even matters that Britain is signing away control to the EU in defence. After all, we are allies and have similar objectives. The answer to this is in two parts: democratic accountability of defence decisions and the existence of NATO, the fundamental force which has protected the Western world for decades. The European Union is not only leeching on the sovereignty of its member states, it is actively attempting to duplicate and therefore undermine NATO and packages its political moves with reckless rhetoric about the US as an untrustworthy ally or even an enemy. Putin is laughing away at the prospect of an EU army, because he knows that it will weaken his biggest adversary in NATO. Not only will it make us less safe, but is will also make us less democratic. It means signing away control over major aspects of defence policy and procurement to the unelected European Commission and its numerous agencies, and we will pay a heavy price in monetary and sovereign terms for the giveaway.

    https://brexitcentral.com/despite-brexit-government-covertly-signed-us-eus-defence-agenda/

      1. I must have missed that Ogga.

        We need eyes in the back of our heads to keep abreast of what is going on.

        I felt so uneasy about Theresa May . I think she was similar to a wagging dog.. just needed to please any one .. She was very subservient to the EU of that I am certain .

      1. He’s such a sweet guy………………..

        sosraboc Pretty Polly

        ”You are a Soros shill.

        Constantly used as his vomiting hole, to pretend that he has more influence than is the reality.

        Does he pay you to produce your garbage?”

        1. Polly, whether you like him or not, whatever he’s said giving a damn if someone is ok is what t’hinterweb’ is best used for.

          3. Oh c’mon……

            If I, for example, disappeared for 10 days, Sir and others would hope it’s permanent.

        1. “Mmm – be careful, your job will be in jeopardy.”

          “In jeopardy – I don’t want to go abroad.”

          Goon show – circa 1956 – Tales of Old Dartmoor.

    2. All a bit sad really. The smears against the man are desperate but, in a way a good thing. It shows the depth of their terror.

  100. Brightlingsea man jailed after posing as a teenager on Facebook and persuading girls to send him naked pictures of themselves

    Clearly it is wrong of him but equally these girls sending naked pictures of themselves are just as wrong. These girls could potentially put themselves in serious danger when they such poor judgement and morals

    A judge has warned parents of the dangers of on-line sexual predators after jailing a 26-year-old Essex man for more than seven years after he posed as a teenager on Facebook and persuaded four girls to send him naked pictures of themselves.

    1. I thought this potentially dangerous behaviour was warned about at schools?

      1. Only this weekend we were discussing this with our 13 yer old grandson.
        The two girls in his year who do this sound exactly like the spoilt attention seekers in my class during the 1950s.
        The technology has changed, but human nature – not so much.

  101. Sheffield to Manchester train line upgrade delayed by more than four years

    It is not single track at least from the picture so why only one train every two hours ?

      1. Having looked it up it appear most of the line is currently single track

        The upgrade appears to be minor and probably could be be completed in a few months

        The upgrade involves creating a 1,100-metre passing loop between Bamford and Hathersage, and adding a second track at Dore and Totley station, among other changes.

  102. If you think we have problems here, just look at what has been going on in Peru. Page 39 of today’s Times.
    It’s more than Paddington could bear –
    “Peru was plunged into political chaos after its presiden announced that he was
    closing parliament, prompting the legislature to declare him dismissed.
    President Vicarra, a centrist, said the move was unavoidable after congress repeatedly
    blocked his attempts to pass anti-corruption laws.
    M.P.s responded by suspending Mr Vizcarra from office for a year and swearing in his vice-president
    Mercedes Araoz, as president.

    2. Totally daft. A smack is an effective way to control a child. IT should not the child but is a means of getting the attention of a badly behaved child. You can then control the child

    4. See you ya likkle bastud, di thut agin. ya ma’ill give ye a Glesga Kiss

      Ye got that?

    7. Best Beloved asked the question, “If smacking is banned, does the child break the law if they smack the parent? (As does happen in these entitled times).

  104. Should the Government introduce a flexible state retirement age?

    Many people it seems would like to retire before the state retirement age. The government could introduce scheme to allow people to say retire up to 5 years before the state retirement age but they wold get a reduced pension. For benefits purpose they would be deemed to be getting the full state pension

    They could also allow people to pay in more so they could retire early on a full state pension but without reform of the current system that not possible as you can currently retire on full state pension with only 35 years NI but equally you could have 40 years and would still get the same pension

    1. You can already defer your State Pension and receive a higher rate when you retire, so your suggestion would seem logical. As for NI, Gordon Brown once let slip that NI is viewed by the Gummint as another tax. IIRC, there were moves to linking it to the number of years resident in the UK, rather than number of contributions, aka the ‘NI stamp’, which would make it more obviously a tax.

    2. The scheme is already there! I retired and drew the state pension at the age of 60. When I reached the age of 73 my state pension was reduced.

  106. Scotland has banned the smacking of children

    Total daft in my view smacking is an effective means of disciplining children. Many people try to conflate beating a child with smacking., A smack should not hurt or harm a child

    1. There is a lot of difference between an impulsive swipe and a calculated vicious punishment. Where to draw the line ?

      1. IT is quite clear what a smack is and it is defiantly not a vicious punishment and sensible person would know those two things are totally different

    2. Scotland is now going to continue bringing up ‘entitled’ and ‘precocious’ brats, all following the example of the entitled, precocious brat who styles herself ‘First’ Minister in her Wee Prentendy Parliament.

      What she and many of her generation need is what my mother always referred to as, “Bringing them up with a round turn.” i.e., a clip round the lug and “Behave yourself!”

  108. EU and Labour & Lib-Dems have played into Boris’s hands

    It is now looking as if Boris will go to the Nation with a General Election. He will say he has done everything he can to try to achieve a deal and deliver Brexit but has been thawted by the intransigent EU and the Remainer MP’s sabotaging his negotiating position

    1. The Benn Act does not permit failure. The only logical thing for him to do is to ignore it. To kick the can down the road until 31st October, then declare ” OUT “.
      The meals in the Tower are reputed to be quite good, although I am not sure if they allow conjugal visits

      1. Well he could go for the vote of confidence and this may be what he is going for. The Queens Speech will be on the 14th and this has to be passed. It is always seen as a vote of confidence . He could include in the Queens Speech that he intends during the new session to take us out of the EU which will make it all but impossible for them to vote for the Queens Speech

  109. QT tonight…

    Fiona Bruce presents the topical debate from Wallasey, Wirral in Merseyside, inviting the studio audience to question a panel of politicians and other guests on subjects that have made the headlines over the past week. The panellists are MPs Nadhim Zahawi and Sarah Jones, playwright and novelist Bonnie Greer, broadcaster and columnist Melanie Phillips and politics professor Anand Menon.

      1. I have attended meetings in the Tower of London when working with the Historic Royal Palaces Agency on Hampton Court Palace. At the time it was more convenient for the Curator, Simon Thurley, to meet there as he was fully engaged in the Crown Jewels Representation on site.

        We met in a sumptuous mediaeval timber framed Building, one of several within the inner court. Anyone living there (custodial staff and the like) must have thought they had died and gone to heaven.

        1. Over 50 years ago I had a friend Philip whose father was a Beefeater. Their accommodation and Philip’s bedroom was adjacent to the Bloody Tower. The best bit was free entry, being able to march past the queue for the ticket office and say to the staff at the turnstile “I’m visiting a resident!”

          2. Certainly did when I announced I was visiting the Monarchs (for that was their surname….)

          3. My own father was a beefeater, although he rang the changes of Sunday lunch with pork, chicken and lamb!

            :-))

        1. The image was greater than 5mb so wouldn’t load so resorted to uploading the website link…

      2. That was really impressive. You should post that link again tomorrow so that others who might be interested in weather maps can see it. 🙂

    1. This qualifies as terrorism. The police require a permit to gather these days. Without such as that they can break the crowds up.

      However, they didn’t bother last time because Khan instructed them not to, no douubt desperately chasing the thug vote – which seems prevalent in London. This corruption and fraud must stop. If Khan does not act immediately to stop and arrest these chancers as soon as they appear he must be sacked on the spot.

  112. It’s been an interesting evening, I’ve been speaking of
    my iron age England course with some American friends,
    In terms of the Celts. Someone asked what happened to
    The enigmatic ‘ savage ‘ Pìcts. Those tribesmen who
    fought the might of Rome and didn’t want to give up their
    freedom for civilization. I thought they vanished.
    My friend told me that the Picts originated from
    Ireland before setting in Dariada ( Northern Scotland )
    at some time around the fall of Rome.

    I was told of a name Kenneth Macalpin ( of which I have never
    heard of but shall find out about ) he married into Pickish
    leadership, invited lots to a banquet and killed them all.
    The enigmatic warrior Picts eventually integrating with
    Northumberland Angels and Norse Scandanavian.

    Anyway, I found it fascinating and I want to learn more about
    that Kenneth Macalpìn.

  113. ”

    Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan: EU ‘open but unconvinced’

    Why doesn’t the BBC take Boris’s side in his negotiations with the EU ? He is representing our country, after all.

    Just wondered.

    1. Ye of little faith

      Yo think the BBC is the British Broadcasting Company

      It is, in fact, the Brussels Biased Conglomerate

      Now funded by ~oros, the EU and Micron

      Your TV Tax just pays the wages of the all EuroRats, excepting ‘our Susan’ of course,
      who earns evey penny she is paid

        1. Rights acquisition for externally sourced archive footage, working with film researchers. No editorial input and way down the food chain but I know a lot about footage libraries. .

    2. Maybe they see the writing on the wall and the end of the “Golden Money Tree” if we leave and their profligacy is questioned by the masses.

  114. I am up to 24 upvotes on my quote of Putin’s comments on Greta.
    An all-time high.

    What is it about Putin ?

  115. I think this is meant to be a criticism

    “Not that Johnson cared. He could do the Mr Nice Guy bit just as easily
    as The Joker. It was all an act anyway. He had no core principles to
    compromise. Just narcissistic ambition. Brexit was just another play. If
    the EU was stupid enough to accept his deal, then job done. If it
    didn’t, then so be it. He was just as easy with a no deal or being
    forced to ask for an extension. Either way, he had set it up for those
    EU bastards – sorry, friends and neighbours – to take the blame.
    Everything was just collateral in the greater scheme of Project Boris.”
    As I have previously said,the only think I trust about BoJo is his ego and ambition I found it rather cheering

    1. Who was it who said that? They clearly have a limited grasp on reality. 🙂

      “If the EU was stupid enough to accept his deal”

      Why on Earth wouldn’t the EU accept the deal that Boris is taking them? They wrote it. It is called the Withdrawal Agreement and it was written by EU lawyers to allow them to take control of the United Kingdom. Theresa May just added that “backstop” on afterwards so that they could have something to argue about and distract people with. The EU does not care about the backstop. They do not need it to bind the UK with their laws and take over our country.

      So Boris is offering them the very thing that they designed and calling it delivering Brexit. All of these “difficulties” that they are going on about is just for the cameras, to show how generous they are when they finally agree to the deal that Boris offers, as if they are doing us a favour. We have seen the EU act this way 7 or 8 times now whenever there was some dispute or difference of opinion. They always lie about their intentions.

      But some people will need to see this happen before they believe it. In any event, we will continue the struggle to be free, even if does not happen this month.

        1. Polly – the sheer desperation in your attempts to get me to reply to you is starting to look a little bit like mental illness. There is nothing wrong with suffering from mental stress – it happens to most of us – but you are looking very odd. The way that you carefully record the comments of other people, save them in a safe place, then bring them back again later when you have found somewhere that you think “scores you points” against them is also slightly worrying.

          This is not a good look for you. Anyone who sees your comments will think that you are unpleasant or lacking in character. Some of the best people that I know are very odd indeed in their ways, but you are not like that. So think about whether your actions are obsessional and whether you need to sit down and talk with someone in real life about your view of the world and if it is skewed.

          There is no shame in that at ALL. I have spent many dark nights of the soul with troubled friends. I have wide shoulders that more than a few have cried on. I will help you tonight by leaving now and removing any further temptation dangling in front of you to try to get me to talk to you again. I know that won’t stop you from trying, but it is for the best now.

          Goodnight everyone else. 🙂
          (I am actually dog tired and was going anyway, but thought Polly might need some guidance. They certainly need something.)

          3. MM, you need to understand that PP is neither a troll nor a human, and without any gender; it is an AI algorithm. That is why the posts are ‘Private’, because otherwise readers would twig if they saw the repeats.

          4. Meredith – you’ve just replied.

            Block the silly bird and you don’t have to put up with its wasting of space on here.

          5. NoToNanny – I know that I’ve “just replied,” and I did think about ignoring them as I normally do, but they might be a lost soul in the dark who does not know which way is up. It can happen to the best of us. On the other hand, it could just be trolling. I err’d on the side of humanity this time. 🙂

    2. My letter to my MP earlier today.

      It is reported today that the Prime Minister has said that if his withdrawal offer is not accepted or accepted the earlier paper signed by May signing away our armed forces to the EU will stand. That to me says we’re not going to leave. We cannot have our Armed Forces ruled by the wretched EU if, and it’s a dig if, we ever get to leave that unelected, undemocratic construct.
      Why is it that politicians seem to play fast and loose with our independence?

      We will not be a country if we do not have control of our Armed Forces. The next step seems to be that we will join the Euro. Why do politicians hate the United Kingdom so much?

      His reply this evening.

      The ERG and I are pressing the PM and relevant senior Ministers very hard on all this. Thanks.

      .Looks like a sell out

  118. Off topic but I have just finished reading “The Big Week” by James Holland, a WW2 historian. On the cover it is descibed as “The biggest Air Battle of World War Two” It decribes the evolution of the strategies, the quarrels and the planes of the Fighter and Bomber groups of the USA, the UK and the Luftwaffe. In the run up to D-Day. At the end of 1943 the USA and UK realised they had to destroy the Luftwaffe before D-Day or there would be mass slaughter of the invaders and possible failure. “The Big Week” was a mid-week in February 1944 when the allies threw everything at the Germans and managed to achieve the neutering of the Luftwaffe in time for D-Day. I found it a fascinating book.

    1. More and more information is only now coming out about D Day. My late father crosed on D Day + 3 but would say very little on the details. He ended up in Germany and saw the German generals coming to surrender to Monty, who he highly rated..

  119. From the BBC’s latest update on the Paris police stabbings.
    “This evening reports are being carried by two reputable French news outlets that the man was a recent convert to Islam. Is that true? Is it relevant? We do need to wait.”
    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/49921145

    1. If it should unfortunately be true, it would be yet another example of those afflicted by the Islam disease who however nice and ordinary they be, carry something in their diseased minds that prompts sudden and violet murderous reactions. ” My son is a good boy “; ” My neighbour has always been a quiet decent man “, etc,
      In this case today, should Islam not be involved, it will have been an atrocious slur on a mainly..I mean occasionally …peaceful religion.
      (I assume that the cop who killed him will be investigated by the Police Complants Commission?)

  121. New Glasshouse in Norfolk and Suffolk will meet 10% of the UK’s demand for tomatoes. Currently about 60% are imported mainly from Holland

    1. New Glasshouse in Norfolk and Suffolk will meet 70% of the UK’s demand
      for accommodation for illegal immigrants.

    3. BJ,
      Currently it would be much more beneficial if we invested
      in and reactivated the one in Colchester.

      1. well down to whoever owns them in Colchester. It may be they are to old for modern automated production methods

      2. Ha ha, you’re referring to the military prison in Cochester referred to as the ‘Glasshouse’.

    4. The largest onion plant in the world was located on the former IFF (International Food & Fragrances) site in Glemsford Suffolk.

      The site was abandoned years ago but there is no reason why it could not be restored.

      We once had market gardens all over the south east and could do so again. We could enjoy the taste of fruit and vegetables grown in England as opposed to tasteless tomatoes and strawberries from Holland and tasteless apples from France.

      1. Between Bramford & Barham in Suffolk, the largest European glasshouse is raising millions of tomatoes using heat from a nearby rubbish burning furnace.

  124. LABOUR aims to be the ‘Race and Faith’ Party:

    Labour is the Party of equality. We are built on the values of social justice, internationalism and human rights. We have put forward a radical plan for government to eliminate racial inequality from the economy and society in our Race and Faith Manifesto. We are keen to engage with a range of communities and are inviting contributions online to help develop our Manifesto.

    JOIN LABOUR TAKE ACTION DONATE TODAY
    JOIN LABOUR TAKE ACTION DONATE TODAY
    SHARE

    The Labour Party – Race and Faith Consultation
    Labour is the Party of equality. We are built on the values of social justice, internationalism and human rights. We have put forward a radical plan for government to eliminate racial inequality from the economy and society in our Race and Faith Manifesto. We are keen to engage with a range of communities and are inviting contributions online to help develop our Manifesto.

    COMPLETE THE CONSULTATION
    Background
    Our values are rooted in the fundamental truth that whatever your background, wherever you are from, you should have the means and opportunity to fulfil your potential. However, more work needs to be done to tackle structural barriers affecting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME)communities – in relation to economic justice, the criminal justice system and the representation in public life.

    The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has fanned the flames of racism in this country. The Conservative Party’s policies in government have turned back the clock, with BAME communities paying a high price for austerity and the politics of division and hate. Nowhere is this clearer then the hostile environment policies that lead to the scandalous treatment of the Windrush Generation. The fact that hate crime has more than doubled in the last five years must serve as a wake-up call for our country.

    https://labour.org.uk/race-and-faith-consultation/

    There is a Consultation and there is a “Donate Today” option

  127. Gosh I really hope that John Bercow recovers his voice by November …. In the meantime I hope his throat gives him hell and he’s left voiceless … (Perhaps God really does exist).

  128. Night All

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ae40a9b3b74c0eb16db345d367b4390113c6eb20484e789aaff6af28d6b1ca61.gif

    https://media1.tenor.com/images/23e8e3cdc79618afe90d9e9182068d47/tenor.gif?itemid=14612031

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5f161b2f5466a4afa598e0ccf92a2e0c471de4be8d4ab8f50418ba8e98d73d8f.gif

    https://media1.tenor.com/images/faf9e289e92c83009f85a632b9d362ae/tenor.gif?itemid=14979076

    Beam me up Scottie

    https://media1.tenor.com/images/c31f279a3530c3573ee76f1bc582dc31/tenor.gif?itemid=12897433

  130. Evening, all. It’s been a busy day; riding the Connemara (in his Happy Mouth, so progress not as good as last week in the hackamore), followed by a quick bath and change to dine in the Officers’ Mess at RAF Shawbury. Unlike last year, when the place was like a morgue, this year there was music, singing, laughter and a labrador dog (golden, not black). Almost like old times!

    1. …and a labrador dog (golden yellow, not black).

      Retrievers are golden, labradors are yellow.

        1. I think I’ll have to bite it off & send it like it is & later send ‘part 2’.

          I’m absolutely mesmerised by “Gesprengte Brücken”.

  133. I note that as we are leaving (hopefully) that Albania and North Macedonia will be joining
    So that’s the budget shortfall sorted for the EU
    (snigger)

  134. Good night – or should that be Good morning – to all my friends and may God bless and keep you through the night.

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