Thursday 30 January: Criminal drivers and unstoppable lorries make smart motorways lethal

Posted on by Geoff Graham

An unofficial place to discuss the Telegraph letters, established when the DT website turned off its comments facility (now reinstated, but not as good as ours),
Intelligent, polite, good-humoured debate is welcome, whether on or off topic. Differing opinions are encouraged, but rudeness or personal attacks on other posters will not be tolerated. Posts which – in the opinion of the moderators – make this a less than cordial environment, are likely to be removed, without prior warning.  Persistent offenders will be blacklisted.

Today’s letters (visible only to DT subscribers) are here:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/2020/01/30/letterscriminal-drivers-unstoppable-lorries-make-smart-motorways/

788 thoughts on “Thursday 30 January: Criminal drivers and unstoppable lorries make smart motorways lethal”

          1. Morning, Belle. Bit dull here and it has just started drizzling. How is the weather your end?

        2. Just spotted Little Cat in our silver birch. He’s chasing magpies… not too successfully.

          1. Got a few magpies here, they certainly know how to hoover up the food and bully the other birds around the food. A pair chased a jay out of the garden a few days ago. It gets interesting when the collared doves begin nesting and these feisty birds start to harass the magpies.

        1. Haitian Creole detected but I still don’t KNOW what it means, I guess it’s Good morning but it could be the calorific heating of my boiler!

      2. And Elsie is very much behind today – it was prolly the second glass of vino last night wot dun it.

  2. Good advice

    A young lady confidently walked around the room with a raised glass of water while leading a seminar and explaining stress management to her audience. Everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, ‘half empty or half full?’ She fooled them all. “How heavy is this glass of water?” she inquired with a smile.

    Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. To 20 oz.

    She replied, “The absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that’s not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you’ll have to call an ambulance.

    In each case it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” She continued, “and that’s the way it is with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won’t be able to carry on.

    As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we’re refreshed, we can carry on with the burden – holding stress longer and better each time practiced. So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don’t carry them through the evening and into the night. Pick them up again tomorrow if you must.”

    1 – Accept the fact that some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue!
    2 – Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.
    3 – Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.
    4 – Drive carefully… It’s not only cars that can be recalled by their maker.
    5 – If you can’t be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.
    6 – If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.
    7 – It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.
    8 – Never buy a car you can’t push.
    9 – Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won’t have a leg to stand on.
    10 – Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.
    11 – Since it’s the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.
    12 – The second mouse gets the cheese.
    13 – When everything’s coming your way, you’re in the wrong lane.
    14 – Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.
    16 – Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once. Don’t know what happened to #15! Who cares, you have 5 more to read!
    17 – We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colours, but they all have to live in the same box.
    18 – A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.
    19 – Have an awesome day and know that someone has thought about you today.
    AND MOST IMPORTANTLY
    20 – Save the earth….. It’s the only planet with chocolate and wine!

  3. Morning, Campers.
    Wise woman, that Ursula. She avoided quoting Shakespeare. (Now up there among the unmentionables with the Bible and Guy Gibson’s dog.)
    “Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, quoted George Eliot as she said: “Only in the agony of parting do we look into the depth of love.” She added: “We will always love you and we will never be far.””
    Ah ….. sweet.

  4. ‘Morning All

    Douglas Murray

    “Here is a good test case going on before our eyes. The broadcaster Alastair Stewart has left his job

    of decades after sending a quotation of Shakespeare to a member of the

    public. The quotation (because it refers to an ape and the recipient

    happens to be black) is being interpreted as a sign of racism. A sign

    so grave that a long and illustrious career is over.

    So here is a test. Does ITV actually think that Alastair Stewart is a

    secret racist, really hates black people and has spent his life hating

    black people? Does it think that he has managed to hide this throughout

    the course of a long and illustrious career, in which I imagine that he

    worked with people of every imaginable race and background? Does it

    think that his deep, terrible racism has only come to the surface

    once? And does it believe that on the one occasion when Alasdair

    Stewart finally satisfied his racist urges he did so through the medium

    of ‘Measure for Measure’? The likelihood – as Jeeves would say, would

    appear to be a remote one.”

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2020/01/in-defence-of-alastair-stewart/
    Funny old world,I was for decades with MLK “Judge by the content of their character”
    Problem is too many feral stabby dindus fail that test today and I despise them for it,if that makes me a racist so be it
    As for the judgement of the mob??
    Fluck them all

    2. His “crime” was nothing of the kind, but I can see that the management at ITN might be guilty of an ‘ism’; that of age, and seized the opportunity to be rid of him. In his earlier years he was at the top of his game, but I thought he lost his edge some years ago, becoming far too animated, excitable and shouty. Who could forget his dreadful performance whilst chairing one of the TV political debates in 2010? It was, quite frankly, embarassing. He had a good innings but his presentational style was completely out of date.

  5. Good morning. Back from Kerala where the drivers are astonishing and the traffic too. Overtaking on bends, missing pedestrians by inches and all in an atmosphere of religious give and take. Safer than this:

    SIR – Having seen the aftermath of an accident on the smart M4, I agree they can be dangerous. But, as your coverage confirms, the dangers seem to come largely from the lunatics holding the steering wheels, and are not intrinsic to the smart motorways themselves.

    A red X above a motorway lane has meant stop for as long as I can remember. Any driver passing beneath one should have their number-plate photographed and be fined a salutary sum. Doing so is clearly at least as dangerous as talking on a hand-held mobile and should be penalised just as heavily. Say £300 per time?

    The other danger is that 40-ton lorries moving at 56 mph can flatten a broken-down car and kill everyone inside. Many of the incidents on smart motorways involve just this sort of incident. Several have involved lorry drivers using mobile devices or even reading documents while driving.

    It’s time to remove the variable abilities and attention spans of lorry drivers from the equation. Volvo has Volvo Brake Assist, Ford has Emergency Brake Assist and Mercedes offers Active Brake Assist. Any vehicle weighing more than (say) 20 tons using a motorway should have a collision mitigation system such as these in operation.

    Mark Hodson

    Bristol

    1. SIR – “Smart”, as in “smart motorway”, has joined “democratic”, “people’s” and “trust” as diseased words that now have just the opposite meaning.

      Keith Chambers

      Basingstoke, Hampshire

  6. Police are more interested in process and policies than fighting crime, says the policing minister.

    Kit Malthouse told MPs that in the six months since he was appointed

    to the job by Boris Johnson he had yet to be invited to a conference on

    crime rather than one on human resources or computers.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/01/29/police-interested-process-crime-fighting-says-policing-minister/
    The comments get it even as the journalists are too scared to reveal the truth
    The cancer of Common Purpose

    1. Well said, Rik. And any chief constable with a clear-up rate in single figures should be gone.

  7. Morning again.

    SIR – When leaving Thailand, I found an airport full of people wearing masks to protect against coronavirus.

    However, it was mandatory for each passenger to have their fingerprints taken on a glass screen at passport control. This screen was not cleaned between passengers, which made it a bit like shaking hands with all the passengers. The airside chemist had run out of antiseptic hand gel.

    There are plenty of alarmists, but not much common sense.

    Alex Turner

    Upton Grey, Hampshire

    1. SIR – There is mild concern about the coronavirus here in Melbourne.

      A face mask is no good to block the virus (Letters, January 29), but if hands are kept clean, a mask will stop you touching your mouth or nose and accidentally passing on the infection.

      Rod Beardsell

      Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

      1. The hands have nothing to do with the face mask. Speaking as a former dental surgeon…

        1. ‘Morning, Peddy, he identifies that the face mask is only good for preventing virus-infested hands from touch the mouth and thus allowing ingestion of the virus.

          1. ‘Morning, Tom.

            But he says if the hands are kept clean. If they are kept clean, they are unlikely to be virus-infested.

            I bought a pack of disinfecting hand-wipes in w/rose yesterday (to pose in Côte, versteht sich) 😉

    2. Recently a photograph was published showing a Chinese couple wearing masks walking through a crowded concourse. Dad was carrying their small infant, but the infant had no face mask at all. As you say, “not much common sense”.

      1. The Beeb reporter on last night’s news, surrounded by a sea of people wearing masks, was the only one not wearing one.

    1. Morning B3,
      I thought the same in June 24 / 2016 when I heard the cry, victory is ours
      leave it to the tory’s.

        1. Morning Bsk,
          The same ones that were saying victory is ours, leave it to the tory party, them ones, the same ones who then went back to supporting / voting tory.
          Hence near four years of deceit & treachery.

    2. Is the pressure to build HS2 really for a faster Asian cocaine link?

      Extending county lines .. ?

      Oh, I am a cynic.. Not many ordinary people will be able to afford rail fares , they are accelerating beyond the reach of everyone’s pocket .

    1. The stubborn and remote BBC is heading for self-destruction

      SHERELLE JACOBS

      DAILY TELEGRAPH COLUMNIST

      Follow

      30 JANUARY 2020 • 6:00AM

      Save

      56

      Journalist and broadcaster, Victoria Derbyshire, before her BBC show this morning.

      CREDIT: GEOFF PUGH

      Where to make your money trading in footballers for 2020

      Sponsored

      Trapped in the metropolitan bubble, the Beeb genuinely doesn’t realise how out of touch it is

      Nothing good on the Beeb as usual this week. Still, watching Auntie flap in the froth of superficial self-diagnosis has proved to be an entertainment of sorts. The outgoing director-general, Lord Hall, has been scrambling to salvage a legacy from his stint in charge. While remaining curiously silent on his role in overseeing the BBC as it has crept further down the woke-wallpapered corridors of metropolitan narrow-mindedness, he has bemoaned the rise of gotcha interviews, in an effort to etch himself an epitaph as the jilted champion of fair and rigorous broadcasting.

      Meanwhile, the corporation is busy slashing tens of millions of pounds from the budgets of its high-profile news programmes, putting hundreds of jobs at risk. Licking their lips at the blood-speckled scent of fresh victimhood, Lefty vampires are already circling to rebrand the BBC as the new NHS – a downtrodden national treasure that must be saved from cuts and interference.

      They are particularly racked by grief over the announcement that the BBC is dropping Victoria Derbyshire, one of those award-winning programmes that, much to the consternation of high-minded liberal England, few people actually seem interested in watching. It raked in fewer than 300,000 viewers a day with its nourishing diet of easy-digest political slots and cautionary tales of Instagram influencing’s dark underbelly. The programme may well be saved, thanks to the chattering classes’ move to leverage their favourite counterweight to the unforgiving fist of popular judgment – the online petition. So far, 34,000 have signed. Barely a tenth of the show’s audience on a good day.

      Meanwhile, a power struggle between the Beeb and No 10 is gearing up, with whispers that Dominic Cummings is determined to have a say in who will be the next director-general. The news is said to have left BBC controllers downing endless shots of calming matcha powder tea and manically squeezing their office stress balls.

      The whole business will no doubt kick up the familiar debates about the need to safeguard the independent BBC from meddling politicians. Of course, if the Beeb wishes to protect itself from interference, it could always cease being a quango funded by the taxpayer and scrap the licence fee. Given the incensed reception that Gary Lineker received this week for daring to say the fee should be voluntary, I wouldn’t bet on it. (Completely missing the point, impulsively anti-wealth London hacks said he had no right to criticise the BBC given his lavish salary).

      The scariest thing about the BBC’s predicament is that it seems incapable of facing up to the scale of its crisis. As Middle England grumbles at its television screens, and world-weary millennials ditch television licences for dystopian binges on Netflix, its executives have busied themselves with appointing diversity tsars. That and plotting a more centralised structure, reflecting the control-freakery now endemic in British upper management.

      Meanwhile, its liberal-Left rank-and-file, imbued with a civilising mission more befitting an earlier Roaring Twenties, has thrown itself into its philanthropic work with renewed zeal. Like the more committed colonialists of the early 20th century who were horrified by the growing belligerence of the savages, Beeb hacks seem more dedicated than ever to running pieces on what a “diverse” fashion show looks like and doomsday glaciers.

      Or perhaps it genuinely does not occur to them that the wider public has no interest in consuming the over-chewed dregs of Islington’s intellectual vomitings.

      There are hints that the Beeb’s more astute journos are trying to launch an insurgency. Newsnight recently defied trans-lobby bullies to run a robust piece on transgender people who have detransitioned (reversing their transgender identification or gender transition by legal, social or medical means). But changing will be an uphill battle. Is it realistically possible to overhaul political programmes that twitch at the mouth with anti-Brexit “neutrality” and think the death of an American basketball player is a lead item on British news? Is the BBC’s tradition of acerbic comedy – which has collapsed into cracking jokes about gammon steaks and white privilege – not already a lost cause?

      Half of the BBC’s problem is that its arrogance was ever thus. Its original patrician mission, to encourage “happier homes, broader culture and truer citizenship”, was pursued with Presbyterian fervour by its first director -general, Sir John, later Lord, Reith. The institution has been dedicated to converting the masses to bien pensant values ever since. (The BBC’s taste for Scandi-grey dramas that feed Metropolitanland’s forbidden appetites for sophisticated violence being the glaring double standard. I’m looking at you, Silent Witness.)

      Perhaps the question of 2020 is who will fare worse in pretending to reform: Labour or the BBC? At least Old Man Steptoe is on his way out. Auntie is digging her socks and sandals in.

      1. “Or perhaps it genuinely does not occur to them that the wider public has
        no interest in consuming the over-chewed dregs of Islington’s
        intellectual vomitings”
        Priceless,ta very much.

          1. ‘Morning Nanners,promptly thought of the Al-Beeb

            “As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool repeats his folly” is an aphorism which appears in the Book of Proverbs in the Bible — Proverbs 26:11
            They don’t learn

      2. I cannot understand the current fuss at the BBC , when last year they announced they were re building a new Eastender set costing £85 million ..

        1. An enterprising Essex property developer reckoned he could build a real Albert Square for less than that, with the advantage that the buildings could be sold off when the series came to an end.

          1. The land is typically 20% to 25% of the cost but the land is there,. This so called houses are really dummies so probably dont even need p[roper foundation. Should have cost no more than £50K per property

        2. Only about £4M a property and most are just false fronts and others only have a ground floor. Those builders must be rubbing their hands

      4. “think the death of an American basketball player is a lead item on British news? ”

        I’m not even sure that it was lead news in the U.S.. I may be wrong.

        The BBC has been trashing British culture for years. One of the first real signs of the woke agenda was when the new female director of BBC2 decided that They Think It’s All Over, with Nick Hancock, and which could be outrageously funny, was “too laddish,” and changed the host and regular panel line-up. It lasted nust one season acre that, with poor ratings. How very unsurprising.
        The BBC’s Chris Chibnall is in the final stages of destroying a show that’s been in existence since 1963, i.e. Doctor Who. It’s long-term fans have deserted it, and it’s relying on an ever-shrinking left-wing audience.
        It inserts “wokeness” wherever it can, and denies in the face of evidence to the contrary, that it is ever mistaken or wrong.
        I now loathe it with a passion for the damage it’s done.

      5. Thanks, Epi.

        Her point about the death of some basketball player being the lead item on the news that evening is well made, and it epitomised again the bizarre judgement of Beeboid news editors. However, such stupidity is not confined to the BBC: on Sly News the same evening the following was from the introduction to their 10 o’clock news – “It is impossible to understate the importance of such a tragedy.” Yup, there you have it. My irony meter self-destructed even before the sentence had been completed.

  11. Trundling around town the other day, I encountered a chap in a Hi-Viz jacket and an interesting conversation ensued.

    In his long and varied career, he’d had dealings with many levels of public and central government agencies across the UK and his impression of many of them wasn’t too positive.

    He mentioned a large public infrastructure project which, against advice, hadn’t been future-proofed. When the future arrived earlier than expected, the remedial costs were high.

    “How high, compared to the original cost?” asked he of I.

    “Ten times,” guessed I to he.

    “No – 100 times.”

    My walk home was tinged with anger that when politics squares up to common sense, the latter often has one hand tied behind its back.

    Britain is screaming out for change.

    1. Current predictions

      Conservatives: 41 per cent (+4)
      Labour: 36 per cent (-4)
      Plaid Cymru: 13 per cent (+3)
      Liberal Democrats: 5 per cent (-1)
      Brexit Party: 3 per cent (-2)
      Greens: 2 per cent (+1)
      Others: 1 per cent (no change)

        1. Why are we having elections in 2021?
          If it wus time, it would be
          Why are we having elections in at 2021?

  13. ‘Morning all.

    Does the Monte Carlo Rallye run no more? It used to be at about tis time of year.

  14. British seaside village ‘doomed’ as warnings it will become first made extinct by sea

    But because the sea defenses are no longer being maintained

    2. The first? My grandfather was a clergyman with four churches in rural Norfolk when I was a child. Three of them – Hempstead, Lessingham and Ingham Corner – were conventional enough. The other, Eccles, was just the tip of the steeple under the beach after the village was swallowed up by the North Sea. He used to go down there with his lectern perched on the stones to keep it consecrated.

    4. BJ,
      I put it down to all those incoming feet
      at the bottom of the illegals torso eroding the foreshore.
      See & watch defenses are no longer maintained.

    5. if you build something on an erosion feature, expect it to be eroded with the erosion feature.

      Basic geology.

    7. The natural erosion of the east coast has been happening for millennia. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the current hysteria abut “climate change”.

      Erosion, worldwide, is a natural phenomenon. It is part and parcel of an ever-changing planet.

  15. SIR – You report (January 28) that Professor Stephen Holgate, a special adviser to the Royal College of Physicians, tells us that too many of our homes and schools are damp and poorly ventilated, adversely affecting the health of children.

    In the Seventies, I would observe double-decker school buses travelling to and from school, with windows completely fogged up through lack of proper ventilation. Going back to the school today, there are still the same double-decker buses, just as steamed up as they were in my day.

    Ventilation provision certainly needs to be improved – not only in homes and schools but also in the transport to and from schools.

    Roger Blue
    Preston, Lancashire

    New homes on housing estates have tiny windows , and no top window to open .. Homes look dark and dank and must be absolutely suffocating during the summer months.

    Railway trains are also badly ventilated .. far too warm and stuffy .

    1. If it is the same buses after fifty years, the manufacturers are probably out of business by now. No built in obsolescence!

        2. You referred to G as a duck. I demand your resignation, you are clearly an aviaracist.

          1. I am too.

            I like looking at ducks just as much as I enjoy eating them.

            I am definitely not an aviarahypocriticist. :•)

    4. I don’t think bells ‘ding’ and ‘dong’ separately. Or do they?

      T’was the accompaniment to the News at Ten’s headlines that referred to Big Ben’s bongs

      1. Cracked bells abound aplenty, Paul. But only the one sitting above our elected representatives “bongs”.

        1. Maybe it’s them wots cracked? Should certainly be struck with an excessively heavy hammer!

  19. Sarah Sands resigns as editor of Radio 4’s Today programme just hours after BBC News announced 450 job cuts

    She was probably for the chop I expect

    1. She was useless as editrix of the STel, no better in Today. A bright future beckons, no doubt.

  20. A MOTHER and daughter from Newport are being tested for the coronavirus after returning from China on Monday.
    The mother, 32, and daughter, four, came back from China on Monday morning after visiting Zhengzhou for Chinese New Year.
    They cut short their holiday following concerns over the spread of the coronavirus.

    At around 5am today, a family source said the mother – who had been suffering from flu like symptoms – woke up struggling to breathe.
    She was then taken, alongside her daughter, by police escort for testing.

    The father, who is showing no symptoms, has been placed under house quarantine.

  21. Morning Each,
    With the rail structure falling apart and this johnson chap
    being advised by javid to give HS2 the go ahead, should we not be thinking along the lines of rapid troop movements ?
    Things are starting to shape up odd, do I spy a touch of treachery, early doors and not even semi out yet.

    1. ‘Morning, Ogga, Herr Schickelgruber had the Autobahns built to facilitate rapid troop movements. The trains were used to transport untermenschen to the gas chambers.

      Our military will have to rely upon ‘smart’ motorways to crawl to the fighting front, picking off a few insurgents on the way

          1. Indeed and good morning. President Eisenhower instigated the Interstate Highway network for similar reasons.

      3. The picked off insurgents will be those with a puncture or a clapped out distributor.
        Not a shot will need to be fired.

    2. As I said earlier ..

      From Khan’s stabby stabby London to stabby stabby Birmingham.. it is a rapid response cocaine link.

      No ordinary mortal will be able to afford the rail fares, and I expect those who travel, claim back on expenses . those who cannot, have season tickets which cost a fortune.

      We need money for schools and jobs down here , the roads are a real mess, and our council tax is going up hugely .. for those of us on fixed incomes in rural parts , dear fuel and other expenses .. rural areas where austerity has really hit home hard , and decent families are finding life tough .. Javid is going back on his promises .. I daren’t mention rural crime , yes , we are easy targets for the motorway mobsters from the big cities.

      My confidence in Javid has plummeted. Rural Britain matters.. it seems to me that he is unaware of life in the countryside!

          2. It will be so quick, the sandwiches will not have dried out and they can use them on the return.

          1. So how do you know whether anyone can afford the fare or not? Aren’t you crying ‘wolf!’ ?

          2. I am going to visit the environs of Portsmouth again.
            Last year I drove,….. but ,because of roadworks etc.
            the journey took me five and a half hours to travel
            123 miles..
            This year I shall be travelling by train, at less cost
            and more quickly……..and far more comfortably!

          3. Wise choice.

            I would always consider rail travel (1st class of course) over road for longer distances.

    3. HS2 is a very expensive white elephant which will suck up all the money for rail improvements as well as tying up all the resource. No one in the North wants HS2 bar a few daft Mayors etc and even dafter is their are no firm plans or a budget to take it past Birmingham and even if they did build it it would about 2050 before it reaches there. It is the commuter service in the North that need upgraded as well as improved links between the Northern cities

    1. Eddy, we’re not supposed to think, full stop. With a population that is being deliberately force-fed by mass immigration and the consequent demand for millions of new homes the idea that the UK will ever be carbon neutral is laughable. How do these ‘movers and shakers’, who mouth this nonsense, think bricks, cement, tiles etc. are made? They cannot be ignorant of the fact that a great deal of energy is required to build a house, it’s just that they are completely and utterly dishonest. The Greens top the list, supporting mass immigration without considering the impact that policy has on energy demand but there isn’t much to choose between all the political parties on this issue.

      2. Never mind the fact that every person breathes out carbon dioxide – the greater the number of people, the more CO2.

      1. No way, Josie.

        I once changed a wheel on the hard shoulder (faster than the blokes who do Lewis Hamilton’s).

        Morning Anne.

  24. Stamford Hill’s Orthodox Jewish TTD Gur School – which does not teach basic English or about diversity in modern Britain

    Pupils at TTD Gur School in Margaret Road, Stamford Hill are also not taught about diversity in modern Britain, the role of women in society, or any of the protected characteristics like sexual orientation, in contravention of its legal requirements as an independent school.

    During the inspection, which took place in November, staff from Ofsted were forbidden from speaking with children by their parents.
    “As a result, inspectors could not gather evidence about pupils’ experiences of teaching, learning and behaviour, how the school deals with bullying, how the school promotes fundamental British values and respect for others and whether pupils feel safe,” said Lucy Nutt in a report which was published this week.
    This means the school has been deemed “inadequate” in those areas too, although pupils did “behave well and appeared happy in lessons”.
    It was found that youngsters get confused between English and Yiddish – which is the only subject they learn to read in – and they aren’t taught how to blend and segment initial sounds in English accurately.
    When they try to speak English their “many error and misunderstandings” are not corrected by adults.

      1. A bit off-topic, eh, what ?
        If true, the school should be closed down.
        Not teaching them about sexual orientation ? Unforgivable!

    2. ” Lucy Nutt”What a lovely name for an Ofsted inspector.
      It takes a Nutt to catch a bunch of Nutts.

    1. Yo JB

      Obviously a suntanned Pakimac wearing lad from Eastasia, whose actions have been misunderstood

      https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&sxsrf=ACYBGNSiVXyiiCCbWpZHWvS42mMh86KefA%3A1580375830208&ei=Fp8yXtS0DKmFhbIPz-OMgA0&q=been+misunderstood+lyrics&oq=been+misunderstood+lyrics&gs_l=psy-ab.12..0i22i30.10881.15357..18104…0.2..0.137.791.0j7……0….1..gws-wiz…….0i71j0i22i10i30j33i160.VyiTDqXYnP0&ved=0ahUKEwjUl-Lf_qrnAhWpQkEAHc8xA9AQ4dUDCAo

  26. BBC job cuts: Top names ‘not protected’ from the axe with 450 positions to be slashed

    They need to maker big cuts in BBC sport as well. They used to have excellent sports commentators and paid them well but not a fortune. They new the job as well and dd not need a small army of so called sports pundits

    High-profile presenters could be among those who lose their jobs after the BBC announced it was cutting 450 roles , a source has claimed.

    1. Good.
      I understand Lineker has never received a red card and been sent off.

      It’s never too late – let him be the first for the pyre.

    2. Dan Walker faces huge backlash amid claims BBC spends £200 on chauffeuring host from Sheffield home to Salford studio

      Dan Walker has been blasted by fans over claims the BBC spends £200 a day chauffeuring the presenter to work, three days a week. The 42-year-old, who fronts BBC Breakfast on weekday mornings, is reportedly whisked by a private taxi from his home in Sheffield to the studios in Salford – a 39mile journey which takes nearly two hours. And the BBC is thought to splash out up to £30,000 a year on the service for the presenter – who reportedly earns £250,000.

      Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/18/dan-walker-faces-huge-backlash-amid-claims-bbc-spends-200-chauffeuring-host-sheffield-home-salford-studio-11928363/?ito=cbshare

      1. You could probably find a cheaper driver, but it makes sense. He is a presenter, not a chauffeur.

    2. Shirley the GCHQ comms person has to be taught that the string has to be taut for this device to work.

    2. Well they were letting cars charge up for almost free. The UK will have to follow before long as the subsidy cost will be come far to high

    3. Wait until they stick a fuel tax on it at about 150%, the way they do with diesel and petrol, to make up the shortfall to the treasury of the 58p/litre duty plus 20% VAT.

      Then there’ll be tears.

  31. The wall between Mexico and the US, part of which has been blown down, consists, according to the Beeb, of “nine-metre high panels”. Enough already! We’re about to leave the great failed experiment.

      1. “The train bore me away, through the monstrous scenery of slag-heaps, chimneys, piled scrap-iron, foul canals, paths of cindery mud criss-crossed by the prints of clogs”. The Road to Wigan Pier.

        1. I went to Wigan Pier once, Sue, to see if I could find Eric Blair. When I got there he’d fallen off it! :•)

          1. I was part of the Green Goddess crew in ’77 that stopped the Wigan Casino from burning down several years before it actually was burnt down!

          2. I was part of a police team detailed to escort Green Goddesses to fires during the firemen’s strike of that year. A squadron of RAF personnel were billeted at the Territorial army centre on Boythorpe Road, Chesterfield. I lost count of the times I had to stop and wait further up the road as those ancient Green Goddesses didn’t like climbing hills at more than 2 mph!

          3. Following a police car through what was in effect a tunnel under the WCML at Wigan before the fitted blue lights onto the GG, after he’d passed through a bus came in the opposite direction.
            There could not have been much more than an inch between the wing mirrors 7 the tunnel walls. I swear the whole crew breathed in!

      2. Correct. The Civil Service is still dominated by Oxbridge graduates who would have heard of George Orwell (former Etonian, Victor Ludorum) and his old-fashioned books, but they would have had an irony bypass in order to climb that greasy pole.

    5. Why does it only go half way up the country when they tell us it is joining London and ‘The (mythical) North’?

    3. If we cannot bong Big Ben, maybe could have searchlights, lighting up the night sky with colossal V-signs.
      If we set up one or two at Dover, they could be seen from France?

  34. Mark Hodson is surely wrong when he says a red cross above a motorway lane means ‘stop’ . It means that lane is closed to traffic and you should move into another lane

    1. But lots of buggers don’t they go on in the closed lane and then push in delaying the law abiding drivers. A £1000 fine would soon put a stop to their inconsiderate driving.

      1. They would be a lot better if the X’s didn’t turn on and off, for no apparent reason, between gantries and also their habit of staying on for miles and then suddenly turning off where no obstruction/problem seems to exist/have existed.
        I’ve had numerous times where the lane is clear, the X appears and one need to move out, only for the next gantry showing the lane to be clear again.

        As I observed yesterday, an unitended consequence is that people avoid using the inside lane even if it is clear, to avoid the need to come out because an X has appeared, often miles before the obstruction, if any.

    2. Correct, but if you go past the red ‘x’ before switching to another lane, you have committed an offence making you liable to a fine of £100 and three penalty points.

  36. Я/МЫ: Why are Russians using this symbol? BBC. 30 January 2020.

    The phrase “Я/МЫ” which means “it’s all of us” is being used by students and celebrities to rally against the government, or support other causes like the fight against domestic abuse and climate change.

    Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is very popular, but some think the use of the symbol has posed challenges for him, since Russians are showing that they are willing to rally behind issues they care about.

    Why Vlad should be concerned about a symbol, even if it supports social causes, is a mystery to me though I note the Author has conceded his popularity. I’ll look back later and see if the BBC has changed it!

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-51302335/why-are-russians-using-this-symbol

    3. I’ve checked back as I said and the piece now reads:

      It’s a symbol that is uniting groups of people in Russia on an unprecedented level. It’s even thought to have helped release some people from police custody and some say that the use of the symbol has posed challenges for Vladimir Putin.

      But what is it, what does it mean, and why are Russians using it more and more?

      Lol!

    1. There is no serious attempt to prevent gang violence, or to adequately punish it. The three billion cost of violent crime in London should be incurred in building prisons and detention centres. Carrying a knife should attache a six month sentence, and using it a six year one.

      1. T,
        Why the soft option, 6 year for carrying,same as sawn off
        shotgun on your wall got you a 5 year mandatory sentence.

  38. “The Royal Ballet’s star choreographer has been suspended amid claims of sexual
    misconduct with students in the worst crisis to hit the company for a
    generation, The Times can reveal.

    Liam Scarlett,33, who was made the Royal Ballet’s artist-in-residence after a
    meteoric rise, is understood to have been banned from Covent Garden
    pending an inquiry.

    Independent investigators are examining claims that he behaved inappropriately with
    Royal Ballet School students and encouraged them to send him naked
    photographs.

    The employment firm Linda Harvey Associates was brought in by the Royal
    Ballet last August after staff expressed concerns. The inquiry has not
    concluded and it is understood that no findings have been made against
    Scarlett.”
    Ten years ongoing and nobody said nothing, heck.

      1. The question does arise. Do you actually have a morality blindspot? I would not post an image such as that on ANY public channel.

      1. If our Police and Crime Commissioner is anything to go by, “hate crimes” as categorised above really are their highest priorities. That didn’t go down well with his audience who thought plod should be on the beat deterring burglars and nicking muggers.

      1. Yes. I could hear the late Mrs. Locke casting thunderbolts from above.
        “And I’m deducting 10 house points.”

      2. The social justice mob always turns on itself in ever-more ludicrous denunciations, and it needs enough people to stand against it and say “enough is enough.”
        Chernobyl was one of the factors for the collapse of the USSR. A contagious virus that has gotten out of control may do the same to Communist China.
        At which point, or course, the far left will say “it wasn’t real communism. Let’s try it properly here…”

  43. How it all went right: The great Brexit wound has almost healed. Rod Liddle. 1 February 2020.

    We have the EU to deal with, of course, and the usual sabre-rattling from the likes of Michel Barnier; an indication, I think, of the sheer terror within the 27 that Brexit actually may make us better off after all, and what effect that might have on the disaffected countries still within. And oily Leo Varadkar has announced, with spite, that the UK must get used to being a ‘small country’. Not as small, literally or metaphorically, as yours, mate. Meanwhile we get on with it, stable and thriving, hugely grateful that we trusted not in the establishment, but in democracy.

    Morning everyone. I’ve quoted Rod’s last paragraph, though there is much worth reading, because of his last line. This is a victory of the people against all the forces of darkness in their various forms that the Elites represent. Had it not been for the electorate’s steadfastness in the face of Lies, Threats, Warnings, Corruption and Deceit we would not be leaving the EU. Rest assured they would have sold us out without a qualm had they been able to convince anything that looked like a majority for leaving even post referendum. We must keep our eyes open now for the Great Betrayal even though it will be made to look small and inconsequential!

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2020/02/how-it-all-went-right-the-great-brexit-wound-has-almost-healed/

      1. Progress not perfection, ogga1. I agree we must be vigilant and keep our eyes open, but don’t forget that progress is being made daily. I hope we both raise a glass to that small but momentous step tomorrow at 11 pm.

        1. Morning EB,
          But I do disagree somewhat and in so far as, many of us have had ours eyes wide open for years to no avail, a great many have yet to open their eyes fully and acknowledge the damage this
          lab/lib/con pro eu coalition ( with many of the same politico’s ) has laid upon this nation, especially over the last two decades.
          I to will raise a glass …and sip, when we know the full score I will
          if agree,, swallow in quantity, only a fool would do otherwise.

    3. After Diamonds, they just had two more hit singles in Scarlett O’Hara and Applejack. Tony Meehan, a more than proficient drummer in a jazz style, then left the duo to do religious things as well as go into music production.

          1. Didn’t the Shadows have a hit with ‘Door-knocker’. That explains it.

            Oh, no. It was ‘Foot-tapper’. Got mixed up for a moment there.

        2. I can’t find any reference to Jet Harris’s religious beliefs. According to Wiki Tony Meehan was a Catholic. I know that Brian “Hank” Marvin became a JW.

    4. How many people know that Jet Harris ( a bassist) played a six-string Fender bass on his hits with Tony Meehan?

      1. I, for one, didn’t know Jet Harris played a six-string Fender bass, Grizz.

        Thank you for telling me.

        1. Yes, John. Harris actually played a number of instruments on his hits with Meehan which, on the record, were overdubbed. It seems he was more than just a talented guitarist, he was a pioneer of overdub work and influenced many others.

          He signed with Decca and released solo instrumental and vocal work with some success, “Besame Mucho” and “The Man with the Golden Arm” featuring a Fender VI six-string bass guitar. Then, as part of a duo with former Shadows drummer Tony Meehan, he topped the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in early 1963 with “Diamonds”. Harris and Meehan followed this with two further hit singles, “Scarlett O’Hara” (also written by Jerry Lordan) a UK No. 2, and “Applejack” (composed by Les Vandyke) reaching UK No. 4 also in 1963. Tracks from “Diamonds” onward were recorded with Harris using standard Fender Jaguar and Gretsch guitars, usually de-tuned to D instead of E. Harris was partly responsible for helping Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones break into the music business. Page’s first major session was as a rhythm guitarist on “Diamonds” in late 1962. After “Diamonds” became a hit, Harris and Meehan hired Jones to play bass in their touring band.

          In 1998, he was awarded a Fender Lifetime Achievement Award for his role in popularising the bass guitar in Britain.

          1. Pretty sure I still have the vinyl single of “Diamonds” in it’s orange stripey Decca sleeve. Also “Telstar” and “Robot” by The Tornados and “Dance On” by The Shadows. Instrumentals were more popular in the early 60’s? Maybe just because the talent was there.

          2. Tell me, Grizzly, am I right or wrong in thinking that Jet Harris had a nervous breakdown at some point in his career?

          1. But, Johnny, such snippets of information may be invaluable, should you find yourself involved in a Trivia Quiz.
            ;¬)

      2. We met Jet Harris in 1998, backstage at the Albert Hall, at a concert we’d put on there. I had no idea who he was, but MOH did, and made a fuss of him, which boosted Jet’s ego no end. He was not financially well off, and I think Bruce Welch gave him some money that night. Either way, he came to the after-show party, and told MOH what a great time he’d had, and thanked him for such a great night. He said it was the best night he’d had in a long time.

  45. Idiot Ed Davey sitting tie less on the red sofa of BBC Breakfast TV.

    He is all for HS2, banging on about climate change and getting cars off the road , and less internal air travel .. Irksome rwit.. a leader of no one !

    1. Ed Davey, the goon who tried to close down and flog off the FM radio network, thus forcing the owners of hundreds of millions of perfectly good, working radios to chuck them in the skip. How ‘green’ is that? Thank goodness he failed

      ‘Morning, Belle.

          1. ‘Morning, Hugh, booting is too good for this insect that needs standing on and squashing to a bloody pulp. Apart from that…

      1. Good morning, Belle.

        No, UKIP hasn’t folded but the NEC is doing its darnedest
        to ensure it does!!

          3. Why?

            He’s singlehandedly put off numerous potential UKIP voters and I very much doubt he’s recruited any.

          4. sosraboc – Even back when I could still use this account on Breitbart 2 years ago, the constant “Ogga says: “Joined UKIP yet?”” at the end of every comment they made led to the idea being put forward that Ogga was a hard-left momentum troll. Their job was to damage UKIP and drive people away from the party because, back then at least, it was the only option available if you really wanted to Leave the EU.

            The damage that Ogga1 has done to the idea of UKIP is massive on these forums. I have lost count of the many people who have screamed at them to shut up and that they will never vote for UKIP if he is an example of them. I was a UKIP party member back then after leaving the Conservatives because, under Cameron, they were trying to keep us in the EU. I have never met any real UKIP members who talk in the way that ogga1 does.

            The vast majority of them were “thinking Conservatives” who put the future of the United Kingdom ahead of their own party. Now Ogga1 makes constant attacks on Nigel Farage to try to discredit him as well. If things do not go the way that we want them to, then Farage might be needed again at the next election, so Ogga talks him down. Almost as if any real chance of leaving the EU must be attacked. First UKIP, now Nigel.

          5. Interesting background.
            I’ve posted similarly on here.
            I cannot imagine ever voting UKIP again.

          6. Those were not easy days. I’ve been a Conservative since I was able to work out what was wrong with socialism (so that was a very young age. 🙂

            At that time after the referendum, there were so many “Liberals pretending to be Conservatives” in the party, that they could not be supported any further. In the past 3 years we have seen so many of them calling for a 2nd referendum, or to stay so closely tied to the EU that you would not notice that we had left at all.

            Now we will see what happens next. With a majority of 80+ there can be no excuse at all for us still being tied under EU controls by the next election, whenever it comes.

          7. I certainly hope so; but if the government can approve HS2 it would suggest they don’t care about anything.

      2. Morning TB,
        We are at the moment in a struggle with the ersatz NEc, the real UKIP is still around and when all is revealed will be very much needed.
        By the by not one act of treachery towards GB has ever been acted out by UKIP we should always keep that in mind.

      4. TB,
        Thinking on it that is what was mentioned in June 2016, we have ALL witnessed what happened then.
        If the likes of the true UKIP folded and looking back on the last four decades under the governance of the lab/lib/con parties
        I dread to think of the outcome.

    2. Every UKIP member who ever existed was at that rally. Just one urn of tea was needed for refreshment and only half of that got used!

        1. I didn’t join UKIP because I don’t like the disgusting shade of purple they wear. It reminds me too much of the burgundy EU passport.

          I renewed my UK passport two years ago and I shall have to wait another eight years for a blue one! I will, however, take great delight in erasing the words “European Union” on the front cover with the biggest black felt-tip pen I can find at 23:00 hrs tomorrow.

          1. As has been said before, our new passports will be a much paler shade of blue, and they will, of course, continue to be in the internationally agreed format.

            One UKIP activist I know went to the length of buying a purple car.

          2. Get yourself one of these. https://www.amazon.co.uk/PASSPORT-HOLDER-EUROPEAN-PROTECTOR-LEATHER/dp/B00RJ1Z7PQ/ref=asc_df_B00RJ1Z7PQ/?tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=375385228948&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10467006719978837373&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045784&hvtargid=pla-798126264600&psc=1&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=79625928631&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=375385228948&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=10467006719978837373&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9045784&hvtargid=pla-798126264600

      2. No they weren’t.
        Before Gerard and Richard Braine were scuppered by the NEC, there were 30,000 members. Many have now left.

      3. I had this e-mail from UKIP this morning:

        Nigel Farage says he is ‘mothballing’ his Brexit Party – leaving its supporters high and dry. His next personal adventure is Donald trump’s re-election campaign.
        Meanwhile, Boris is backtracking on his pledges to scrap the Foreign Aid Department and end the unjust prosecutions of Northern Ireland veterans. His Remainer Chancellor, Sajid Javid, has idiotically announced he will prioritise a trade deal with the EU ahead of the US – at once snubbing the US and showing weakness towards the EU, which they will exploit.
        UKIP is needed as much as ever to deliver a true Brexit. Our job is not yet done and we need ex-members to come back and help us win the battle.
        UKIP has a raft of exciting policies for Britain beyond Brexit.
        End mass-immigration
        The Tories will never deliver – they have let in 6,700,000 migrants since 2010
        Scrap foreign aid and fund the NHS instead
        Scrap the BBC licence fee
        Scrap ‘green’ taxes – which hit low income-earners whilst filling the pockets of millionaire windfarm developers
        End political correctness and support free speech
        Take back full control of our fishing waters,
        Abolish the House of Lords
        Voting Reform

        Our policies resonate with the voters as shown by pollster BMG Research, putting us back on the political map in their January poll.
        Please re-join UKIP by clicking here and help us fight for post-Brexit Britain.
        It doesn’t matter if you supported the Brexit party. We were all on the same side and need to come together again. A warm welcome awaits you.

        I replied:

        Sort out the squabbling NEC, elect a real leader, like Batten and you may gain some credibility back.

        Until that happens, I, and I’m sure many others, will have no more truck with an obviously broken party.

        Regards

          2. Very strange:-

            >From ~~Vox Populi Integrity, 25 January 2020 at 9:04 am

            PLEASE FORWARD TO EVERY BODY YOU KNOW !

            UKIP has lost its way, isn’t fit to survive and probably won’t, there
            could soon be an alternative. But if UKIP lives on, it must not have NEC
            member David Kurten, who managed to fool many he’s loyal, moderate,
            useful, decent etc., anywhere near its helm. He’s the worst of the bunch.

            This email updates and expands on one from longtime member Mr Robert
            Stephenson, UKIP’s National Nominating Officer, Treasurer (London
            region) and Secretary (Lambeth branch) to 60 people, sent on 3 November
            2019 at 12:15 pm and published at:
            https://kippercentral.com/2019/10/26/david-kurten-am-says-ukip-is-at-a-
            crossroads/#comment-33901

            TO WHOEVER IT MAY CONCERN – ISSUED IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST

            David Kurten – Serious Concerns.

            A former Conservative, David Kurten joined UKIP in 2012. He stood for
            the party in the May 2015 general election in the parliamentary
            constituency of Camberwell & Peckham. At least two controversies arose
            from this candidacy.

            At the Margate conference in February 2015, David Soutter, the Head of
            Candidates, messaged the Chairman of the Southwark branch to inform him
            that Kurten had suddenly decided to withdraw as a prospective
            parliamentary candidate (PPC). This resulted in an urgent meeting
            between the Chairman and Soutter, and later a meeting with Kurten who
            was not at all candid and direct in his communications. This caused the
            Southwark branch much consternation, being forced to find a replacement
            PPC. Later, after the conference, Kurten decided to remain as the PPC
            for Camberwell & Peckham. His indecision was noted.

            Immediately after the election, a financial dispute arose involving
            Kurten. Despite holding a full-time job (with free accommodation
            supplied) as a chemistry teacher at a private boarding school for girls,
            Kurten was not prepared to spend a penny on his campaign. The branch
            paid for the Election Address and his deposit (which he lost, getting
            1.8% at a time when the party averaged 12.6% nationally and 8.2% in
            London). This was followed by considerable arguments, with Kurten
            demanding that the Southwark branch reimburse him for a further slew of
            expenses. Kurten threatened to report the branch to the Electoral
            Commission if he was not paid.

            Kurten then took a long summer holiday in Thailand, to which it is
            understood he travelled alone.

            In September 2015, Kurten applied to stand in the 2016 London Assembly
            elections. He was selected number two on the party’s London-wide list.
            It is widely believed he only got this position at the insistence of the
            Leader’s choice as number one, Whittle, for reasons unknown but widely
            speculated about. It was surely not on the basis of Kurten’s political
            performance, abilities or mediocre speeches at selection, repeating many
            times that he had been a chemistry teacher and that he was black so
            could not be called racist. Playing the Race Card is not the UKIP way.
            Since then, Kurten has got better at prepared speeches, but that is not
            saying much.

            London members were not allowed to select the candidates they would be
            campaigning for. London MEP Gerard Batten and others had long in advance
            advocated boycotting the selection because it was a “fix”. Kurten
            reportedly did poorly at both the vetting assessment and the
            presentations which were held publicly at the Central London Marriott
            Hotel, but the Party Director went away with all the uncounted ballots
            in a box and came back weeks later with the results of what became the
            UKIP London-wide List.

            The results had been accurately predicted by Breitbart Editor Raheem
            Kassam well in advance, in a published article in Independence. The
            degree of accuracy was astonishing – somehow, the journalist managed to
            predict, and in the correct order, the identities of five of the top six
            candidates in the list, including Kurten. This led to widespread
            accusations of electoral malpractice in which Kurten was probably not
            involved, but from which he greatly benefited.

            Kurten applied to be a candidate for the London Assembly elections
            knowing that he did not live in London and therefore would be ineligible
            to stand. Thereafter, he sent out an email to people asking them if he
            could use their address even though he was not living there. This
            debacle was widely covered in the press, including in the Evening
            Standard:
            https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-man-sought-false-address-
            to-stand-in-assembly-elections-a3135736.html
            “Ukip man sought false address to stand in Assembly elections | London
            Evening Standard .. A Ukip London Assembly candidate asked for a bogus
            address in the capital to enable him to stand in next year’s elections,
            the Standard has learned. David Kurten, who is currently living outside
            London ..”

            Eventually Kurten did find a London address to use so he could stand in
            the elections, but that was after the date he falsely made the
            declaration. He escaped both prosecution and disqualification.

            On 28 October 2015, at a Croydon branch meeting, Kurten promised, should
            he be elected, to pay a regular contribution, out of his AM salary, to
            the party. A few days after his election, at a London regional committee
            meeting on 9 May 2016 held at the upstairs room of the Old Doctor
            Butler’s Head public house in Moorgate in the City of London and in the
            presence of all regional officers and about 40 others, the question of
            Kurten’s promised tithing payments was raised by an NEC member in
            attendance. He was asked if these could be used for the forthcoming
            referendum campaign but no reply was given. He was then asked if he had
            any intention of making payments as promised to the party. Kurten was
            apparently so overwhelmed with anger that he was rendered speechless.
            Kurten stood up, loudly banged his bag on the table and stormed out of
            the meeting, with at least one person reporting there were tears
            streaming down his cheek as he started to descend the stairs.

            Kurten never attended a London regional committee meeting since, but
            attempted to present himself as the victim and censure the person who
            questioned him. Because the committee was blamed by some for this
            boycott, an investigation was carried out, and a formal confidential
            report made to the NEC. It unfortunately leaked and is now found here:
            https://ukip-vs-eukip.com/2017/07/19/titheing-or-absence-of-by-ukip-
            london-assembly-members
            This document has not been repudiated and since then, NEC members
            confirmed the report was genuinely the one sent to them. The report
            concluded, on the basis of interviewing all attendees at that Croydon
            meeting, that, on the balance of evidence, Kurten had been untruthful in
            his denials.

            At the snap June 2017 general election press launch held in April,
            Kurten co-announced the Integration Agenda, which led to a catastrophic
            drop in UKIP’s opinion polling, an exodus of members and drove out many
            Muslim members of UKIP, including Mr Stephenson’s predecessor as London
            regional treasurer who resigned that same day. The policy was ridiculed
            because, among other things, it involved “implementing school-based
            medical checks on girls from groups at high risk of suffering FGM,
            annually and whenever they return from trips overseas”:
            https://defencebrief.blogspot.com/2017/04/ukips-integration-agenda.html

            Reportedly, when questioned by the journalist Michael Crick at the same
            disastrous event, Kurten was tricked into advocating the need for a
            special, “Religious” Police Force in Britain. This would mean Britain
            joined Iran and Saudi Arabia, and is ridiculous. At the time Mr
            Stephenson heard that Kurten had freely admitted he is no good at
            “thinking on his feet”, only at prepared speeches.

            When a former colleague of Kurten’s was approached for comment with a
            guarantee of anonymity, the teacher remarked he was unsurprised…..
            even about solo explorations.

            In summer 2017, Kurten contested the party leadership election, losing
            by a large margin to Henry Bolton and Anne Marie Waters. Once again,
            Kurten did not fund his own deposit or campaign; he crowd-funded it,
            acquiring a surplus. It is not known how the surplus was dissipated or
            distributed, but it was not to the set of original donors.

            At UKIP leadership hustings Mr Stephenson attended in London on 18 July
            and 29 August 2017, Kurten minimised his role in the disastrous
            “Integration Agenda”, denied he broke his tithing commitment and
            astoundingly claimed to have taken a pay-drop to become a member of the
            London Assembly.

            In August 2017 Kurten, who says he is a scientist, published a claim
            that gay people are that way because they were abused as children. The
            claim was amended. The scandal was widely reported. He was denounced by
            his own fellow UKIP Assembly member and by the Deputy Party Chairman who
            stated, “David Kurten’s comments are utterly disgraceful. Sadly I am not
            surprised by them: Kurten has on numerous occasions shown himself to be
            vehemently opposed to homosexuality .. In my opinion he is not fit for
            elected office nor leadership of a political party.” Kurten has become
            notorious for it as can be seen here:
            https://kippercentral.com/2017/08/10/kurten-campaign-in-chaos-after-pink-
            news-article
            https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/08/09/ukip-assembly-member-not-fit-for-
            elected-office-after-anti-gay-comments-says-partys-deputy-chair
            https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/08/14/ukip-david-kurten-police-should-
            not-ponce-rainbows

            Again and again, Kurten refused to make any financial contribution to
            the party or even meet his own expenses.

            In 2018, he contested the Lewisham East by-election, but only on the
            condition that the party paid for his deposit and covered his campaign
            costs. This might be understandable if he were a volunteer activist.
            However, Kurten entirely owes his current financially very comfortable
            position to UKIP, which placed him on the London Assembly party list in
            2016. The annual salary for a London Assembly member is £58,500. This
            does not include extra allowances for membership of committees and other
            offices held. It should also be noted that Kurten is a single man, has
            never married and has no known dependents.

            Partly due to Kurten’s pronouncements that homosexuality is often the
            result of childhood sexual abuse:
            https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2018/05/14/ukip-david-kurten-lewisham-east-
            anti-gay
            and partly because he did nothing (leaving work to Richard Braine, Dr.
            Ryan Waters and Gerard Batten), Kurten came only sixth in that June 2018
            election. The Women’s Equality Party got one-third more votes than he
            did.

            In 2018-19 Kurten resigned his positions in UKIP and removed all mention
            of UKIP from his Twitter handle and UKIP branding from his web presence.
            In December 2018, he dissolved the UKIP group on the London Assembly,
            forming a new one:
            https://www.standard.co.uk/news/mayor/ukip-london-assembly-members-form-
            new-brexit-alliance-group-a4016191.html

            Mr Stephenson stated “Indeed, over my many years as a London member,
            branch officer, district officer, regional officer and now national
            officer, I can say that after summer 2016, Kurten never helped or
            offered to help in UKIP London until, now he is seeking office, when he
            has put in several appearances outside Parliament.”

            Others uncomfortable with Batten’s involvement with Robinson etc. put
            the party first and worked for UKIP in the May 2019 European
            Parliamentary election campaign, but Kurten did nothing at all.

            During the campaign for the June 2019 Peterborough by-election, Kurten
            campaigned for The Brexit Party candidate, not for the UKIP candidate.
            He was seen at The Brexit Party street stall in Peterborough city centre
            by several UKIP members. Photographs were taken of his presence. When he
            became aware that UKIP members had spotted him, or perhaps for some
            other reason, it appeared that he tried to hide. He made no appearance
            at the nearby UKIP stall for the UKIP candidate.

            In August 2019, Kurten told police not to “ponce around” at LGBT+
            events. The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines “ponce” as an “offensive
            and disparaging” term for a “male homosexual”:
            https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/08/14/ukip-david-kurten-police-should-
            not-ponce-rainbows

            A video was circulated in 2019 showing Kurten inside a building at a
            restricted donors’ reception of The Brexit Party. It is likely that
            Kurten tried to hitch his wagon to The Brexit Party, but was given the
            cold shoulder. Rumours about this abound and they come from former UKIP
            personnel who had signed up with The Brexit Party.

            That could explain why, in October 2019, suddenly and for the first
            time, Kurten expressed an interest in the NEC. Kurten will doubtless
            have an eye on reselection for the 2020 London Assembly elections and on
            the party leadership itself, perhaps to exert influence over candidate
            (re)selection, to sell off UKIP to the highest bidder or do a deal which
            involved UKIP’s demise.

            Since the opening of the December 2019 general election campaign, Kurten
            decided to publicly project-manage the UKIP Manifesto.

            However, without warning or providing a reason, on 22 January 2020 at
            8:52 am, Kurten emailed the so-called Interim Chairman and Interim
            Leader stating: “I am resigning as Head of Policy and as Education
            Spokesman. I am also resigning from the UKIP NEC.”

            It is speculated this is because he realised the NEC would not support
            his automatic reinstatement as UKIP’s top London Assembly candidate
            without a contest.

            There is so much more, but this is enough to show that if they endorse
            or appoint Kurten to any other position in UKIP, or allow him to pass
            vetting, this is likely to lead to yet more disappointment for UKIP’s
            remaining membership and even worse scandals coming to light, when
            independent researchers dig deep into his past.

            Kurten will walk away from UKIP once he figures he can’t squeeze any
            more out of it or he can sell the party down the river. He owed
            everything to UKIP, but gave precious little back. The sooner Kurten
            goes, the better, yesterday wouldn’t be soon enough. No other party will
            take him. He can go back to teaching, or stand as an Independent and
            lose his crowdfunded deposit.

            But, in the interests of balance, it must be acknowledged that this
            Stephenson’s email failed to commend Kurten for his robust competence at:

            1_ Maintaining separation of church and state, by refusing to
            acknowledge or discuss Islam and the great threat it poses to Britain
            and Europe

            2_ Condemning all support of, sympathy for or involvement with
            activists/journalists like Carl Benjamin (Sargon of Akkad), Stephen
            Yaxley-Lennon (Tommy Robinson) and Anne Marie Waters (lesbian) – all
            Atheists

            3_ Teaching teenagers the benefits of sexual abstinence, while allowing
            parents to opt their children entirely out of sex-education classes:
            https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leadership-candidate-sparks-
            backlash-10960803
            begging the question about who benefits from keeping children ignorant
            about dangers relating to sex and adult sexual predators

            4_ Calling for an outright ban on same-sex marriage and a reversal of
            party policy and law on it, throwing the legal status of tens of
            thousands of such unions entered into in the UK since 2013 into doubt;
            this is in the face of a 2019 poll showing “gay marriage” has 85%
            popular support in the UK:
            https://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/index.cfm/ResultDoc/d
            ownload/DocumentKy/87771

            5_ Cutting the abortion time limit from 20 to only 12 weeks:
            https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ukip-leadership-candidate-sparks-
            backlash-10960803
            this immediately and in the face of overwhelming public opposition, and,
            reportedly, eventually criminalising all abortion, i.e., from the moment
            of conception, even if the mother was an underage victim of rape or
            incest, unless an investigating medical panel were to testify that the
            mother’s life was in imminent danger, in any other circumstance, those
            involved, including the rape victim, would face mandatory life
            imprisonment for murder

            6_ Toning down Animal Welfare policies, specially WATOK, to reduce
            offending Muslim or Jewish religious sensitivities, even though banning
            non-stun slaughter has overwhelming (83%) public support:
            https://5pillarsuk.com/2019/12/20/poll-vast-majority-of-britons-want-to-
            end-halal-slaughter
            and 100% medical support:
            https://www.bva.co.uk/take-action/our-policies/non-stun-slaughter
            https://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaign/slaughter
            where the British Veterinary Association and RSPCA throw their weight
            behind a ban. There are also:
            https://twitter.com/Ban_Halal_UK
            https://www.globalmeatnews.com/Article/2019/02/07/Non-stun-slaughter-
            action-urged
            and thousands of petitions like:
            https://www.thepetitionsite.com/520/092/969/stop-the-barbaric-cruelty
            https://www.change.org/p/david-cameron-ban-non-stun-animal-slaughter
            https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/64331
            https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/262607
            It is already the law in Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Norway, Sweden and
            Switzerland.

            7_ Repeating, accompanied by rapid, large upper-body motions, the same
            prepared speech about “Cultural Marxism”. In 2017 it is reported that
            the leader of UKIP’s largest group of councillors in the capital, and
            Batten’s long-term office manager, commented that Kurten could have been
            a wonderful Children’s Entertainer

            8_ Bringing his own intolerant interpretation of “Christian” values to
            the front and centre of UKIP

            9_ Dodging political bullets for his blundering, inside and outside
            UKIP, by playing to perfection the Race Card

            10_ Contriving to never put his hand in his own pocket, getting others
            to fund everything, in spite of his being in a lucrative public job he
            got only because of his attractiveness to another candidate and the hard
            work put in by UKIP members

            11_ Pushing the NEC on which he sat into unwise legal action in October
            2019, was it with an eye to a leadership opportunity this could open up?

            12_ Plumbing virgin depths of hypocrisy and self-interest:
            https://kippercentral.com/2019/11/03/ukip-nec-election-results/#comment-
            34055
            “Yes, let’s have David Kurten, who agrees that anyone who is a
            “subscriber” to Alan Craig’s emails, even if they’ve never met him and
            had no idea what he thinks before signing up, should be barred from the
            party, while his own longstanding personal association with Craig, pals
            for years and having him as his leadership campaign manager, doesn’t
            count. The man’s being utterly disingenuous.” (Jon Jones, 7 November
            2019 at 4:34 pm)

  47. With regard to the furore [sorry: “the chucking of teddies out of cots”] over the lack of an “Oxford Comma” on the commemorative 50p coin (and how unusual is that, given that most critics waste oceans of oxygen deploring that grammatical device?); don’t you think—that in a world with manifold problems that represent a clear and present danger to us all—it is only the anally-retentive who work themselves up into a lather over such trivia?

    I certainly do.

      1. No, Joe (is that a song?).

        I just tell those that do that I’m sick of listening to their whining.

    3. Agreed. But there’s a fine line between arguing over a (IMO unneeded) comma and taking English usage in general too seriously. As long as the meaning is clear, I can live with less than perfect grammar and sentence construction.

      Half a lifetime living in the US will do that, I suppose. After all, it’s not as if the BBC is the gold standard of the language any more.

      1. Very true, Jack. The decline in the BBC started when it eschewed—and started to ignore—its very own pronunciation and style guide.

    1. No, but there may be fewer.
      (Sorry TB. Couldn’t resist. It’s like having a stone in one’s shoe)

    2. Will there be less fewer lorries on the road..

      ‘Morning, Belle. You have just been peddied.

    3. No, Belle, it will not.
      There will not be fewer lorries on the road.
      HS2 will not connect to any freight termini,
      there is simply no track capacity to reach these termini at the southern end.

    5. Having less plurals is like referring to a person of indeterminate gender as “they”. Refects the quality of English expression in modern times.

      As for the actual points – of course HS2 will divert railway investment towards the fairly swift transport of wealthy executives between Euston and Curzon Street, and away from anything else.

      There will be more lorries on our smart motorways. I hope A&E can cope.

      1. It’ll be the same as the funding the TGV network which starved the SNCF core of funding for decades.

      2. The received fiction is that the West Coast Main Line, relieved by HS2 of some of the burden of passenger traffic, will have more capacity for freight.

        1. Much WCML Freight, especially the electric haulage, comes from Tilbury, Felixstowe & Harwich getting onto the WCML via London.

          If the existing route from the Orwell ports via Haughly Jn. Ely, Peterborough, Leicester & Nuneaton to Birmingham could be electrified, this traffic would then not only avoid London and the southern part of the WCML, but would have a much shorter route with turn offs onto the ECML and MML.

    1. Occasionally, they get creative with things like that here and let the Air Force take it down. Much more fun than any other way.

    1. This isn’t the first time Baroness Scotland has been caught splashing around the taxpayers’ cash.
      She and chum are untouchable.
      The same rules don’t apply to them.

    2. How they dance around it. We are talking about corruption and possibly fraud. “Baroness Scotland” does not give a fig for the law. She brazenly employed an illegal immigrant. I doubt if this person has ever been to Scotland in her life.
      Isn’t it just wonderful that she is in charge of our relations with the Commonwealth at this time when we need to bolster them?

      1. Does YB pay his Head of Coffee £40,000 pa? Thought not – you should demand a pay rise forthwith.

      2. The Tate responded:

        “£40,000 to manage someone making cups of coffee is okay. It is not as if it’s OUR money anyway is it? Now back to work and pay those taxes. We will be asking for some arts subsidies at some point.”

        1. IT is only tax payers money do they dont care and if the pas the Head off Coffee £30K think would the head of the Tate can pay themselves

  52. Just had a very good pre brexit lunch. English fillet steak. English peas and carrots. Scottish potatoes Colmans Mustard. French red wine etc..
    Looking foeard to Brexit lunch tomorrow and post Brexit lunch on Saturday. Now smoking a very mild Sancho Panza cigar.

    1. “Darcy Maher, a passenger in the car travelling behind the car, said he was “very shocked”.

      Not half as shocked as the driver when he had to negotiate a low bridge!

          1. Morning NTN.

            I once bought an extension ladder and got it home in a hatchback (down the back streets).

          2. I brought a 3 metre ladder home in my Ford Capri – I threaded it in through the sunroof which just left 1 metre sticking out above the roof.

  54. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2020/01/29/eurosceptic-mission-will-not-eu-withers-away/

    The Eurosceptic mission will not be over until the EU withers away by Allister Heath

    We live in France and we well remember the’facts’ brochure about the Maastricht Treaty which we all received before the referendum.

    It was not a ‘facts’ brochure at all – it was straight-forward propaganda for the European Project and many people saw it for what it was. Indeed, just before the vote ‘Non’ was five points ahead in the opinion polls.

    President Mitterand was not prepared to accept ‘Non’ as an answer and so he chose this moment to announce a fact that he had concealed before the presidential elections – that he had terminal cancer. He then used blatant emotional blackmail.

    “You would not,” he told the French people, “destroy the dream of an old, dying man who served his country in the War for a united and peaceful Europe.” (Of course at that time his collaboration with the Germans in sending Jews to their death when France was occupied was not widely known.)

    The result of the referendum was ‘Oui’ by a majority of less than one percent and was only announced when the votes from overseas departments had been received and these were widely believed to have been tampered with.

    2. They have devolved even further back to their true colours these days, going so far as to shoot one of their own people in the street and claim a “crazy Brexiteer loner” did it, just to drum up sympathy for the pro-EU cause. Allegedly. Not that it made much of a difference.

      It might explain though, why Gina Miller decided to spend the last days before the general election holed-up in a bunker refusing to open the door to any of her friends or financial backers.

  55. Having re-constructed all the roundabouts near us and making a bloody awful mess of it, the Gas people are now digging up all the pavements for miles around, at the same time as the fibre broadband people are doing the same.
    No problem unless you want to get your car out of the drive.
    Where is all this money coming from all of a sudden.They were all waiting until after Brexit so that they could blame Boris for it ?

    2. The end of the financial year is approaching, i.e. we ae in the last 1/4, so they want to use up their budgets to ensure funds for next year.

      1. Fitted carpets psycho-geriatric wards.
        Laid before 31st. March; binned as a stinking heap before 31st. May.

  58. Ooops …. I read this on the interwebby.

    “https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/01/29/downing-st-cuts-bbc-prime-minister-films-brexit-address-nation/

    Downing Street cuts out BBC as Boris Johnson films Brexit Day address to the nation

    Anita Singh Anna Mikhailova, Deputy Political Editor

    The BBC and other broadcasters are in a stand-off with No 10 over the Prime Minister’s plan to address the nation as Britain leaves the European Union.

    Boris Johnson intends to break with a long-standing tradition by using his personal videographer to record the historic message, bypassing the media.

    The BBC said it will not guarantee that Mr Johnson’s address will be aired.

    The message is understood to take the form of a “fireside chat”, urging the nation to embrace Brexit.

    No 10 then plans to hand out the prerecorded footage for use on air. All previous Prime Ministers have used the ‘pool’ system, in which footage is shot by one broadcaster and shared with others.

    A BBC spokesman said: “There is a long-established process for recording statements by the Prime Minister at significant times where one broadcaster records it and shares the footage.

    “The BBC and the other broadcasters are well used to following this usual process, which respects our independence as broadcasters.

    “If Number 10 wants to supply its own footage we will judge it on its news value when deciding whether to broadcast it, as we would with any footage supplied to us by third parties.”

    It is understood the Prime Minister’s address will be a fireside chat, filmed by the Number 10 digital team and aimed at attracting younger audiences through Facebook and Youtube, but available for use to all broadcasters.

    Downing Street is pursuing a digital-focused approach to modernise the way it communicates with the public.

    Since the beginning of the general election campaign, Mr Johnson has appeared in a number of videos shot by No 10’s digital team.

    Earlier this week, he was recorded answering “the internet’s burning questions”, which included: “Does Brexit happen on Friday?” (“Definitely”), “Is Boris Johnson going to sell the NHS?” (“No”), and, “Does Brexit make my passport expire?” “(No, but it does mean that you are entitled to a beautiful new blue passport”).

    The stand-off follows allegations by the Tories of alleged Left-wing bias on the part of the BBC and Channel 4.

    The decision to put out in-house videos comes after Dominic Cummings, Mr Johnson’s chief adviser, said he wanted to bypass traditional methods of communication between the Government and the public.

    In a job advertisement, he called for “deep experts on TV and digital” and “people who have worked in movies or an advertising campaigns” to apply for positions, saying: “With no election for years and huge changes in the digital world, there is a chance and a need to do things very differently.”

    Earlier in the day, the Prime Minister appeared to signal that a truce with the BBC was on the horizon.

    The Government has been at loggerheads with the broadcaster over alleged bias in its political coverage. But during Prime Minister’s Questions, Boris Johnson said the BBC remains a “cherished institution” “and is “not a mortal enemy of the Conservative Party”.

    On Tuesday, the director-general, Lord Hall of Birkenhead, conceded that the BBC’s political interviews have been too confrontational.”

    1. Amazing how “false news” appears these days, Annie. (Good morning, btw.) I refer, of course, to the article’s “The stand-off follows allegations by the Tories of alleged Left-wing bias on the the part of the BBC and Channel 4”. Allegations? Alleged? Don’t make me laugh!

    2. “If Number 10 wants to supply its own footage we will judge it on its news value** when deciding whether to broadcast it, as we would with any footage supplied to us by third parties.”
      The only thing wrong with that statement is the BBC website.
      For most of the stories that the BBC headlines under “country” or “area” sub-pages, the BBC transfers you to the websites* of local papers. These pages are written by local journalists and are not written by the BBC and the BBC have no editorial control.
      Yet this nobody, Ms Anita Singh Anna Mikhailova, seems to threaten not to broadcast an important speech by the Prime Minister. I expect that she will be contradicted by someone higher up, possibly within hours. The BBC are just trying it on. Well known tactic. Get a subordinate to suggest something a bit outrageous and see how the suggestion is received. Then respond accordingly.
      Of course, if Mr Cummings simply says “too bad: we won’t bother to send you the video”, the BBC will fall into a gigantic hole. They will have ceased to be the “national broadcaster”.

      Over to you, BBC dimwits…

      ** As newsworthy as wee dogs in plastic bootees?

      *When this happens, as it always does it you go past the BBC website front pages, you are then interrupted by a “Privacy pop-up” asking you to allow cookies. (I’m trying to hold off from having a rant on this subject.)

  60. SIR—”Smart” means neat, tidy and well-groomed. Not a good description of modern motorways.
    It certainly does not mean “intelligent”.

    A Grizzly B

    2. Good morning Grizz and others,
      Back in the day, I remember a policeman explaining to us lads that if one’s vehicle ever breaks down on a motorway, all the occupants should exit as soon as possible. GTFO and stand well away on the grass verge etc, even in the pouring rain.
      In Spain it is obligatory to carry standardised high visibility yellow waistcoats inside the car (not the boot), and there must be one available for each occupant of the vehicle. In fact, I believe that it is an offence to stand or walk at the edge of a dual carriageway without wearing a ‘chaleco homologado’.

      1. ‘Morning, Tim.

        Here in Sweden we have to carry the obligatory reflective triangle in the car boot but not a yellow vest. Having said that, nearly everyone in the country has either a vest or a full yellow jacket.

        1. Minor point of order, Grizz – current thinking in yer ukay is not to use a triangle on the motorway because it will probably be blown over or away (or flattened by a truck driver watching his telly, and you with it as you take your life in your hands to place and then retrieve it). No doubt the advice will change for something completely different next week…

          1. For the reasons you’ve given, Hugh, I think they are a dozy idea on the continent too. You have to walk back 100 yards (I’m English, I eschew ‘metres’), sometimes in heavy traffic and no pavement, to put the flimsy thing down where it is easily blown or knocked over.

  61. The BBC just can’t let go. It finished this morning’s ‘Today’ programme with an interview with Dick Taverne. He made a name for himself in the early 70s when he won a by-election in Lincoln in 1973, standing as an independent having been deselected by the local Labour Party because of his pro-EEC views. He held the seat in the February 1974 general election but lost it in October of that year.

    He bemoaned our leaving the EU and made the extraordinary claim that “it was Britain that was responsible for the starting of single market; it was Mrs Thatcher’s idea, incidentally…”. She might have approved of the broad principle yet we have been told many times that she thought the SEA turned out badly and had been misled over it.

    He went on to talk about the important principle of standing up for one’s ideas and not being bullied and dictated to – oh, the irony! He finished with the usual guff about the dangers of leaving when China is becoming a dominant power, Russia is becoming aggressive and the USA is withdrawing into isolation. “Britain is going to have very little influence,” said the old duffer. What real influence did we have within it, Dickie old fella? Go and have a nice cup of tea and a biscuit and stop fretting.

    1. Are all Left thinkers so deluded. America has concluded trade deals with

      Australia
      Bahrain
      Canada
      Chile
      Colombia
      Costa Rica
      Dominican Republic
      El Salvador
      Guatemala
      Honduras
      Israel
      Jordan
      Korea
      Mexico
      Morocco
      Nicaragua
      Oman
      Panama
      Peru
      Singapore

      And soon the United Kingdom.

      Doesn’t look isolationist to me.

  62. Grizz said on here a couple of days ago that he did not have a credit card. Not having accredit crd can cause problems when booking , registering and/or checking out of hotels.
    Many will not accept debit cards without placing some kind* of hold on a large sum of money. This could prevent expenditure elsewhere. Nor will many hotels accept cash.

    *Technical term. In essence it means that it is a lot easier, and maybe safer, to use a credit card than wrangle with hotel receptionists about the hotel chain policy.
    My last serious wrangle was when dry cleaner would not accept my £50 note (all I had). When I suggested that he call the police he gave in.

    1. I have two (count ’em!) credit cards, which I rarely use, but when I do, I pay the balance in full when the bill arrives.

      1. I have a single Debit Card that I only use for Internet purchases and drawing cash out from a cashpoint.

    2. Credit card use is almost universal in the US if you have decent credit. Primary reason? Federal law limits any liability for fraud, fake charges, etc., to $35. With debit cards, you have to argue with your bank. Also, using a credit card and paying it off regularly pushes scores up with the credit agencies.

      1. In the UK on amounts over a £100 if the supply does not deliver the goods or the are faulty or the company goes bankrupt up can go to your card company to get your money back. Many card as well give cashback on your purchases

    3. If you have a load of direct debits and a regular income credit going into your current account, using a credit card especially for larger items, or for an impule purchase, then paying off later, helps stop you being charged 39 per cent interest for accidentally going over your bank balance.

    4. We use credit cards for everything, and we pay the balance off each month, so unless there’s a problem with the payment from the bank, we don’t pay any interest.

      2. Exactly the same with us. We have a John Lewis card and every so often we are rewarded with £25, £30 vouchers, depending on how much we have spent. Absolutely everything goes on that card and we pay the balance every month.

      3. And, ‘cos you kept the cash in your bank for another month, you earn some interest, too.

    5. “Grizz said on here a couple of days ago that he did not have a credit card.”
      #metoo!
      A Visa Debit and a CitiBank ATM only. Never had a problem anywhere in the world.

      1. Hotels in general do not accept them as they dont know what you final bill will be so cannot fully charge the debit card with a credit card it is not a problem

      2. I don’t have a credit card, we don’t believe in them.. I don’t even have a decent mobile phone either ..

        We took a step backwards and are quite content with that!

          1. My old Nokia comes in the car with me .. when I am travelling alone, but how did we all manage years ago.

            Moh has a decent one , but he grapples around and will never get used to it .. too much choice and stuff .. It takes lovely photos ..and when we are out in the countryside walking the dogs , he whatsapped my sister in Cape Town .. she was in her garden and we were having a very chilly walk near the bird reserve .. The clarity was incredible .. we could see and hear each other ..

          3. “he whatsapped my sister in Cape Town ” Oh, the swine, I hope you’re filing for divorce, Belle.

      3. I don’t have a bloody debit card now either!

        This afternoon, trying to be a smart arse with my pidgin-Swedish, I attempted to purchase two items from different firms online. With the first I negotiated the Swedish web page with no problem and successfully placed my order.

        On the second I was presented with a far more user-unfriendly site. I filled in the details but then it asked me to confirm my identity using my card-reader. When it asked for my Kortpin (card PIN) I entered my password instead (something I do as a matter of course when accessing my bank account online). I didn’t understand the response so, after two more unsuccessful attempts, my card was blocked!

        D’oh!

        Luckily my local bank branch is only five minutes away and I attended, informed them they have a muppet for a customer, and ordered a new card.

        1. My pension goes to a New York Citibank branch (or whatever they call them) and I siphon of a monthly amount online. I swear that they try and trick me with their security in a different way every time.

          1. My pension goes directly into an English branch of the Swedish worldwide bank Handelsbanken. I transfer a sum each month to my local Swedish branch of the same bank. The transfer fee, regardless of the amount transferred, is £1·50 per transaction.

            Halifax and Nationwide used to charge me between £20 and £35 depending on the amount transferred!

          4. That’s good. I used to get a free transfer when I had a fixed monthly sum coming in but when I lowered it to suit my nonworking income they started charging 30 bucks. “A new banking regulation, sir. Have a nice day.”

    6. As I said then, I have never experienced any problems using my debit card. Anywhere in the world. Online or in person. Hotels, travel, care hire or anything else.

      No one has ever attempted to put a “hold” on anything in my account. I’d tell them where to go if they even thought about attempting it.

      1. Your cheque has been refused, words and figures differ.

        This afternoon, trying to be a smart arse with my pidgin-Swedish, I
        attempted to purchase two items from different firms online. With the
        first I negotiated the Swedish web page with no problem and successfully
        placed my order.

        On the second I was presented with a far more
        user-unfriendly site. I filled in the details but then it asked me to
        confirm my identity using my card-reader. When it asked for my Kortpin I
        entered my password instead (something I do as a matter of course when
        accessing my bank account online). I didn’t understand the response so,
        after two more unsuccessful attempts, my card was blocked!

          1. Possibly not, it was a banking expression from a long time ago when cheques got bounced for that reason.

            As you had just told us that you had never had a problem with your debit card and moments later had told us you had had a problem, “words and figures differ” seemed appropriate.

          2. The problem was not with the debit card.

            The problem was with the muppet who was permitted to possess one.

          5. One never knows.
            I spent too much time today negotiating with a call centre, in God knows where, trying to pay the balance on my wife’s card where I am also a holder.
            For some reason, best known to the website, the payment was refused, where in the past it has always worked.

            Not my day for banking, I tried to close a dormant account and the amount involved was £0.01. Instead of asking if I wanted it closed and the credit amount written off, they sent me a cheque for that amount.
            I have little doubt that if I don’t pay it in, the account will remain open.

            Apparently, much of this kind of crap is down to EU money-laundering regulations.

          6. Much of it is actually down to computers and the “rules” programmed in, which are designed to remove the necessity and authority for making any kind of decision from anyone except senior managers.

            We do seem to have our call centres in country here. Had to call one the other day for a company in South Carolina. Lady with a real Dolly Parton accent, and impeccable manners dealt with it accurately and promptly, ending with “Y’all have yourself a great day, now”.

          7. I tried to clear my Amex balance, fail, fail, fail.

            It turns out that my bank has a maximum amount transferrable to Amex in a day.
            Did my bank tell me? Of course not.

            It’s taken four days to go through the process.

          8. LIke so called Data Protection Act. Used by lots of companies to refuse to divulge anything that has nothing whatsoever to do with DPA , which deals with “personal data.

            MOH received annual feedback from the renting agency that he had rented out his house in Cardiff with. . They were worse than useless. When they said the property had some wear and tear (this to a property with no furniture) MOH asked for photos of the supposed wear and tear.

            It turned out that this was a kicked in part of the wainscot in the hall, and some other tearing to the wallpaper.

            We asked for photos and were told we couldn’t have them because of Data Protection. I actually gave it to them both barrels and said they should consult their legal advisers before they came out with that kind of rubbish. They backed down and MOH sold the property.

            Those people were worse than useless, but if I hadn’t know what the DPA covers, without legal advice we would have been stuffed.

            Too many companies misuse the DPA.

          9. Lawfare, pure and simple.
            It’s an excuse they use to put people off getting their rights.
            I hate them all.

          10. Me too. But it’s not even the law..

            It’s simply an excuse for lazy companies not to answer questions.

    7. I always carry my million pound note these days. Strangely enough I eat my meal or pay for my shopping and they can’t come up with enough change.

    8. I don’t use my (one) credit card much, hardly ever.

      My main use of it is foreign car hire. The hire companies insist on a credit card against which they can place a deposit or charge for uninsured damage, etc. I then pay it off in full on the following month’s statement.

      1. Car hire, airline tickets, hotels . . . All assume that you use credit cards for advance reservations, is it worth the hassle of insisting on any other form of payment?

        Flights, hotel, car for the next trip all booked with a credit card and we get cash back on credit card charges,.

  63. Prince Harry dealt huge blow as Duke’s media complaint dismissed

    PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle have lost their battle with the Mail on Sunday after press regulator IPSO backed the news publication over the royal couple.

      1. She seem to be a difficult person. Reports claim that 9 people of her personal Royal household had left some after just weeks

      1. Prince Charles is a shockingly bad dull and long-winded public speaker.

        He is reported to love a good joke and he certainly laughs like a braying ass but he has no wit, no charm and he cannot tell a tale without marring it. As Polonius said (in Hamlet) ‘Brevity is the soul of wit’ but, as one of my contemporaries at school said: “If wit were shit and shit were dynamite Prince Charles wouldn’t have enough to blow his hat off.”

        He also reminds me of the poet, Jake Thackray who sang: “The hind legs off a donkey are peanuts to him he can bore the balls off a buffalo.”

        1. I heard one of those: “If brains were dynamite he wouldn’t have enough to blow the @rse off an ant”.

        2. He can’t be al bad. He used to love the Goon Show.

          I had a sometime colleaugue who was at Gordonstoun with him. Always stood up for him. Said he took a lot of sh!t in good humour.

      2. Actually, he won’t be a muslim anything. They don’t want him – except if they can use him. He (like his son) is stupid enough to think that he will be accepted on his terms. Well, the Moosies have got news for you, Charlie boy…

    4. +As I understand it, they are not “royal” any more. Only technically, until HMQ officially revokes the title. As she has already said they can’t use it, that is as good as revoking…isn’t it?.

      1. They should have taken a corgi with them, always worth a few extra quid from the dog lovers.

        1. I saw a rough sleeper plus dog with a placard which read “Homeless and Boneless”.

          I couldn’t resist coughing up a few bob.

      2. Shows how believable photoshopping is for the unknowing, especially in a credible context.

  65. Ah this is what Khan means by the benefit of mass migration to London

    £3 billion cost of London violent crime epidemic is fuelled by knife offences

    The financial cost of London’s violence epidemic is laid bare in a report which reveals more than £3 billion was spent dealing with crimes last year.
    The Violence Reduction Unit has also compiled a map showing which areas of the capital are worst affected.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/london-knife-crime-cost-3bn-a4348756.html

    1. I wonder how much tax and NI the stabbers, robbers, and their families actually pay in total, compared with the benefits they are receiving..

  66. Martello Tower F Clacton-on-Sea
    Martello Tower F is set within a dry moat and situated at the junction of Marine Parade West and Tower Road, overlooking the promenade and seafront to the west of Clacton Pier.
    Martello Tower F is the only remaining moated example on the Essex coast; the others at Beacon Hill, St Osyth (B), Holland Haven (G) and Walton Cliffs (J) were demolished or destroyed by coastal erosion in the 19th century.
    Tower F has seen some significant alterations, particularly in the 20th century, but the structure remains substantially unchanged and still retains many details dating from the period of construction. The first floor entrance, to the north west, is still approached by the original cast iron footbridge which spans the ditch on three pairs of stilt- like legs. The section nearest the tower is designed as a drawbridge, capable of being raised to seal the entrance. One of the chains first-floor the bridge remains in place, together with the slots and iron pulleys set into the head of the entrance passage. All four of the windows to this floor were framed and glazed during the 1960s, although the apertures still retain some of the iron bars dating from 1818.

    Martello Tower F Clacton
    A timber-clad observation room, formally a coastguard lookout, stands above the forward gun embrasure, resting on a metal gantry with legs set into concrete blocks on the tower’s roof.
    The ground floor of the tower is accessible via a modern passageway cut through the rear wall of a storage alcove on the south-west side. All the other alcoves and casemates remain largely unaltered and the lamp passage to the main magazine (on the seaward side) is particularly well preserved.
    In World War I the tower was commandeered as a piquet station for G Company of the 8th Battalion Essex Regiment. In the inter-war years the tower came into the hands of the local authority, and in 1931 the interior was as opened as a museum. The museum was short lived as the tower was returned to military control during World War II and thereafter leased to the Ministry of Defence. The interior remained in use by the Royal Naval Auxilliary Service (RNAS) until 1990. A children’s’ zoo was established around the tower in the 1970s but closed in the late 1980s
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/208e99e85fec479725fa73f6bb277d6c5af98f31fbc11d61846bfbcebcc61a72.jpg

    Martello Towers H & I Frinton-on-Sea

    Martello Tower H was built at Chevaux de Frise Point in Frinton-on-Sea but was demolished in 1819. Some banks and ditches survive. These remains are very similar to the land parcel boundary banks and ditches seen around other sites, no sign of the tower could be seen, but there is the possibility of buried remains.
    Martello Tower I was built at Sandy Point, but was also demolished in I819. There appear to be two slight earthwork banks which join up two existing water filled ditches forming a land parcel reminiscent of the sites of other towers, no remains of the tower can be seen.

    1. Where the hell are “Clacton-on-Sea” and “Frinton-on-Sea”?

      Are they in the UK or just fictional like “Walmington-on-Sea”?

        2. Never worked out why they have some French sounding places names along that stretch of coast

        1. Teasing these south-easterners is like shooting fish in a barrel! :•)

          [I wouldn’t try teasing south-westerners, mind, especially as I have kinfolk living in Shortlanesend and Falmouth.]

      3. Frinton was (maybe still is) a rather des. res. area for rather well-off Londoners, who didn’t want to travel too far to get to the sea. Thurleston in Devon (?) was another such.

      4. Clacton’s full title is, I believe, Clacton-on-Sea. We always said the barbed wire around Butlin’s Holiday Camp was to keep the inmates in 🙂

      5. In Essex, int they. Along with Walton-on-the Naze. Clacton is the low end of the market there.

    1. That is close to the “1984” ideal model for business. Producing something specifically for it to be destroyed to prevent any accumulation of possessions and the gradual improvement of a society as it claws its way up from the ruins.

    2. Business booms at Iran factory making US, Israeli and British flags for burning

      The factory should be closed down. It’s producing flags for burning, thus contributing to global warming. I wonder if Greta’s on the case?

    2. To misquote Othello I wonder if Nigel Farage would be offended if we said he was tupping a white EU and making the beast with two backs of Brussels.

  74. QT tonight…

    Fiona Bruce presents the topical debate from Buxton, Derbyshire. The panellists are Conservative Party chairman James Cleverly, Shadow Housing Minister Sarah Jones, President of the National Farmers Union Minette Batters, co-creator of the Parklife Festival Sacha Lord and comedian and political commentator Geoff Norcott.

    2. I always worry when I see some cretin described as a ‘comedian and political commentator’, since they are (a) invariably not funny, and (b) an undisguised and unmitigated gobby Pinko.

      1. IMO the majority of modern so-called comedians happen to also be ‘political commentators’.

    1. It turns out that he used the “ape” quote in a tweet many months ago, but then it was to a white recipient.

      I think he should stand by his guns and refuse to be reinstated, and make a stand against the wokeness of it all.

        1. Agreed.
          And I think, if he felt he had to respond, he should have challenged the man over it

      1. If this man finds “white people and their culture” so repellent, then push him from the boat off of the coast of the Congo, throw him a spear and wave goodbye with a cheery: “Good luck son!”

    3. Same here. I’ve signed and distributed it as yet another gesture that we are sick to death of ignorant, Britain hating, bennie grabbing retards and the spineless woke numpties who back them.

  76. Russia closes 2,700-mile border with China to stop coronavirus. 30 January 2020.

    The Russian Prime Minister has signed an order to close the country’s far east border with China.

    Mikhail Mishustin approved plans to immediately close the 2,700 mile strip, after President Vladimir Putin ordered officials to do everything possible to prevent the spread of the new disease.

    This is like one of those bad radio serials from when I was a kid! Shades of Orson Welles. If there isn’t something seriously amiss here, someone’s going to get the bollocking of a lifetime when it’s over!

    https://metro.co.uk/2020/01/30/russia-closes-2700-mile-border-china-stop-coronavirus-12151466/

          5. Ahh that one worked, perhaps it was just the first image file, which is a damn shame as it was apposite. I’ll make another one using that first image and try posting it tomorrow. It would be more appropriate for that day anyway. 🙂

        1. That is odd. It displays no image on mine and just says “404:Not found” when I click on it. It might be a temporary glitch as there has never been a problem posting images before using Windows 10 and Opera.

        1. I was thinking more of the Agincourt 2 fingers salute. Although as archery experts never tire of pointing out, that description is inaccurate.

          I think the gist of the meaning is clear. 🙂

          (Edit: Consarn it, the image has loaded now. You do love the foibles of Disqus at times. 🙂

          2. I was searching for Agincourt at the time when the image came up, and there is a roped off area behind them and they look as if they are dressed up for a re-enactment. I have been to a few where people get into period costume for events. It is one of the few things that I will make an effort to see these days. 🙂

          3. How do they persuade people to act as the French, or do they take turns to be the ‘injuns’?

          4. I think they used dummies for the French, or people who are nimble on their toes to avoid any incoming arrows. In actual fact I have only watched medieval re-enactments with armour and swords, or English Civil War ones. In the latter case I was told that it can be quite amusing if the cannons set light to the straw on the ground, and they always keep buckets of water handy in case there are any errant sparks.

            Only 25 hours and 20 minutes to go until stage one of leaving the EU “officially” ends and stage two begins with the treaty negotiations. It will be interesting to see what we are typing one year from now at the closing of January 2021.

        1. Thank you for the update. 🙂

          It was only a problem that lasted 10 minutes when the image wouldn’t appear for some reason, even after refreshing and then attempting to repost. Leaving Disqus and coming back again also made no difference. I thought it was just me, but others couldn’t see it either. Then, suddenly, it was back to normal again.

  78. Evening, all. My flower beds now look like the Somme, but at least the plants have been spared the onslaught of the mini digger when they finally come to sort out my sewers. I have had to sacrifice one of my veg plots for a nursery area to tide them over until I can replant. I didn’t realise the borders were so full until I had to empty them!

      1. It felt like it. It was really far too wet to be trampling on the beds (and on the adjacent lawn). I expect they’ll recover eventually, but if the mini digger chews up the lawn, it may take some time.

        2. We had a similar problem with a loader lifting tiles for the new roof. It dug very deep tracks.

          We filled the tracks in with topsoil and sowed wildflower seeds, butterfly mix and bee mix. The result was surprisingly good, we are still enjoying the flowers, I shall rotavate the plants and re-sow and hopefully we’ll have instant flower beds.

  82. Huawei… I wonder whether this has something to do with the prospective funding of HS2 ..

    You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours … chinny rub rub time… don’t you think?

      1. There once was a man from Leeds
        Who swallowed a packet of seeds
        Within half and hour
        His balls were a flower
        And his d*ck was covered with weeds!

        2. The horny old Bishop of Birmingham
          F**ked al the girls while confirming ’em.
          Amid roars of applause
          He’d haul down their drawers
          And pump his episcopal sperm in ’em.

          Sorry, Mags, couldn’t resist it. It just shews, you can make a rhyme about anywhere. See next.

          1. A chum who was good with limericks was challenged to make one with Aberystwyth.

            His offering:

            An amorous couple from Aberystwyth
            United the parts that they kissed with.
            As the night grew much colder
            And they became bolder,
            They united the parts that they pissed with.

            A well-earned round of applause – his encore, having eaten from the barbecue was:

            Oh, Mother I’m feeling so ill
            From partaking of things from the grill,
            Peculiar bits
            Like tonsils and tits;
            Balls haven’t come yet – but they will.

    2. Hope you’re right but I’m going to give those crispy fried bat-wings a miss for a couple of days, just to be on the safe side.

    2. Bob – They have not been building any new estates for our “new arrivals” in your area have they? When I first came down to Cornwall we would get 2 or 3 power cuts every winter when there were high winds. Then they must have made some changes, because we didn’t have one for years. Now there is lots of building happening now, even down this far, with new estates going up. Those must be connected to the existing network obviously, and we have had several power cuts once again quite recently.

      When they were proposing the houses, the council said that they would be mainly for locals, which drew howls of laughter from those of us who were aware that the central government were forcing local councils to house “refugees.” Now that the houses have been built it has been revealed that there will be a lot of people coming from “up country” to live here.

      That first local mosque cannot be too far away. Although the Native Cornishman is not like the liberal do-gooders in the cities, and can be quite direct and “hands-on” when he sees people being threatened or abused. So they might have a warm welcome if they try being too islamic down here.

  86. Greece plans to build sea barrier off Lesbos to deter migrants. 30 January 2020.

    Greece has announced it will build a floating barrier to deter thousands of migrants from making often perilous sea journeys from Turkey to Aegean islands on Europe’s periphery.

    The 2.7km-long netted barrier will be erected off Lesbos, the island that shot to prominence at the height of the Syrian civil war when close to a million Europe-bound refugees landed on its beaches. The bulwark will rise from pylons 50 metres above water and will be equipped with flashing lights to demarcate Greece’s sea borders.

    It’s time to mine the beaches and build Martello towers.

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jan/30/greece-plans-to-build-sea-barrier-off-lesbos-to-deter-migrants

      1. No, no, no, you can’t do that. Flame throwers are banned due to the hydrocarbons they use and the CO2 they produce. Not at all green…

      1. One of the Martello Towers up the coast a bit was used as an urban warfare range with dummies running on overhead tracks.
        The trick was to identify which dummies were the terrorists, which ones the civvies and try to hit the terrorist without slotting the civvie.

        The rifles used were L1A1s with Heckler-Koch .22 adapters.

    1. If Noah tried to launch and ‘person’ the Ark. with today’s PC and wokeness peeple, the only animals that were allowed on/survived the journey would be 14,000,000 peoples sexy/reproductive-bit roaches.

      All the others would have killed each other off

      1. Perhaps that LGTB whatever lot will have killed themselves off in a generation or two anyway?

  88. May I suggest, that to celebrate Brexit day, that as well as having Bonfire Night on 05 November, in futue we also have Barnierfire Night on 31 Jan every year, with all the effigies etc, to celebrate our freedom

    3. “Jacu coffee is a “super-premium” brew made from beans collected by hand from the excrement of an endangered South American bird of the same name.”

      Does that job come with its own nose-peg and gloves, or do you provide your own?

      1. Bayzicurly dey choose one such bean and add it to ten normal beanz and den der con artistes sell dem beanz to suckerz.

      1. I have walked past a two bed terrace house in my town for the last 30 years which has remained empty. In this case all that would be needed is a drop down ladder.

  93. re coronavirus:

    “The safety and security of British nationals is our top priority.” says Dominic Raab

    If that really was the case you would leave them where they are, rather than transport several, who have had God knows how many exposures to something we don’t fully understand, into the UK.

    Will they be putting all the flight crews into quarantine plus anyone who comes into contact with the plane/s and their toilets and food trolleys and air conditioning systems and other equipment? They should be, because there must be a good chance these are contaminated.

    https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/coronavirus-wuhan-brits-evacuation-dominic-raab-a4349211.html

          1. I’d forgotten that one! You take me back..

            It wasn’t my kind of music, but it’s nice to travel back.

    2. “The safety and security of British nationals is our top priority.” says Dominic Raab

      Immigration policy says otherwise.

      1. Initially this outbreak brought forth a leaflet for those returning from China. It’s gradually moved up the ladder of priority to providing quarantine facilities for the people returning. Sadly, nothing seems to be happening with regard to checking for incomers with TB and other diseases that we have either eradicated or know little or nothing about.

          4. HL,
            Because the governance parties are proven pro brussels, rubber stampers, unchecked,
            uncontrolled immigration for starters.

        2. I remember the happy days when you could not get on a US bound flight without proof of a current small pox vaccination. There used to be a clinic at LHR to vaccinate anyone who was not current.

      3. Precisely. So who cares about stabbings, bombings etc. (especially making some of these stabbers and bombers British nationals) so long as your governmental woke policy can be spouted. Not that it affects any of you politicians, of course.

    4. I would assume they will wear protective clothing and the plane will be sprayed after. A plane is ideal for spreding the disease as the air is continually recirculated

      1. Don’t we know it. Transatlantic travel has led us to various coughs, colds and other “bugs” over the years. Almost guaranteed one of us would catch something

        1. Remember the guy who went on a business trip to Bangkok, and told his wife he had caught it from the lavatory seat in the plane ?

      2. I have doubts about how thoroughly the air conditioning system in a plane can be decontaminated. There is currently a scandal in Scotland. New hospitals are not fit for purpose. There have been a number of deaths related to infections carried by the air-conditioning.

      3. Don’t I know it! I caught a 4 week cold/flu flying back from Copenhagen – Oslo, changing at Oslo – Heathrow. I’m not flying again. I’m now 63, I’ve seen some of the world, but none of it is worth the general hassle. (Apart from the fact that I can’t really afford it anyway.)

        1. We’re off to Kenya in three weeks’ time – but I’ve had a cough for the last two weeks – it’s showing signs today of being on its way out. Flying is tedious but a necessary evil if you want to go somewhere.

          4. When it comes to foreign countries, I like the historical details but cannot be bothered with all of the necessary tasks and discomfort required to travel there just for fun. I would rather buy 10 books on a country, its people, history and customs, than go there for two weeks only to find that I am just standing on a different part of the planet with alternate weather.

            There are very few places that I would choose to go to now. Some of those icy ones with lots of snow would be up near the top of the list. 🙂

          5. I go to Marseille to visit my friends. It gives me the opportunity to recharge my batteries. I spend a week being cosseted, with no need to make decisions (except what I’m going to wear), do chores or drive. Meals are provided with copious wine. It’s rather like living in an excellent hotel and there is blue sky and sunshine as well.

          6. Good for you, and good luck. I’ve decided that having been to the countries I have been to, I no longer want to go somewhere.

    5. Or do what the South Koreans are planning. Bring them back, then everyone including crew, will go into a 2 week quarantine.

      1. It is suggested that it will be the same here, yet we have no idea whether it is a week, two weeks or more that it can incubate, nor do we know if people can carry it without showing symptoms eg Tphoid Mary. We aren’t even certain how it transmits.

  94. US ‘to work with’ UK over Chinese firm

    S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said his country will help the UK reduce risks associated with involving Huawei in its 5G network.
    He said officials would work together to “get this right” after the UK’s decision to give the Chinese firm a limited role in building its system.
    Mr Pompeo added that intelligence-sharing arrangements between the two countries would continue.
    The US has long argued that Huawei’s equipment poses a spying risk.

  95. Jo Nesbo’s new paperback, Knife, is a Harry Hole thriller which is on sale in Sainsbury’s at £3.49. Cover price £8.99

    1. He can sing like that without moving a muscle ? Mind you, it does sound like an old 78rpm played at the wrong speed.

    2. Great stuff.

      For me, one of the most underrated British voices. He’d have left many of the ’60s and ’70s British blues singers standing had he been born a bit later.

    2. Proof that the BBC is disconnected from the public as a whole. No self respecting woke person is prepared to watch the tripe shovelled out by the Corporation.

      With alternative social media and YouTube the BBC is redundant. Very few folk watch radio-faced Victoria Derbyshire’s feminist agenda tripe, a slightly up-market version of Jeremy Kyle, so farewell to that irritating nonsense. Then we have the preposterous Archers on Radio 4 which lost the plot a decade or more ago.

      Does anyone actually watch Eastenders? (apart from the mentally deranged) and those with a tendency to violence.

      There is much discussion about the flagship Dr Who. This remains a mystery to me as I despised the thick children at my Junior School who moved in straight lines around the school playground uttering the word: “exterminate”. Normal kids meantime were trying to play cricket or football.

      Edit: I would not pay Unsworth in brass washers. This ghastly hag is a force for evil. The question remains: who on God’s Earth promoted this feeble minded Lesbian to the position and power she holds within a publicly funded institution? (I say Lesbian for the reason that I simply cannot imagine any man marrying that thing).

      1. The advert showing the idiotic Peter Crouch grinning , advertising his so called podcast is so irritating .

        I also saw an advert on BBC for the new Dr Who .. diversity has taken over … She will be black!

        Victoria Derbyshire will not be missed .. and about time they got rid of Jenny Murray , Woman’s Hour and her feminist chums .

      2. I have just watched, through gritted teeth, the abomination known as Winterwatch. It was non-stop relentless drivel about “climate change”. BBC globalist propaganda aimed at the vacuous but driving the intelligent to madness.

          3. It was actually Tuesday’s programme I was referring to, Jules (I should have been clearer). I watch it on iPlayer on my computer, but use my 40″ TV as a second monitor.

          4. Michael Portillo is worth a watch on iplayer with his Alaska great train journey. Interesting to hear the views of a scientist that knows their subject about ‘global warming’.

            I like him more now that he has decided to stop be a bastard politico and just be a presenter of Documentaries.

        3. In my part of Essex, next the River Stour, the historic border with Suffolk, we have evidence of significant Roman remains including a substantial villa at Ridgewell. The Romans grew vines around here and until recently there was an active vinery nearby at Wixoe.

          I have just looked at an estate agent’s blurb for a property in Banham, Norfolk. This comes with a vineyard and associated winery.

          The temperature of these parts in Roman times was greater than our present temperature.

          I had hoped that by now the disturbed child, Greta Thunberg, will have been taken into care and her parents and promoters prosecuted for child abuse. Then again, I am unfashionably old school.

  98. Oh, Dear God, Alan Little’s hysterical wail about the tragedy of leaving the EU on BBC1 just now beats anything I have heard in the last 5 years.

    If this is the BBC, it should be put out of its misery now.

    1. No popping of champagne corks, then piles of empty bottles on the floors of Broadcasting House on Saturday morning then?

      1. Probably not. But much wailing and gnashing of teeth. They’ll probably enjoy it just as much.

    2. Just watched that on the Beeb news – all that post-industrial decay and the decline of engineering jobs was largely caused by being in the EU, as the jobs were exported for cheaper labour.

      1. And under a previous Conservative Government. Personally. i think that Labour would have speeded up the process.

  99. QT -‘Sacha Lord – Nightlife Tsar for Greater Manchester’ – Wtf?! How much is he getting paid for that?

  100. QT…
    Spend money on roads .. Get freight off the roads , and bring back trains to take your car on , say to Edinburgh etc at reasonable prices ..

    1. Goods lorries should only be on local roads, they should be banned from motorways and similar sorts of A roads. Motorways duplicate rail routes (how often have you been on one and seen traffic on the other?) and they both connect major hubs. Move non time critical goods around the country by rail, distribute it locally by road.

      1. Agree entirely ..That was what i was attempting to suggest.

        Sand and gravel used to be shifted by train, nuclear waste , all sorts of things , but you rarely see a freight train in these parts any longer..

  101. The EU was never about embracing the UK as an important and equal partner to Germany and France.

    The EU was always about taking the UK for fools, taking our money and infiltrating our population with aliens, intended to weaken our competitiveness and to do us physical harm.

    The bastards at the EU had all but succeeded and may yet succeed. At least in leaving that corrupt heap of excrement we retain a small chance to revive our economy and more importantly, our sense of self-worth.

    1. ‘Won’t you sign our Withdrawal Agreement’ ? Said the spiders to the fly,
      ‘For us it’s really a winner, and that’s certainly not a lie,
      Your Brexiteers say ‘No’, but they’re a motley crew,
      We want you in our grasp, my friends, because we have plans for you,

      It’s designed to make you pay, and to us you’ll always bow,
      As Frau Murky says, and we agree, we can’t lose our milch cow,
      Leaving must be punished, and that’s exactly what we’ll do,
      Just sign below and give us your all, or we’re gonna sue,

      As to the rules and regulations, you won’t make them any more,
      But we’ll go all out, dear friends, to make you extremely poor,
      Give and share between us, that’s what it’s about,
      You’ll do all the giving, and we’ll all share it out,

      It’s very British, is it not, to help your friends in need ?
      You’ve done it twice in two world wars, a fact we must concede,
      So sign our ‘Withdrawal Agreement’, and swallow all your pride,
      Your Brussels friends await you, to take you for a ride !

    2. Take a few measured deep breaths, Cori. We have outperformed the whole of Europe financially. As far as investment is concerned. Regardless of anything George Osborne and Carney the two doom mongsters prophesied, we will reign supreme. Germany is at the point of collapse. We were told our money markets would have to move to Frankfurt or some such. If they were going to move anywhere it would have been New York. These people know nothing about anything.

    3. Morning C,
      Let us keep in mind for the future the political bastards and their supporters
      within the UK.

  102. The EU was never about embracing the UK as an important and equal partner to Germany and France.

    The EU was always about taking the UK for fools, taking our money and infiltrating our population with aliens, intended to weaken our competitiveness and to do us physical harm.

    The bastards at the EU had all but succeeded and may yet succeed. At least in leaving that corrupt heap of excrement we retain a small chance to revive our economy and more importantly, our sense of self-worth.

  109. I wasn’t tuned in, but this BTL comment is probably a good summary:

    Rob Bourne

    30 Jan 2020 4:53PM
    Tonight’s BBC News at 6:

    Boris is Bad

    Trump is Bad

    Brexit is Bad

    We’re all going to die from (Coronavirus, Brexit, Trump)

    Boris is Bad

    Trump is Bad

    EU is good

    Farage is very Bad

    Trump is Bad

    BBC is unquestionably wonderful

    Boris is Bad

    ……
    I don’t think I need to watch.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/radio/what-to-listen-to/sarah-sands-had-leave-today/

    2. And still the BBC don’t get it. Perhaps they will (or more precisely they won’t) if the Licence fee is abolished.

      1. That was merely transitional. Now we’ve left, this is a picture of the scene at Guildford Spectrum Leisure Centre at 05:57 on 24 June 2016. At the referendum count. Dawn broke, the sun streamed in, and someone (which may or may not have been yours truly) exclaimed “Look! The sunlit uplands of Brexit…”

Comments are closed.