768 thoughts on “Tuesday 15 October: It’s crunch time for Brexit – and the future of Britain’s democracy”

  1. Police response to ‘transphobic’ stickers branded ‘extraordinary’. 14 OCTOBER 2019.

    A police force has been accused of “incredible irresponsibility” for treating the display of transphobic stickers around Oxford as a “serious crime”.
    Some of the stickers, which have been dotted around the city centre, state: “Woman: noun. Adult human female” and “Women don’t have penises”.

    Transgender supporters have been removing the labels and replacing them with pro-trans messages.

    They contain messages such as: “Non-binary finery” and “trans women are women.”

    Morning everyone. It strikes me as not at all unlikely that these nutters posted both types of labels! A more pertinent question might be asked about this report and others of the same ilk. What motivates this interest on the part of the MSM in this absolutely miniscule proportion of the population both in numbers and sexual orientation?

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/14/police-response-transphobic-stickers-branded-extraordinary/

    1. How can stating a fact be a crime. A Genetic female does not have a Penis. The police are looking silly as it is clearly not a crime

      Will they be going into medical schools next and seizing the books and prosecuting the management

      1. Whatever is done to them they will always be male although some may pass as a passable female even with a transplanted uterus to further confuse. The process is one of sad mental and sexual deviancy often regretted to the extent of suicide later.

    2. The necessity to fill papers and programmes with the issues with which the liberal left are fascinated with. ……sexual deviation ,self indulgence , the destruction of established culture.

    3. ‘Morning, Minty, similarly, the way the MSM (and the Police) keep thrusting homosexuality down our throats.

      Diversionary tactics?

    4. Araminta – The media are spending a ludicrous amount of time promoting all of these issues because of their overriding goal of undermining our “Western culture model” of a family being made up of one man and one woman. This very old idea provides the best framework for the raising of children and the continued stability of society.

      It is also why there is such a crushing promotion of “alternative” sexual identities. You are encouraged to be anything you like as long as it is not a hetero-sexual. In their minds, the fewer people that we have raising children who live in the real world, the more of an unstable fantasy world they can create.

      We can already see the massive harm that this does to those vulnerable people who are tricked into believing this nonsense.

    5. Yo Minty

      May I fiddle (with your post) whilst Oxford burns

      …….miniscule proportion of the population both in numbers and sexual disorientation?

    6. Trans women are NOT women. They’re men pretending to be women because they’re mentally ill.

  2. Nicola Sturgeon claims separate Scotland will be ‘bridge’ between UK and EU despite hard border prospect

    Queen Harridan Krankie, here are problems for you to Mull (of Kintyre?) over.

    What will you do with all the Scottish born:

    MPs who now sit in the Mother of Parliaments,

    Serving servicepeeple (who would become merceneries) if they remained in our Armed Forces

    etc

    What will happen to:

    ‘UK’ military bases in Scotland

    No more MoD contracts

    No Mr Barnett to get you out of the sh1te

    Passports

    Us remaining (brits) boycotting your goods and holiday locations

    Cross border companies

    Just askin

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/15/nicola-sturgeon-claims-separate-scotland-will-bridge-uk-eu-despite/

    1. Isn’t her plan for Scotland to be an independent member of the EU but with all the positives from being within the UK e.g. Barnett, sterling currency, defence etc. remaining unchanged? Politically she’s completely unhinged and living with a dream that is as unrealistic as can be.

    2. Unti she can get Scotland into the EU & the Euro I believe Scotland will switch to using the Scottish Merk as a currency

  4. Nell Woodford firm close to collapse.

    It leaves him with 2 funds. One he only manages and the trustees of the fund are looking for another manager, THe other is quite a small fund, It looks as if the business will have to be wound up

    Well-known stockpicker Neil Woodford’s flagship fund is to be wound up, its corporate director Link Fund Solutions has announced.
    Link said in an emailed statement to investors that it intended to return cash to them at the earliest opportunity.
    Withdrawals from the Woodford Equity Income Fund have been frozen since early June.
    The move came after rising numbers of investors asked for their money back.

  5. Extinction Rebellion: Police ban London protests

    Extinction Rebellion activists say they have left London’s Trafalgar Square after police issued a ban on the group’s climate change protests.
    In a statement issued on Monday evening, the Metropolitan Police said demonstrators protesting in the capital after 21:00 BST could be arrested.
    Extinction Rebellion said it would “let Trafalgar Square go” but added that the “International Rebellion continues”.

    1. Oh dear. They’ve realised that a criminal record bars them from skiing in Colorado or shlepping across the Outback.

  6. Morning all

    SIR – Nick Timothy (Comment, October 14) says this is “crunch week” for Brexit.

    If we do not leave the EU because of the devious machinations of politicians, the consequences for our democracy will be dire.

    What form the public reaction will take is difficult to predict, but one thing is certain: our politicians will be held in utter contempt for a generation for torpedoing the result of the largest democratic vote in our history.

    Cdre Malcolm Williams RN
    Southsea, Hampshire

    1. SIR – It is disgraceful that certain politicians – ex-Tory ministers no less – are planning to scupper the Prime Minister’s Brexit plans.

      It shows that their personal vendettas are more important to them than the country or the voters. They talk about democracy when it suits them and when they get what they want – but when the public expresses a different view they abandon any adherence to the principle.

      Philip Hammond, David Lidington and Dominic Grieve, in particular, should be ashamed of themselves. They are betraying the Tory party and the people of Britain. Let’s hope this is remembered at the next election.

      Michael J Cole
      Wolstanton, Staffordshire

      1. Yo Epi

        I suggest that we Nottlers run a ‘mini-sweepstake’ to guess where Barstewards will employed after the next election ie

        BrEUssels
        Following in Millitwits footsteps to banking
        Proper job (silly me)

      2. Good morning, Epi,

        It’s no use using moral concepts like shame in connection with the above-mentioned politicians. They have no shame, let alone any morals.

      3. Grieve. Hammond, Lidington and Bercow should spend the rest of their miserable lives in a dark cell in the deepest recess of The Tower of London with only bread and water to eat and drink and only rats for company.

        2. Unfair on the rats, Rastus. They deserve better.

          Personally I’d chain them in the sewer and forget about them. They can eat and drink what floats along.

    2. Morning E,
      Cdre Williams seems all at sea, dare I say it there are other parties & politicians even bona fide Brexitexit ones.

        1. Morning NtN,
          To my mind they are as one as in the lab/lib/con coalition the three are equally to blame for the odious state of our nation and not to put to finer point on it so are their current supporter / voters.
          The current voters by the “vote for the best of the worst””, nose
          holding ” mode of voting are well aware of how things are politically.

          1. The current voters by the “vote for the best of the worst””, nose
            holding ” mode of voting are well aware of how things are politically.

            They’re quite obviously oblivious to the fact that none of us have been getting what we vote for. The Globalist agenda is being applied, dictatorially and vigorously. We are all being cheated, led beyond without authority. Voting is rigged to ‘manufacture’ our consent. Victim blaming electorates for being lied to just deflects blame away from the lying Globalists and certainly completely fails to provide a way forward.

          2. Precisely, so why after the sh!te hit the fan, first time, second time, third time did they continue to vote in the same mode ?
            They continue to condone political sh!te via the ballot booth
            they know they are going to get stitched up, hence the nose holding, best of the worst.
            You blame “others”.

    1. I have to say that watching the shenanigans on the touchline was of more interest than the football which was of appalling quality. England only looked good because of the poor opposition.

  9. LBC playing a short segment of Barnier’s latest report on the difficulties of the negotiations. It’s like listening to a needle stuck in a record, the same tedious message that he’s been repeating since May’s first efforts. Next it will be another slight raising of hope before knocking away that hope: it’s nothing more than a well worn script with the number of repeats so great that even Al-Beeb wouldn’t dare try to compete with it.

    1. I am optimistic. They are still talking and when in serious negotiations you will get these messages as each side tries not to give ground

      Simple logic tells me they are very close to agreement but with this things you can never rule out a sudden collapse of the talks it seems unlikely there are any major obstacles in the way., It is just painstakingly going through the detail

      2. Bill, before this latest round of “negotiations” commenced we did not know what Johnson was asking for beyond some backstop deal for NI. Now, all we hear is the oft repeated mantra from Barnier that the UK must make concessions and yet more concessions. How repetition of the last few years’ events can possibly stir optimism defeats me. We have a bunch of politicians who do not seem to have the strength of character to say, this is our position and we will not back off, your move.

        1. This is normal in negotiations. I expect it to run to the 11th hour when they will announce a provisional agreement has been reached

  10. Duchess of Cambridge wears traditional outfit as Duke says Pakistan can rely on UK ‘as key partner and friend’. 15 OCTOBER 2019

    Britain hopes the visit will highlight ties with Pakistan, while Pakistan hopes the royal endorsement will show the world it has left behind the militant violence that blighted the country earlier this decade.

    It is impossible to decide who is the more delusional here! Pakistan is a nuclear armed, quasi Jihadist basket case and the UK is too distant geographically, militarily weak and politically spineless to bring anything at all to the table but if it’s just a Royal Jaunt that’s OK!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2019/10/14/duchess-cambridge-wears-traditional-style-outfit-duke-says-pakistan/

    1. For the life of me I could not understand why the “Duchess” wore foreign clothing. Cultural appropriation, I’d say.

      She could have promoted British designers – and shown Pakistani women that they need not dress life slaves.

        1. We excoriate Toy Boy Trudeau for dressing his family as natives but are expected to applaud Kate Middleton when she does the same.

          1. Good morning Bill

            I wonder whether she has ever visited Bradford or Luton or similar .. or has she taken a leaf out of her sister in laws book and just dresses down for the occasion .

            What an absurd visit .

        2. It is interesting with the Left. When it suits them it is cultural appropriation when it does not it is respecting their culture

        3. Here? Or there? Seems that we have to be careful not to upset their sensibilities wherever we are. It doesn’t seem to work so much the other way, though.

      2. When Alma Deutscher gave a recital at the Beijing Festival last Saturday, she wore a dignified traditional tight Chinese dress in pink on stage, and a lovely yellow one with butterflies and birds outside. The Chinese performers wore opulent Western ball gowns.

        Who was appropriating who?

  11. For all their promotion of multi-culti – it occurs to me that you never see a diverse or vibrant face among the Brussels Gauleiters, do you?

        1. I know that.
          Since the EU is a German-French stitch-up, this is a picture of one of the real powers.

          1. Oh no he’s not. He is just the Frau Doktor’s plaything. He makes lots of noise – but it means nothing.

  12. Good morning, everyone. In case anyone wonders why I have started a morning greeting, I find that if I click on my post in notifications I revert to Blue Disqus and the screen doesn’t bounce around.

      1. Morning, Bill. No side effects from the jab but am still dealing with the aftermath of the prostatectomy. My GP says it will take months rather than weeks to return to normal.

    3. That was a good tip. I have just opened the “notifications” window and clicked on the “view in discussion” box and I can read pages and pages of yesterdays comments without the “jumping” and “complete white-outs” that stop you reading the earlier ones. 🙂

      1. ‘Morning, Meredith, are you using ‘Chrome’?

        I ask because I experienced all that, until I switched to using Mozilla ‘Firefox’, where everything appears to behave.

        1. Sorry for the delay, was away from the computer. I am using some obscure browser that is not chrome. But I have heard that others have encountered this same problem with chrome.

          Now that I have opened this window with the “view in conversation” button this “blue text” version has appeared. I am using the same browser as before, but now I have the whole days comments open and there is no jumping at all. 🙂

          2. Sorry for the delay in answering you as well. I was searching for this comment in the wrong place. 🙂

            I did not know how to do it either, so after reading the comments of others I experimented. This is how I did it (using a computer:)

            1: Go to your name and left click on it. This opens up a window with the comments that you have made.

            2: Pick a comment that you have made on the day that you want to get the blue writing on, and click on the button that says “view in discussion” just below it.

            This opens up the window with the blue text and no stuttering. Just make all of your comments and reading on that page. 🙂

            (I hope that is clear, as I have having 3 conversations at once.)

  13. Good morning all.
    Only in for a short time this morning. I’m treating myself to a concert in Nottingham tonight, The Halle Orchestra with a piece by Finzi should be good, but sadly because of a change of conductor, the planned Elgar 1st Symphony has been replaced by a Tchaikovsky pot boiler, the 4th or 5th I think.
    Also treating myself to a hotel for the night to save getting home after midnight.
    Might be on later via my laptop.

  14. Signing off till lunchtime. Taking stuff from the house to charity shops – as we start the great clearance. A bientôt

      1. No. One lives in hopes. I always said it would take two years to sell. And we’ll probably have to cut our loses and give it away in the end.

        Someone is supposed to be coming later this week to view.

  15. Well it was surprisingly quiet in the commons after the Queens Speech just lots of silly sounding offs by MP’s who just like hearing their own voice

    There were the Greens sounding of that there was only a sentence of two on Climate change. I dont think these daft people understand that it just outlines the program of legislation. It is not the detailed Legislation as it has not been written yet.

    1. They are lulling the voters before introducing and rushing through the Traitors Charter.

    2. We all know the whole shebang is a farce.
      Maybe Spiderwoman should be wearing the crown.
      With a bit of luck, the weight would break her neck.

  16. I can’t say I blame the Irish for taking advantages – but have they seriously thought through their adherence to the EUSSR?
    An article from Brexit Central.

    https://brexitcentral.com/why-the-irish-taoiseach-has-a-vested-interest-in-keeping-the-uk-locked-into-eu-economic-structures/

    “Why the Irish Taoiseach has a vested interest in keeping the UK locked into EU economic structures

    The Irish Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, has played a strong hand in the Brexit negotiations, bringing in both the Good Friday Agreement and any possible border friction, real or imagined, to try to keep the UK locked into the EU’s economic structure throughout any transition period and then in perpetuity through a future UK/EU Free Trade Agreement.

    So far the EU has backed him. The stakes for Ireland and the UK are very high: in a major paper published today by Global Britain and written by Ewen Stewart and myself entitled The Irish economic miracle – fact or fiction?, we show how Ireland benefits from exploiting bona fide arrangements in the international structure for corporate taxation and the freedoms of the EU, and by how much.

    The losers are the UK, the other main EU Member States and the USA.

    Ireland’s main economic indicators infer a miracle: annual GDP per head at US$78,800, second only to Luxembourg in the EU and some 40% higher than the Eurozone as a whole, and GDP growth of 39% since 2005, double the UK rate and three times the Eurozone average.

    Ireland went through a €85bn financial bailout in 2010 but has rebounded dynamically compared to other bailout countries like Greece, Portugal and Cyprus.

    Ireland’s economy is a two-speed one, composed of a sluggish onshore one, based on agriculture, manufacturing and a portion of services, and then the offshore one – handling huge financial flows that come into Ireland and go out again. This part has boomed, is the engine of GDP and employment growth, and is based on Ireland having created a tax-advantaged ‘flag of convenience’, whose benefits to its users go far further than the misunderstood low headline rate of Corporation Tax of 12.5%.

    Ireland is increasingly using a series of structures for international companies to dog-leg revenues and profits through Ireland that relate to economic activities primarily in other EU Member States, but in non-EU countries as well. The structures are legal, but have the effect of shifting jobs and investments, revenues and profits into Ireland, leaving more menial activities to be carried out in the other countries, minimising their income and social taxes, and Corporation Tax takings. In other words, Ireland’s model works to the detriment of the UK’s and others’ exchequers, and this detriment is one of the significant hidden costs of UK membership of the EU, its Customs Union and Single Market.

    So great is the scale of the operation that we estimate that €130bn or 40% of Irish GDP can be accounted for by ‘flag of convenience’ activity.

    Once it becomes apparent how significant these distortions are, it is clear why Ireland needs the UK to be fully aligned to its economy. This does not serve UK interests, however.

    Were the UK to diverge from EU rules and defend itself against these practices, there would be no advantage for the likes of Apple – which routes over €100bn of its annual revenues through Ireland – or Google and Dell to dog-leg their UK business through Ireland.

    Very few of the sales are for goods, and indeed an even smaller proportion are for goods that need physically to move across the Ireland/Northern Ireland border. The overwhelming proportion of the sales are of services and of licence fees for usage of intellectual property. Ireland’s model deserves to be severely challenged, as it is an example of dog-legging business through Ireland for no other purpose than tax management. Global GDP is not increased or decreased by one cent, but the Irish government is getting a disproportionately large slice of the pie. That slice is being taken directly off the plates of other countries, with the UK in the front rank.

    Raising the claim that that regulatory alignment is required to meet the terms of the Good Friday Agreement – and putting the issue of a ‘hard’ border on the island of Ireland so high up the negotiating agenda – are both convenient red herrings, obfuscating the scale and substance of the trade that Ireland is seeking to protect.

    Ireland’s ‘flag of convenience’ model is challenged by any form of Brexit, particularly by a “No Deal” one and explains why its government has been so willing to work on the EU’s behalf to frustrate and deny Brexit in any meaningful sense. It’s called a vested interest and it’s high time we all recognised that.”

          1. Thank you – and I’m surprised that Sweden’s tax-take is less than Belgium, Germany, Italy and France.

            I shall check out your link to tax foundation.

      2. I love reading into the political preferences revealed by mapmakers.

        There was one map of the world drawn by the children at the local Catholic Church, where Poland was made as big as India. Normally it is Greenland that is given that honour. When I was down under, I was always being reminded that Australia, which I’d always imagined to be about the same size as the Isle of Wight, is actually as big as the United States, and can also occupy much the same footprint as Europe.

        In this map, they do not declare the tax rates in places such as Croatia, Bulgaria, Cyprus and Romania which are all in the EU, yet include Turkey, which only has a tiny part of it in Europe and is a pariah state right now. Those Greek islands near the coast of Turkey seem to be missing too – even the large island of Lesbos, which is where 3 million Syrian refugees and tens of thousands of Islamic State mercenaries and their families will probably end up for a while. The much smaller Faeroes is in though.

        Just as fascinating is that Russia, which is in Europe, doesn’t exist at all, not even in its former Prussian enclave on the Baltic, and to rub it in, Crimea is still in Ukraine, despite having been re-annexed years ago.

        Still it does seem to confirm Ireland’s status as the EU’s offshore tax haven.

  17. And now a TCW article:

    https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/on-your-utility-bill-the-soaring-price-of-green-gesture-politics/

    On your utility bill, the soaring price of green gesture politics
    October 15, 2019

    “IN the murkiest depths of an official release of financial data lurks some fascinating information about just how much the political class’s obsession with renewable energy is costing us. In a blog posted yesterday on the Global Warming Policy Foundation’s website, my colleague John Constable outlines the contents of Supplementary Table 2.7 of the Office of Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook for March 2019.

    The table shows that the cost of the main bungs to the renewables industry – the Renewables Obligation, Feed-in Tariffs, Contracts for Difference and so on – has now reached £9.6billion a year, or £340 per household. Some of this goes directly on to bills, but a large share is passed on to industrial users, who then claw it back from consumers via higher prices. Either way, you pay.

    Constable’s figures are only part of the picture. Vast expenditure is required on upgrades to the electricity grid to accommodate renewables, and a whole lot more needs to be spent on dealing with their intermittency. Not the least of these interventions are so-called ‘constraints payments’, when wind farms (typically in Scotland) are paid to switch off because the grid can’t get the electricity to where it is needed (England). In these circumstances, you pay three times over: once to get the wind farm to switch off, again for the electricity it didn’t produce, and then a third payment is required to get somebody to generate electricity where it is required. It’s fair to say that this is not a cheap intervention. One estimate reckons costs will soon be another billion pounds per year.

    And it’s going to get worse. Reading between the lines of the OBR figures, Constable projects that £9.8billion figure rising to £12billion a year by 2023. With grid costs rising too, the figure could easily reach £500 per household.

    It’s worth remembering why we are doing this. It’s certainly not going to make any difference to the Earth’s temperature: our carbon dioxide emissions are a tiny fraction of the global total, and smaller than annual increases in China and India. No, we are doing this as a gesture: a way to show our leadership on climate change, setting an example to the rest of the world.

    I hope that sense of national leadership makes you feel better when the time comes to pay the bill.”

    1. In reality it is all but impossible to run the grid on mainly renewable as the output from them is so variable and with electricity you have to match the output to the demand. if it is not matched you have big problems so you need a substantial amount of base supply from source that will give you a reliable output you alo need some supply from source that can be switched on quickly which is mainly Hydro

        1. Looking at Grid Watch only 16% of our electricity at present is from renewable s and that includes 4% from biomass which is not really renewable. The Coal Extinction Rebellion go on about accounts for just 2%

    2. Morning, Anne.

      Take some comfort – only joking – from this segment of John Redwood’s Diary this morning. Our friends, allies and partners © Johnson, in Germany, will also take a hammering.

      The German plan for net zero carbon
      By JOHNREDWOOD | Published: OCTOBER 15, 2019

      A recent German study puts the cost of taking Germany to net zero carbon by 2050 at Euro 7.6 trillion. Much of this will fall on German consumers to pay. They will need to buy different cars, insulate their homes, change the heating systems in their homes, pay more for their travel and the rest.

      One has to wonder if, not when, will the people stop this nonsense.

    3. I really do worry about burning fossil fuels. If Dr V Zharkova’s analysis is correct we may not have enough to burn to keep warm! Along with a noticeable drop in global temperatures there’s potential for an increase in cloud cover that won’t do much for electricity generation from solar panels. Not long to wait now. Solar Cycle 26 has begun and solar activity is thought to be approaching a Modern Minimum similar to the one experienced 400 years ago. Just as well I learned to ice skate…..

    4. Cheap at the price. How much HS2 at the latest estimate? How much to bail out the bonus bankers in 2008? How much in PFI payments to fund the comprehensive redevelopment of hospital sites?

      How much to plant a forest, keep it watered until it is established, and to stop gangs cutting it down?

      1. You’re the one who believes the fake new media, so you’re the one who should stop digging !

        1. With this rather clumsy and repetitive ad hominem, are you still continuing to deny the invasion took place, and this has effectively destroyed Trump’s diplomatic credibility pretty well everywhere except with a handful of tyrants who are personal friends?

          If he doesn’t resign immediately, Trump may well take America with him, leaving it isolated and without further influence. Russia and Iran are only too ready to fill the void.

          1. You do post a lot of rubbish, jeremy.

            As it happens, Donald’s America First and ending foreign wars policy is immensely popular.

          4. He said “America First” right from the start of his campaign.

            On the other hand, Obama said he would shut down Guantanamo.

    1. First time I’ve seen this Erdogan-coup mockup. It reminds me that Bonfire Night is upon us soon. What’s it got to do with Syria? Damien Day would have done a much better job of this.

      The only footage I’ve seen so far is a small town in a desert being shelled, a number of soldiers in the back of trucks waving their machine guns, the usual sad faces of beautiful 8-year-old girls minus leg/brother/parents/hope, foreign medics being a bit cross about their hospital being shelled, and Erdogan being obnoxious.

        1. That image of Americans enjoying a day out around a campfire in a wood doesn’t seem fake to me. Nothing to do with Syria of course, but it seems that Trump was taken in. I don’t care what ABC said it was. It could be the moon landing for all I know.

          The news footage I have seen of the invasion site seems genuine enough.

          2. I’d only get in the way, and there is nothing I can do there to help the situation. Unlike those 70 American guards Trump withdrew for Erdogan’s convenience, I am not under NATO’s protection.

  20. Neil Woodford’s £3.5bn flagship investment fund will be wound up

    Woodford ceases to be the investment manager of the fund with immediate effect.

    Neil Woodford’s £3.5bn flagship investment fund will be wound up and the cash returned to investors, more than four months after it was suspended.
    The former star fund manager had planned to reopen the Woodford Equity Income Fund, but the administrator, Link Fund Solutions (LFS), said it had concluded that it was in the best interests of investors for it to be wound up.

    Woodford, who has been scrambling to rescue the fund, said he opposed the move. “This was Link’s decision and one I cannot accept, nor believe is in the long-term interests of LF Woodford Equity Income Fund investors.” He has been removed as investment manager of the fund with immediate effect.

    LFS wrote to investors to tell them that cash will be returned to them “at the earliest opportunity”. It will begin winding up the fund on 17 January, after giving investors three months’ notice as required

    . Woodford ceases to be the investment manager of the fund with immediate effect.

  21. Peter O’Neill: police issue arrest warrant for former Papua New Guinea PM. Tue 15 Oct 2019.

    Police have issued a warrant for the arrest of the former prime minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O’Neill on corruption charges.

    The warrant was issued by the Waigani district court on Friday for “official corruption”, according to a statement issued by acting commissioner of the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary, David Manning, who said he was not able to reveal specific details of the charges at this point “due to the sensitivity of the investigations”.

    Bizarrely this is inconceivable in the UK where the police are mere minions and helpmates of the Elites as is amply demonstrated by the stalling of the Darroch and Williamson enquiries!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/15/peter-oneill-police-issue-arrest-warrant-for-former-papua-new-guinea-pm

    1. Just a question, how can official corruption be a crime.

      Surely, if it is official it is authorised

  22. I enjoyed this comment under the DT article about why the EU should fear a prosperous Britain ( I also like his/her nom de plume):

    Carpe Jugulum 14 Oct 2019 8:20PM

    Before the ever pessimistic and UK denigrating Remain element pours it’s usual pathetic scorn –

    The UK is the sixth largest economy in the world.

    On a ten year cycle, the UK is one of the worlds largest exporters of military equipment.

    The EU has five universities in the world top twenty rankings, without the UK it has ……. none.

    The UK is second only to the USA in the number of Nobel laureates.

    The UK is a world leader in scientific research DESPITE being ‘given’ EU research funds that are half those allocated to Italy and a third of those allocated to Germany.

    The UK, DESPITE, the best efforts of the EU is still the second largest financial centre in the world and was so long before we joined the Common Market.

    The future of the UK is with the Anglosphere, Commonwealth and the rest of the world, not a sclerotic and declining EU.

    1. Good morning Rastus and the rst of the gang.

      Carpe Jugulum mentioned earlier this year that he is a retired Policeman; perhaps Grizz knows him?

  23. Today’s mail to Mr R………..

    As Extinction Rebellion is allegedly being funded by G S and because climate change hysteria originated during the Clinton administration when G S was best friends with Bill Clinton and Al Gore, my opinion is that it’s a hoax designed to shovel billions of dollars into multi billionaire wallets, and to give G S control of the West via the UN………..

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/10/13/extinction-rebellion-members-paid-400-per-week-to-shut-down-britain/

    As always, follow the money !

    Polly

  24. Remainers must be comforted/confronted by the fact that whilst the UK remains within the EU, our money is being used to send massive subsidies to the Bulgars a large sample of whom seemed to break out into monkey chants and nazi salutes at last night’s football. Furthermore, whilst in the EU, the worst elements of Bulgarian society are free to come to the UK. Comforting, eh.

    1. If the Remainers were capable of joined-up thinking then they would be Leavers.

      So the difficulties and nuances of the real world probably do not trouble them.

    1. Who funds Extinction Rebellion ?

      Who has been best friend of British governments back to 1997 and probably 1990 ?

      Oh…….

      The same guy.

      What a coincidence !

    1. Yet another example of “hard cases” being highlighted in the hope that all deportations and residency refusals can be halted.
      I find it interesting that the Home office civil servants are choosing individuals who can, through their connections, cause the greatest furore.

      Why does she retain a DRC passport?

    2. Are you speaking in jest when you say ‘I no longer trust anything I read in the Guardian? Many have not believed a word it has written for some decades!

    1. I fear we shall be a vassal state unless we leave without surrendering to the EU.

      Both Boris and JRM have a yellow streak running through them.

    1. Inappropriate cultural, racial or gender identification should do. That’ll get them put on a register for life and banned from all meaningful social activity or loitering within half a mile of children.

    2. If those figures are anywhere near accurate we have a horrendous problem. Ethnic minorities make up about 15% of the UK population but it appears they account for 3 over 50% of children in custody. Anecdotal evidence as well would suggest that a very high percentage of them will be black

      One has to wonder what has happened as the first generation from Jamaica etc were very law abiding

      On the figures above 15% of the Non white British population account for 50% of Children in Custody and the 85% white population account for 50% of children in custody. A huge difference

      1. Good morning Bill, and a huge amount of those ethnic minorities are lingering in care waiting to be adopted or fostered .

        An albatross around the neck I am afraid.

      2. The second generation from the West Indies were encouraged by teachers and social workers to bear grudges and turn their backs on their parents’ culture.

      3. Well… yes. This disparity is well known. The problem is the state won’t let us talk about it.

        Not ehow it couches the ‘ethnic minorities’ I’d doubt any of those arrested are Japanese or Chinese.

        It needs an adult, rational, detached attitude free from the usual Left wing squealing of ‘waycism!’ as soon as the truth is told. it needs to stop saying ‘give them more money’ or ‘it’s unfair to treat them like that, they’re poor. It needs to stop pandering and be brutally honest. There’s a problem with black kids.

        1. ‘Afternoon, Wibbles, I totally agree and not least, part of the problem is an absence of disciplining parents, caused, no doubt, by the absence of any strong, father-figure.

  29. What seems to be happening to Corbyn, nominally leader of the Labour Party, in recent weeks seems to me eerily reminiscent of what used to happen to Soviet leaders – Bulganin, Kruschev – before they suddenly disappeared from the scene, and with the help of photo-doctoring became “unpersons” who were never, thereafter, discussed. Unfortunately, Labour will probably replace him with someone else equally keen on killing enterprise, expanding the public sector, giving bigger handouts to the stay-at-homes, and throwing open the borders.

    2. Corbyn seems to be little more than the puppet leader of the Labour party. It seems they regard him as more acceptable to the electorate then those that are really puling the strings of Labour. If Labour were to get elected you would quickly see Corbyn put out to grass

    1. Morning LD,
      How about someone outside of the lab/lib/con who has been active in setting up & activating the referendum, also knows the workings of brussels inside out, proved beyond doubt his allegiance to Queen, Country,party, has integrity and is well respected as a politician ?
      One Gerard Batten.

        1. The odious present condition one sees the Hoc in brought about by the lab/lib/con pro eu coalition party and before the great purge, is that a bad thing or are you for condoning a continuance of the
          status quo ?

          1. The only likely change is the Brexit Party gaining seats.

            The real status quo for UKIP is none.

          2. The glaring fact is that the brexit group is made up mostly by discontented lab/lib/con voters, the very ones that got us into such an odious state as a country over the decades to start with.
            This is in no way an anti brexit group post, to use as an exit tool it has my blessings all the way.

          3. The glaring fact is that you’e a complete hypocrite. By advocating that the current Globalist controlled liblabcon uniparty voters switch their allegiance, they would by very definition be … discontented lab/lib/con voters.

      2. Ummm…

        Couldn’t we have someone non-partisan, respected and disicplined? Owen Patterson, perhaps? Frankly I’d make Philip Hollobone speaker. He understands his role as a servant to the people.

    2. Why don’t we all move the UK clocks forward one day. We can move them back in a couple of weeks.

    1. Then the BBC as a whole should prosecuted for malfeasance as a public institution.
      Edited: “should be prosecuted” …

  35. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    Both RemainCentral and the resident Remain editor of the DT, with all their gloomy cautions, felt the need to report, with gritted teeth, on that development. The Times reports:

    “With only days to go

    before Thursday’s summit of EU leaders the two sides were said to be

    working on a plan that could accommodate both camps’ red lines on

    customs arrangements for the island of Ireland. […] EU

    commission sources suggested that even if a deal was not possible on

    Thursday both sides were “serious about wanting a deal — preferably

    now”, although next week was also a possibility. This would require an additional Council meeting to sign off on any new agreement.” (link, paywalled)

    Why is it that the EU is incapable

    of making a decision unless it’s literally five minutes to midnight?

    Are they now planning to stop the calendar, not just their clocks, to

    get this done? Peter Foster, Remain editor of the DT, has extensive

    ‘sources’ in Brussels, thus he’s able to be specific:

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-tuesday-15th-october-2019/

  36. Mike Pence has now asked Erdogan to stay put with their current incursion across the border, the opening up of the Islamic State prisons and the march by Assad’s forces to reunite the whole of Syria, rather than leave any of it in Western hands. The Kurds, who have proved with their own blood and goodwill our doughty and loyal friends, must choose between genocide from Trump’s friend in Ankara or surrender to Assad, in the hope that he may be maganimous in victory rather than stitch up a deal himself with Erdogan, backed up by Russia and Iran. So that’s all right then – Erdogan’s warm invitation next month to the White House goes ahead as planned. Europe, about to be deluged by 3 million refugees and 50,000 Islamic State fighters, can get stuffed as far as Trump and Erdogan are concerned. Brexit won’t stop them indoctrinating our British Muslims.

    Turkey should now expect their enclaves West of the Euphrates, such as Afrin, cleared out by Assad, same as Idlib, with Turkish ethnics singled out for reprisals under suspicion of terrorism. Islamist zealots are welcome to nip into Turkey for sending on to Europe or to killing Kurds. There is nothing the Kurds or the Americans can do about it other than to sit back and let it happen. Erdogan puffs his chest and stuffs his face with Trump’s hospitality and the UN sleeps.

    1. Morning Jeremy. The big players here are now Russia and Iran. A war between Turkey and Syria benefits neither so they will cobble together some agreement between them. It won’t be easy of course since it will require Erdogan forsaking his dream of an Ottoman Turkey but lacking friends elsewhere he has little choice!

      1. Indeed. What do you think would be their next move? Destabilising Western Europe using Islamic State mercenaries harvested from the prisons and being bussed out of their charge? Thus softened up, it should be possible to persuade the West to abandon NATO and join in with the new order.

        Trump might tweet this is a bad idea.

        1. Destabilising Western Europe using Islamic State mercenaries harvested from the prisons and being bussed out of their charge?

          I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Erdogan does that out of main spite but Russia and Irans ambition must be to separate the United States from Saudi Arabia.

          1. That won’t be quite so easy, since Iran and Saudi Arabia hate one another. I remember the Saudis arranging for Iranians attending the Hajj in Mecca being trampled underfoot, while rich Arab friends dine well in 7 star hotels for the megarich that were built on the site of the ancient city.

            What is interesting the other day was seeing how much RT and Al Jazeera concurred in their analysis of the situation. Qatar has already been vilified by the Saudis, and may be one of several Arab nations willing to join in with Iran and Russia, causing a split in Arabia itself. With Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds, Iraq too may join this emerging power bloc. If Egypt and Jordan also see the writing on the wall as regards the true value of American loyalty, then it may be Game Over for Israel.

          2. That won’t be quite so easy, since Iran and Saudi Arabia hate one another.

            I did say separate from the US, not love one another. We can sit here and watch all these geopolitical chess moves being played, of which Putin is a Grandmaster, but it is within the power of the United States to kick the board over and decide to play American Football instead.

          3. American football is all about huge shoulder pads, a game plan and barging your way to the goal by brute force. For the sake of 70 non-combatant peacekeepers and guardians of the Kurds in Northern Syria, Trump may well have to commit tens of thousands of US troops, billions of dolllars in heavy artillery and a fair number of body bags to right the damage he did with one phone call.

            Would America play?

          4. Would America play?

            They very well might if the Super Bowl is control of the Oil of the Middle East!

          5. Since America fracked its landscape, and intends to turn Alaska into an industrial zone, it has its own oil reserves, and might feel under no obligation to prop up Western Europe’s.

            That leaves Venezuela and Nigeria as the only other option, because Thatcher could not flog off North Sea oil fast enough, and Norway is hanging on to their limited supply and would actually do very nicely out of it.

    2. Morning Jeremy. The big players here are now Russia and Iran. A war between Turkey and Syria benefits neither so they will cobble together some agreement between them. It won’t be easy of course since it will require Erdogan forsaking his dream of an Ottoman Turkey but lacking friends elsewhere he has little choice!

    3. The clumsy murdering Turks are like fire ants and will march and plunder to their hearts content. Look at what they did in Armenia 100 years ago. Of course , history fades doesn’t it about the horrors of them teeming up with Germany and how they slaughtered our troops in the Middle East in WW1

      How very strange that there seems to be very little written about the terrible battles and hardship our troops suffered in those days .. Quietly forgotten by politicians .

      Theirs is the religion of massacre, the Turkish are dangerous .

      1. A very well-educated Turkish friend of ours said that the great tragedy for Turkey was that it became Muslim rather than Christian.

        Indeed, Ataturk, Mustafa Kemal, was highly critical of Mohammad whom he saw as a barbarian.

        2. Quite. St Paul was a Turk, and one of the most important figures in Christianity. Antioch, which is where Christianity was named as a religion, is also in Turkey (a Greek province at the time). The Catholic Church also established itself for centuries after the fall of Rome in what is today Istanbul.

          I don’t know whether you consider the UK’s current prime minister to be a Christian figure, but his ancestors came from Turkey.

  37. A few days ago I got a knock on the door from a local council official to check I was me and confirm I was entitled to a vote which brings this comment from elsewhere into sharp focus…………..

    “The
    electoral roll is a wonderful resource and where the Electoral
    Commission, working with the police and local councils should start to
    clamp down not just on electoral fraud but other suspicious activities.

    Out
    canvassing yesterday in a local town I identified 3 properties on one
    terraced street adjacent to a mosque where the number of registered
    adults far exceeded the capacity of the house (6 adults in a 2 bed, 7
    adults in a 3 bed, 8 adults in a 3 bed). All had Pakistani names. This
    isn’t racist, it’s a fact with the information freely available.

    If
    me, a mere volunteer, can see the unusual behaviour within a couple of
    minutes then why aren’t the EC asking the tough questions and knocking
    on the doors asking for proof those registered actually live there?”
    Voter ID alone is not going to stop electoral fraud,we need to check the validity of postal votes urgently

    1. This Daily Mail article is 9 years old, imagine the scale of fraud now. Little wonder that the Labour Party is vehemently against voter ID and control on postal/proxy voting. Tory measures probably not as strict as most concerned people would wish but it’s a start, as long as they actually follow through with their aim and do not buckle under pressure.

      Yesterday the Mail visited one four-bedroom flat in the area where 18 men are apparently claiming a vote, all of whom registered within the past month.
      The students living there were baffled by many of the names said to be residing with them. Another resident was surprised to learn that eight complete strangers were also registered as living in the small flat she shares with her partner.
      Other addresses investigated by the Mail were linked to the Labour Party.
      At a property in Rainhill Way, Bethnal Green, where Labour Party council election candidate Khales Uddin Ahmed lives with his family, seven adults have suddenly joined the electoral roll.

      Daily Mail – Voter Fraud in 2010

      1. Well in NI they introduced Photo ID over a decade ago. The old saying was “Vote Early & Vote Often

        Another scam and photo ID wiil not stop it is with Students. They can vote at their home address or where they are studying and there are no real checks to stop them voting twice

    1. ‘Morning Anne
      Diddums,poor ickle footballers on 25 grand a week have their feelings hurt ands this is a national issue,how about inviting some poor Tommy Atkins on 25 grand a YEAR to discuss his feelings about having his legs blown off on the battlefield

  41. This photo of Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar shows how deep the UK-Ireland friendship is. 15 OCTOBER 2019 •

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bb57443ee971a37b5c9164e1e4798b814f99c7083d9f3a2ecdf57fbeb980b5ee.jpg

    The meeting between Boris Johnson and Leo Varadkar at Thornton Manor last week illustrated the remarkable power of photographs. Amongst the several pictures betokening a relaxed friendship between the two leaders, the one which stands out is of the two men deep in conversation strolling along a grassy tree-lined path. It could be taken as a metaphor for the pathway towards possible Brexit agreement which, against all expectations, they managed to identify.

    TOP COMMENT BELOW THE LINE

    Henry Smith 15 Oct 2019 10:17AM.

    What Brexit has demonstrated is the deep seated hatred that the ROI establishment have for Britain and its people.

    Imagine a tiny country that sits next to one of the greatest Nations on earth and that great Nation was a big enough friend to provide you with the best Border deal on the planet – Schengen on steroids – a hundred year old deal called “Common Travel Area”where you could travel freely without a passport, move, settle, live, get free health care, work and even vote in that Nations elections.

    Imagine that when you got close to bankruptcy in 2010 that great Nation came to your aid with a multi-billion pound loan.

    Then, when that great Nation had a democratic vote to leave a trade cartel, you saw this as an opportunity for payback – but the payback you gave was putting the boot in for your Brussels masters, cheerleading for that great Nation to be turned into a vassal State, Vichy, a colony based upon a bogus border dispute that you had fabricated.

    I hope the British people never ever forget the hatred that the ROI has displayed towards them.

    Amen to that!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/15/photo-boris-johnson-leo-varadkar-shows-deep-uk-ireland-friendship/

  42. Hate crimes recorded by police up 10%

    Not sure if this is just hate crimes or includes hate incidents. The definition of a hater incident in my view is just totally daft

    Well no surprise if statement of fact that some do not like are treated as a hate crimes. I suspect the real number of hate crimes are tiny fraction of that number

    Why as well is it not a hate crime the other way around. Many women would find it unacceptable to say some of the can have penis’s

    I think almost everyone would agree s hate crime should be dealt with but calling thing yhat have nothing at all to do with hater does the police no credit i n my view

    The definition of a hate crime is:

    Any criminal offence which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by hostility or prejudice, based on a person’s disability or perceived disability; race or perceived race; or religion or perceived religion; or sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation or transgender identity or perceived transgender identity (Crown Prosecution Service).

    The definition of a hate incident is:

    Any non-crime incident which is perceived by the victim or any other person, to be motivated by a hostility or prejudice based on a person’s race or perceived race / religion or perceived religion / sexual orientation or perceived sexual orientation / disability or perceived disability / transgender or perceived to be transgender

    2. Yo JBJ

      As an aside, I wonder how many of these ‘hate crimes’ were

      BAME’ etc charged for being rude to Whitey
      or

      LGBTalphabetsoupers being rude to heterosexuals

  43. I guess that as politicians are so keen on Peoples Votes that the next time it come around to them awarding themselves a big pay rise well get a Peoples Vote on that?

  44. Morning, Campers.
    Much to my annoyance, I can’t think of a new snarky comment to kick off the day.
    There’s not even a deluded grandmother ripped off by her Moroccan toy boy to sneer at.
    What a Grey Day.

      3. Those caves are excavations in the C18 and C19 for the soil used in the manufacture of green glass bottles and beads. The green beads were highly prized by ignorant Africans who sold their slaves in exchange for them.

  45. Extinction Rebellion protests continue in London despite ban

    It does men now that they could face more serious charges

    Extinction Rebellion activists are continuing to demonstrate in London despite police ordering a ban on the group’s protests on Monday.
    The group said in a statement that “normal activities have been resumed” after police cleared protesters from Trafalgar Square overnight.
    Climate change activists have now targeted the Department for Transport.
    The group’s co-founder, Gail Bradbrook, was arrested after climbing on to the entrance of the government building.
    Extinction Rebellion said in a tweet that she had glued herself in place, while a statement by the group said another activist was locked to the side of the building.
    Police were later pictured removing Ms Bradbrook from the scene. Police say the area is now clear of protesters.

    1. Rip them off whatever they’ve glued themselves to. Allow them to display their ‘war wounds’ to all and sundry, with graphic accounts of the pain they’ve suffered, peut-etre, pour encourager les autres.

      3. I feel certain the news will be released on the forthcoming propitious day to bury bad news…..

      4. And we must never forget that JRM voted in favour of Vaz being on a quango.

        It was the beginning of my disillusion with Grease-Smogg which grew even more after he voted in favour if May’s Vassal State Surrender WA.

      1. I wear a hard hat and asbestos gloves when I put the news on these days. Unfortunately, it seems to be the same gloom.

        1. I expect you are also wearing safety gogles to prevent the shards of glass causing an eye injury as you shove your fist through the screen?

  48. LGBT definition of a Man

    a) May have breasts
    b) May have a vagina
    c) May be able to give birth
    d) May have a beard
    e) May have a female type voice
    f) May have periods

    LGBT definition of a Woman

    a) May or may not have breasts
    b) May have a vagina
    c) May have a penis
    d) May have a beard
    e) May or may not have periods
    f) May o may not be able to give birth
    g) May speak with a masculine type voice

      1. Yes. However, introducing (or reintroducing) ID cards because a specific segment of the population has no scruples about breaking the law is not the correct approach.
        When terrorism raised it’s head, we did not eliminate terrorists, we clamped down on the entire population. We placed greater restrictions and control over the freedom and activities of the general population. We took several giant steps to becoming a police state. Introducing a requirement for ID cards in peacetime is another such giant step. It would be but an instant in time before we would be required to carry them at all times and produce them to any policeman, bus driver, shoe shop assistant, or librarian who asked.

        1. Think of the alternative. Under the regime that could unlawfully be brought in, ID cards would be the least of our worries.

          If you want to drive you need a licence. Why should you not have ID if you want to vote?

          1. Logically, of course, your argument makes perfect sense.
            I just do not like it. I resent it. It is being proposed because of fraud by people who should never have been allowed into this country.
            In any sane world these people would be deprived of UK citizenship and sent somewhere else.
            (In any sane world they would never have been allowed in.)

      2. And the Lib Undems likewise are scared of ID. You’d struggle to find anyone more ‘libertarian’ than myself (outside of prison or the backwoods of the US of A), but times have been changed, and the UK needs ID.

  51. Do we really need it?

    Earlier, Bill T mentioned taking things to the charity shop as part of a clearout. I did the same last year and am now a ‘minimalist’.

    I’ve just finished a large jar of coffee and the glass jar would have been a prized possession when I was a nipper. I don’t need it so it’s going in the recycling bin.

    Add in the tons of useful items in the multitude of charity shops in town and taken to the refuse place and we seem to be drowning in an over-abundance of stuff.

    Do we really need it all?

    2. My trouble is that when I take things to our local recycling dump I always see lots of articles dumped by other people that I would like to take home with me.

      2. When I was stationed in Germany many years ago, there was one day every couple of months or so when people would place outside their house any large items that they no longer needed – furniture, radios, bikes etc. Then anyone could drive round neighbourhoods and take whatever they wanted, with anything left behind being carted away by the local authority. It seemed like a very good recycling scheme but I have no idea if it is still going. I think that there is a certain section of the British population that still goes round picking up large, homeware items, except that they pick them up from inside the home.

        1. ‘Afternoon, ‘Enri. It still happens in Australia but then, they seem to have a large population with German roots.

        2. And in The Netherlands. “Big Rubbish Day”. The MR collected several things in the 1980s which we still use today!

        3. Ah the Stadtmull – squaddies fighting Turkish Gastarbeiters for the best pick. I may have exaggerated slightly, but those couches in our barrack rooms and crew rooms must have come from somewhere 😉

          1. I can’t honestly say that I ever saw any fighting but I was RAF and we were much more gentlemanly than the khaki lot the other side of town 🙂

    3. Probably not. Have look on Gumtree for a sofa. Many are free to collect. Our furniture is mostly second-hand. I cannot imagine spending £1200 on a sofa from DFS or similar.
      Advertisers and the MSM have created an imaginary world of nice, clean, modern houses, with brand new furniture and clean modern brand new people.
      See the DWP advert for benefits…
      The average young person thinks that world is real and tries to buy into it.

      1. Isn’t part of the problem that to keep the economy going, people have to continually buy new and throw good stuff away?

        1. Look at car ‘leasing’ or whatever they call it now… Just keep on moving the debt mountain down the tracks.

          1. It would be interesting to know when the tracks will run out and the debt-train hits the buffers.

      2. Too right. In 1965, when I married for the first time, virtually everything was second hand, bought at auction or came from the family. The only thing new was a fridge (on HP). We didn’t have a proper washing machine until my younger son was two – in 1971. And that was second hand, too. A Hoover Keymatic. £187. A huge sum – two months pay – but I had done a bit of moonlighting and we managed it.

        My younger grandson – aged 23 – has just bought a house and EVERYTHING is brand new – including, natch, a washing-up machine, huge fridge-freezer, 36 inch TV….. The family offered him some furniture. His face suggested that we were proposing buckets of shyte.

        3. The woman I bought my little flat from in ’94 had furnished it with mostly second hand stuff and she left behind everything except an ottoman that she’d made and upholstered herself. Over time I’ve replaced some but not all of hers with new pieces of my own.

          1. We’ll have some wardrobes, chests of drawers available soon, Our Susan – buyer collects…{:¬))

          3. Not the English couple who may still be in the running, They have two houses full of furniture. They made it clear that they didn’t want anything.

            We still hope that someone WILL buy the house AND most of the furniture. There are ten fully furnished rooms…..{:¬((

          5. When I bought my first flat, my father expected me to pay him for items of furniture which he had recently inherited from my grandmother (his mother).

        4. I have a beautiful French writing desk which i got from a second hand shop. They were asking £150 for it. Someone had already put a £20 deposit on it. The guy in the shop was what we now call ‘special needs’. I took advantage of the situation like the batsard that i am and got him to accept £100 for a quick sale.

          The lady who ran the shop was not at all amused and gave me the evil eye.

          Most of the rest of my furniture (except beds) comes from British Heart Foundation. Some very nice pieces made from actual wood and not cardboard. Two beautiful inlaid side boards which come up with a rich glossy shine when polished and cheap as chips. (not wood chips) All for a fraction of the price of new stuff which won’t last.

          Obviously, when i pulled a fast one on the mong i was self identifying as a bad boy that day.

          1. #Me Too . Most of my antique furniture was purchased years ago at auction when nobody was interested in antiques. It was all I could afford!!! Over the years they went up and down in value.
            Not a lot of interest now but I wouldn’t part with them. I appreciate the skill of the cabinet maker and inlay on some valued pieces.

      3. When we set up house, we went to auctions to buy furniture. We’re still using the table we bought for a tenner; we had to let several go as they went over our limit. I can’t see today’s youngsters doing that.

  52. Extinction Rebellion protesters are planning to disrupt the London Underground on Thursday.

    The police nee to deal with them promptly if they attempt. disrupting very busy underground stations is potentially very dangerous . Fortunately underground stations can be sealed off quite easily so as long as police are there these dangerous anarchist can be stopped

    The climate activist group said it will expand its two-week long protest to the Tube service, where it will carry out “non-violent” demonstrations.
    Protesters have warned workers “to not intervene”.
    A statement posted on the group’s website, directed at London Underground staff, said: “On 17 October, several XR affinity groups (autonomous civil disobedience groups) are planning to non-violently disrupt Tube services to highlight the climate and ecological emergency.

    “We sincerely apologise to all those who may be affected as a consequence of this disruption.”
    It added: “In any other circumstances these groups would never dream of disrupting the Tube but this is an emergency.”

      1. Actually the Underground still uses the old 4 rail system but it is only the Live rail that is dangerous well at least it is if you earth yourself which is highly likely

      2. I like your thinking, Annie, but in my view it would not be sufficiently violent or painful. I fear you have gone soft on the eco-thugs.

    2. Considering the average commuter’s reaction to the odd tourist that doesn’t understand tube etiquette and stands still on the wrong side of an escalator may I suggest “The Staff” are likely to be the least of the crusties worries??

  53. Setting – a gathering of media reporters in Brussels.

    “Ooh, I think he’s coming out now”

    “Gosh, doesn’t he look authoritative”

    “Shhhhh, quiet everybody!”

    (Monsieur Barnier) ” … eet eees ‘igh time we turned good intentions into legal text” (makes statement, leaves immediately, no questions)

    “That was quick. Well now we know”

    “Ooh, wasn’t that a masterly performance”

  54. ‘Afternoon, Peeps.

    In other news…MPs are calling on Thomas Cook execs to hand back bonuses following the failure of the company. Setting aside for the moment whether or not these payments were justified and reasonable (probably not) if the principle of handing back pay following a major fluck-up is as sound as they suggest, they should set an example following the 3.5 years of the Brexit fluck-up and do the same themselves. Seems fair to me?

  55. Since I intend putting the following piece on Parliament in the second volume of my autobiography, I would appreciate a critique as to its accuracy and conclusion. Please remember though that this is being written for posterity, as a means to shew many following generations how we coped on a day-to-day basis.

    Back to Bloody Brexit – 2

    On 9th September, Boris Johnston, The Prime Minister, Prorogued Parliament, as is customary before a Queen’s Speech and the start of a new
    session. Howls of disapproval from the Pro-Remainers as they claimed it was a move designed (because of the length of time before the 14th
    October) to frustrate their conniving to overthrow the will of the people, as demonstrated in the referendum of June 23rd 2016, even though it was
    pointed out that, within that timeframe, there were 3 to 4 weeks of the bunfights called Party Conferences, when it was normal to suspend Parliamentary Business through that period.

    The anger lead lawyers, backed by Soros’ funding, to embark upon a course that was about to affect the rôle of the Judiciary in The United Kingdom. They wished the courts to find that the Proroguing of Parliament was unlawful – despite their not being able to quote any law that had been broken.

    They hawked this petition through the Scottish Court of Sessions, despite Scotland’s Judicial Writ not being applicable in England, and to the Royal Court in
    London; only to have both courts rule, quite rightly that it was not a judicial matter. Parliament makes law and the Judiciary carry it out, with the aid of
    the Police and the Public Prosecutor.

    The ruling was taken, on appeal, to the Supreme Court, who had replaced the Law Lords of Appeal during Tony Blairs undermining of the unwritten British
    Constitution during the Labour term of office in 1997 – 2010.

    In a staggering intrusion into the workings of Government, the Supreme Court ruled on 24th September, that Johnson had unlawfully prorogued
    Parliament and pronounced the Prorogation as unlawful, despite them still being unable to identify which law had been broken – because there is none.

    Parliament was immediately reconvened on 30th September, even though it was in the middle of the Labour Party Conference and John Bercow, the most biased, hated and obviously, Remainer, Speaker, was very happy to announce that the prorogation would be struck from the records. Presumably to
    expunge the record of the Supreme Court interfering in matters of Government and usurping the Power of the Monarch.

    Parliament now had just 1 week (5 days) of sitting in which to spend their time lambasting Johnson, his wish for a No Deal Brexit on 31st October and doing nothing constructive with their time. On the following Tuesday, 8th October, Parliament was again prorogued until the forthcoming Queen’s Speech on 14th October, as originally planned. A complete and utter waste of time and all to shew contempt for the Electorate’s Vote in those dim and distant days 3 years and 3 months ago.

    This Parliament has also convincingly shewn the world that it is “The Contemptible Parliament”.

  56. A teacher was reading the story of the Three Little Pigs to
    her class.

    She came to the part of the story where first pig was trying to gather the
    building materials for his home.

    She read. ‘And so the pig went up to the man with the wheelbarrow full of straw
    and said: ‘Pardon me sir, but may I have some of that straw to build my house?’

    The teacher paused then asked the class: ‘And what do you think the man said?’

    One little boy raised his hand and said very matter-of-factly…

    ‘I think the man would have said – ‘Well, Fück me!! A talking pig!’
    The teacher had to leave the room.

  57. Just a follow up to Bills post yesterday about Air Canada going all stupid and dropping Ladies and Gentlemen from its announcements.

    At least the other airline still uses those sexist words and when not using your name, pick a relevant Sir or Madam to address you by.

  58. Although I don’t smoke, some of the lads I worked with overseas many years ago did and reckoned the local matches were worse than useless.

    There was a story going round of a freight train crossing the country when the first wagon caught fire. Due to the speed of the train, it quickly swept from front to back until it reached a wagon containing a cargo of local matches, whereupon it went out.

  60. “Ain’t that the truth files”

    Douglas Murray on “Black (and other)Privilege

    Perhaps a bigger landmine is to ask the obvious

    follow-on point. We are told that there are forms of privilege that come

    with being white. Historically this may be able to be said to be the

    case. Though again it is a claim filled with contradictions and

    false-assertions. Were people who spent their days working the land in

    some far-flung part of these islands beneficiaries of ‘white privilege’?

    Are their descendants today? It is an amazingly reductive and almost

    certainly unfair way to view most, let alone all white people. But it

    throws up a counter-question. If white privilege exists, then does black

    privilege exist too?

    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/10/on-black-privilege/

    1. Well said Douglas (as ever).

      The ancestors of most white people in this country were not wealthy, slave-owning lords of the manor. They were the miners, farmers, factory workers, soldiers and sailors who were the backbone of this country. They built a civilisilation which benefitted not only themselves but much of the world besides. They do not deserve to be denigrated as chavs or racists, especially by those who came here from less developed countries and have benefitted from the safety and prosperity which white people have created.

      1. Most people had probably never even seen a black or brown person for real in those days ..

        My dear late innocent grandma who died in 1954 wrote to my father in 1951 when my father and mother took my sister and me to the Sudan, where he worked for the British Government before Sudan gained Independence.. I still have that letter .. she would have read Kipling and known about Churchill in his younger days etc.. Not only had she gone through two world wars , and nursed injured servicemen during WW1.. but she must have worried her heart out knowing my father was serving on aircraft carriers in the Indian ocean in WW2 , but the biggest blow must have been saying good bye to her son again , and daughter in law and 2 grandchildren .. Her letter to my father was begging Daddy to be cautious at all times , and beware of dangerous wild beasties that lurked , and of course beware of the dreaded Fuzzy Wuzzies who Kipling wrote about!

        Her anxiety was very real , and her innocent knowledge would have been limited to her experiences listening to injured soldiers whom she nursed in WW1, and men of her own father’s generation!

        My dear late grandparents would be absolutely horrified by the state and mindset of Britain now .

          1. I was always told in such cases to leave out the other person when deciding about ‘I’ or ‘me’. That being so is it not right for it to be ‘took me’ rather than ‘took I’? However, I might have been told nonsense and, if so, await the wrath of those who really know!

  63. You will know my views about polls and how they are all rigged or the questions posed in accordance with the pollster’s agenda.

    Well, the papers are saying that “polls predict win for Johnson”. I recall polls predicting a 150 seat majority for Treason in 2016. That went well, didn’t it.

      1. If, as JRM said, May’s WA would turn the UK into a ‘vassal state’ then why did he and Boris vote for it the third time it was presented?

        We have been told virtually nothing about Boris’s WA and whether it is just a rehash of May’s surrender WA.

        Both Boris and JRM must be pressed for an honest answer to this question by the MSM:

        How vassal would our state be under Boris Johnson’s WA?

  66. Funny, but I’m starting to feel just as humiliated and angry under PM Johnson as I felt under Mrs May. Here is the current ‘Telegraph’ headline:

    Live Brexit latest EU sets midnight deadline to reach deal before EU summit

    Whatever happened to “they can whistle for it” irt the £39,000,000,000 ?

    Whatever happened to all that threat of No Deal etc. etc.

    I can recall Johnson saying wrt the May WA – you can’t polish a t*rd.

    1. The only circumstances under which I would forgive Boris Johnson is if he achieves a proper, honest WTO Brexit.

      What are the odds on that?

      1. If that had happened in the country of his parents birth , what then?

        Do they allow protests in Pakistan .. of course not .. they just murder Prime Ministers instead , stone women and execute apostates , and slit animals throats by virtue of some stone age mumbo jumbo incantation as the animals bleed to death..

    2. What a bloody mess.

      She must really hate being who she is.

      Unwell doesn’t begin to describe it.

        1. I’d say that’s what it was when it was born.

          It’s become somewhat broken since then.

  70. An eco-loony writes…

    SIR – As a chartered engineer, Steve Proud (Letters, October 5) would do well to read the technical report from Ofgem on the blackout to which he refers. It clearly states that, while a drop in output from the Hornsea Wind Farm was one of the contributing factors, the outage was caused by Little Barford Gas Power Station tripping twice.

    It is a myth that large, centralised power stations provide greater grid stability. Most electrical applications are inherently variable, as we switch things on and off, while large generators using steam from fire or fission are inherently inflexible. However, in the same way that we use clean drinking water for flushing lavatories and washing cars, there are many electrical applications that don’t need the high-quality electricity that the current grid provides.

    The first generation of “smart meters” has been a huge missed opportunity. A proper, functioning smart grid would be able to match our intermittent demand with the variable, but highly predictable, generation from renewables.

    By the time the 3GW Hinkley Point C power station is built, Britain will have brought online more than 10 times that in wind capacity and solar. This is in spite of having a tiny proportion of the investment and government support that fission (and fusion) nuclear power have had.

    It is also important to remember that nuclear power is a fossil fuel that Britain has to import, while we have all the elements to make our own wind, wave and tidal turbines, and photovoltaics. Although we don’t own deposits of the rare earth metals required for the magnets and electronics that these use, due to our lack of recycling facilities we pay other countries large sums to take these metals off our shores every year.

    Blaise Kelly

    Graduate Energy Institute
    Bristol

    He (yes, he) gets a ripping in the comments.

    2. “It is also important to remember that nuclear power is a fossil fuel”
      Oh no it’s not! He started the pantomime.

        1. He might think that. Fossils, fuels or not, come from once living sources. Ores and metals do not fulfill any of the criteria necessary.

          1. I knew that really. Much come from a time when the jungles proliferated on a hot planet smothered in CO2. An inconvenient truth for the climate change folk.

    3. Gosh I do hop they don’t let this idiot manage the National Grid

      Yes demand does vary which is why you need a high level of constant output power stations

      How does he think highly variable wind and solar will cope with peak demand

      Nuclear does not use fossil fuel

    4. “It is a myth that large, centralised power stations provide greater grid stability.”

      No it isn’t. It’s worked very well since the 1920s.

    6. More than the fossil fuel claim, I just don’t understand how the UK having to import nuclear fuel is bad but the fact that UK has to import rare earth metals (and even needs to export them for recycling) is good.

      Is he proposing that essential electricity supplies are maintained at the expense of lower needs? I bet he will be the first to complain when his EV never gets charged overnight because power is being diverted to more needy causes!

    7. Total UK Wind Capacity 21.5 gigawatts , in use at Present 2.38 gigawatts ie less than 10% that,s tells us how useless it is , A load factor of about 10% is fairly typical

      It is a fairly mild day yet we are dependent on so called non renewable for about 30 gigawatts of the demand whilst Wins turbines with a capacity of about 18 gigawatts sit idle

      Solar you can ignore total capacity i only in Megawatts

  72. I’ve had a notification from my energy supplier (Green Star) that they plan to fit a smart meter in the near future.

    Am I right in thinking that these things are still not compulsory?

        1. I have been getting nagged for years to have one from EDF, I just ignore them, they have stopped ringing now, but i still get emails.

          1. They keep telling me that as my meter was installed in the mid 80’s, there’ll come a point where it simply stops working. Hasn’t happened yet though a work colleague tells me that one she had which was of the same vintage did grind to a halt. EDF charged (over)estimated bills until the new meter was installed.

          2. There is a difference between replacing an old meter with a new ordinary meter – or with a “smart” one.

            In Norfolk, our “old” meter was replaced by a new “old” one. They tried twice to fit a smart meter – but discovered both times that there is no signal for available to enable the smart one to work.

          3. They can’t try that on me. I had an upgrade to a new electronic meter some years back, well before the Smart epoch.

    3. Beware the next line of attack
      “You can’t have the cheapest tariff unless you have a smart meter”

      1. Something similar has happened to me with Thames Water. “We are installing a smart Water meter and after monitoring your usage you can agree to being billed according to the amount being consumed or pay £600 a year for an unmetered supply”. After 9 months I signed up to meter billing. It seems I’m going to save around £200 pa. Interestingly they didn’t carry over to my new account that rainwater surface drainage doesn’t enter their drains for which they charge an extra £25 pa. So I’ve had to point out my property has 4 soakaways…. No doubt the price of water will go up over time as will the cost of taking the pi55….

          1. Perhaps I should have made it clearer that the smart meter was installed outside the boundaries of my property so I had no choice in the matter. Interestingly it uses the flow of water to recharge the battery (designed to last 15 years)…

    4. EDF have been pestering me with letters and phone calls: I immediately recycle the letters and I tell the caller I am not interested and then end the call. EDF have never told me that I have to have one and therefore I’ve assumed that they are not compulsory.

    5. I’m pretty sure they’re not. Also some people have been issued with the crap ones that stop working even though the newer ones are available.

      OT – good lunch at Cote yesterday.

      1. What did you have?

        Last week I had the crab bisque followed by haddock, then Friday the endives followed by bouef en croute. All scrumptious.

        1. We went for the £15.95 menu – I had salmon rillettes, followed by poulet grillé with pommes Dauphinoise and mushrooms in a creamy sauce. All very good and didn’t need pudding after that.

  74. Aye Right,GFY

    “Terrorist offences may also be considered a hate crime and the College of Policing operational guidance states, there is “a clear overlap between hate crime and terrorist activity”.Terrorist activity (such as the Manchester Arena attackin May 2017), may be targeted against general British or Western values rather than one of the five specific strands and is therefore not covered by this statistical collection”

    It gets better

    “However, other terrorist attacks do fit within the centrally monitored hate crime strands covered by this statistical bulletin. For example, the Finsbury Park Mosque attack in June 2017 has been classified as a hate crimebecause the victims were thought to be targeted because of their religious affiliation”

    No evidence of a one way street here,no,sireee

    https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/839172/hate-crime-1819-hosb2419.pdf

    2. These are the five centrally monitored strands of hate crime:

      •race or ethnicity;
      •religion or beliefs;
      •sexual orientation;
      •disability;
      and•transgender identity

      Can I report a hate crime because I believe people who take offence at the drop of a hat are obnoxious and when I say so I am called a bigot?

    1. This transgender is becoming an epidemic. One has to be careful here as under LGBT rules they could be either male or female and to transgender them is a hate crime

  78. That’s me for this Tuesday. The MR has just handed me my glass of red medicine.

    I’ll see you tomorrow, DV – though I shall be out collecting gash wood.

    Incidentally, went to see some very old chums this morning – they have a horrid little dog that jumps up at you all the sodding time.
    I said I do not like dogs jumping on me. “Just shows he likes you,” was their fatuous reply.

    TTFN

    1. A well timed kick just as it takes off or just before it lands and you might score three points for a drop-goal.

          2. For a while before the first uptick came in I did begin to wonder if I was being a bit presumptuous….

          3. Are you sure it was a nit? It might have been a tic.

            Perhaps you could get one of the ladies to transgender, in Bill’s honour.

      2. My friend’s grandmother is 108; that is old.

        As for the other remarks, try to imagine that Boris could have been a top QC, in his sleep, and then let’s pray that he
        is on ‘our’ side.

      3. Now Bill

        If we utick you, because

        A. We think Boris is a Traitor; turncoat; buffoon.

        B. Or that you are glad you are old and will soon be dead.

        My Uptick is for A

  80. Having just received an e-mail purporting to come from Boris, I have replied as follow

    Dear Prime Minister,

    While I whole-heartedly support what you are doing to get us out of the EU on 31st October with a deal that doesn’t put us in vassalage, I think that any deal with the perfidious EU will NOT be to our advantage, I think that No Deal is the better option, to then negotiate on WTO terms with GATT 24 in operation until an agreement is reached.

    Whatever you do, if you value your future and the future of The Conservative Party, do not even consider May’s Withdrawal Agreement, with or without the backstop. Many people, with whom I am in daily contact, fear this avenue most of all, because we see the immediate, short-term and long-term results – and they bode no good for our United Kingdom, the Governance of such you only hold in Stewardship for the Electorate.

    I’m sure your advisors will have made you aware that Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty seems to only allow one extension of the two-year limit. Therefore, despite the machinations of what will come to be known as The Contemptible Parliament, we leave on 31st October – no further extensions are allowed under EU law. Let the opposition suck on that one, when you tell them at PMQs on 30th October!

    At the end of your e-Mail, you thank me for my support. Please do NOT assume that you have it, nor assume that you have the support of the majority of the electorate throughout the country. In any upcoming General Election, there is a Dark Horse you appear not to have taken account of. I refer, of course, to The Brexit Party and Nigel Farage. The only way you and the Conservative Party might ensure a General Election victory, based on the outcome of October 31st, is if you are big enough to accept the hand of friendship and co-operation extended to you by Farage.

    Agree to let him stand unopposed by Conservatives in any Labour Seat that voted to Leave and his reciprocal that he will not stand in any ‘Safe’ Conservative Seat. That Mr Corbyn has no chance, Miss Swineson (Oops, smelling distake) will be routed, as will Little Miss Krankie and her Wee Pretendy Parliamentarians. Hopefully the result will be, rather than a Contemptible Parliament a return to The Incorruptible Parliament with a totally neutral Speaker.

    You have very little time left – think on and use it wisely.

    ​Yours very sincerely

      2. People get to hung up about this, We will have to reach agreement with the EU on a number of issue. It does though not mean we remain in the EU

        Whilst nothing is official at present the constant message being heard is we will be Out of the Single Market & out of the Customs Union. I have heard nothing with regard to the ECJ though

        The position with regard to NI is less clear. The issue remain which is the sensitivity of the land border. What seems to be the strategy is that legally NI will be out of the customs union but it will sort of opt into but can choose to opt out. I think this is were it is getting difficult to legally tie it down and sell it to the DUP. What ever way you cut it there has to be some kind of fudge. The DUP dont want a land border but somehow tariffs have to be collected for goods flowing across the land border

        Any one got any ideas as to how to square this circle? Once we get around this ?

        1. Bill, I think that what I’ve just said to Boris, squares any circle. Let’s get out without vassalage and let’s vote for an incorruptible Parliament.

          ‘Nuff said.

    3. You might suggest to him that the very first Bill he should put before the House is the reduction in the number of MP’s and the acceptance of the boundary commission proposals, tied in with voter ID and great tightening of postal voting.
      Show Labour up, because they are certain to vote against.

      1. Later, Sos, later – let’s get the hell out of the EU first and then we can start kicking ar$e about the new and best reformation since Henry VIII.

        1. My great fear is that the order of play will be:

          A) New referendum
          B) General election
          C) Brexit, only if “we” win A & B.

          He should try to do everything he can to keep the voting honest.

          1. If he plays the Article 50 (51?) card then there is NO extension. End of story – we’re out.

          2. I wish I had your confidence that that card is actually in the pack as issued.

            The cremant is in the fridge so I can celebrate or drown my sorrows.

      3. The 4 boundary omissions complete the review last year but the Commons has just been siting on it, I expect next the MP’s will say it will have to go back to the boundary commission for a further review as it i now out of date. Quite why the politicians who have a vested interest in it should get another vote on it who knows. It should have just been implemented. A can say quite safely though the MP’s will not be demanding a peoples voter on this

        If this goes through to safe constant tinkering with boundaries MP’s could get weighted voting dependent on their constituency size. So if say the AVERAGE constituency size is 70,000 that MP gets 1 vote if it goes to say 77,000 the MP gets 1.1 Votes. The boundaries could then be adjusted perhaps every 10 years

        1. Interesting initial typo.
          Your weighted voting scheme is far too complex and favours Parties where they have MPs with very small majorities in large constituencies.

          1. It does not favour any one. It matched the vote to the size of the Constituency. Nothing complex about it if you can cope with simple maths

            If a Constituency is below the average size say 10% below the MP gets 0.9% of a vote. It is a lot fairer than to allow massive differences. I think the smallest is about 25,000 electorate and the largest about 110,000 but the MP’s under the current system both get 1 vote

      4. THe 4 Boundary commissions have already submitted the final proposals that was over a year ago. All the MPs have to do is rubber stamp it an hours work at most

          1. Boundary Commission for England publishes final recommendations for new constituency boundaries
            10 September, 2018

            The Boundary Commission for England has today published its final recommendations for new constituency boundaries. This follows submission of its final report to Government last week, and that report now being presented to Parliament.
            The Commission has now fulfilled its statutory responsibility, and submission of the report and its publication ends the Commission’s involvement in the 2018 Boundary Review.
            Secretary to the Commission, Sam Hartley, said, ‘The recommendations we’ve published today mark the end of a thorough and consultative process to build the new map of constituencies. We’ve travelled the country, taken account of over 35,000 public comments, and heard many impassioned views about how best to reflect local communities in our recommendations, while ensuring that constituencies are all much more equally represented. We’re confident that the map we propose today is the best match of the legal rules Parliament have set us. It’s now up to Parliament to decide whether these boundaries will be used at the next general election.’
            The Government must now make arrangements for the Commission’s recommendations to be voted on by both Houses of Parliament. It is for the Government to decide when to do so.
            The final recommendations can be viewed on our interactive website, at http://www.bce2018.org.uk.

          3. They are just sitting o it in spite of having commissioned the review. The MP’s in my view should be done for wasting tax payers money. This is the second review and years of work went into it and endless consultations . All they need to do is put it intro place but I suspect they dont want to . It has in affect already been put to the people in the form of endless consultations and changes were made as a result

            There will always be some people unhappy such as those where there constituency has been abolished or they have been moved to another constituency. The basic rule they worked to i a constituency should be a single contiguous area with a few exceptions such as the Scottish Islands

      1. With what we’re talking about, Phil, I cannot help but be serious – very serious. I want OUT.

  81. DT Football Story

    England stand firm in face of sickening racism as they thrash Bulgaria on night of shame in Sofia

    I am slightly cynical about such headlines. But what other adjectives could be used instead if ‘sickening’? Any suggestions?

    4. I love making monkey noises. It’s therapeutic and helps the voice and strengthens the abdominal muscles. Whenever I see a football match on TV, it’s as much a part of the festivities as singing ‘Who’s your father, referee’. Everyone should do it, not just Bulgarian racists. Any why limit it to whenever suntanned players have the ball? We are all 98% chimpanzee, so I’d monkey chant every time any human player gets the ball. Real chimp footballers can do their own chanting though.

      Everybody now: HOO! HOO! HOO! HOO! HOO! HOO! Don’t you feel better already?

    5. The mosteresterester sickening adjective adjective, that I can imagine is

      “Remoaneresque”

  82. I’m at the Victory Services Club tomorrow afternoon if anyone would like to have a drink or three.

          5. Very entertaining.

            I saw Nicholas Grace perform in HMS Pinafore at the theatre many years ago. That was a laugh and a half.

          6. That went down well – just the spirit we need to take to the wimps in The Contemptible Parliament.

    4. I’ve just had a look at their website and that does look appealing. Although I have not darkened the streets of London in 20 years.

      I drove into it very early every morning at one time. Hmm, I think I prefer to be strolling along an empty beach at 06:00am these days. 🙂

      1. I understand. I lived there for five years once and had a great time, but wouldn’t consider moving back. That said, there is an evening with Ian McKellen after his big tour of the UK and they added some extra dates. I was disappointed the first time round because tickets were by lottery. I was unable to get any tickets for any venue. This time i have the dress circle front and center. Possibly one of the last chances to catch him before he croaks. I hope he doesn’t bring up politics or brexit.

    3. Yes. We’ve had one for a couple of years. It stopped working a while ago but the panel showed an error code. Looked in the handbook, followed the instructions and it was working again in a few minutes. No call out no new parts.

      1. Have the washing machine and matching tumble dryer. Washing machine is pretty good (apart from the music at the end of cycle !).
        However, dryer is a real disappointment – has “intelligent” sensors that determine when clothes are dry but always feel slightly damp to me. You then can’t just extend the cycle because as soon as you put it on the damn sensor says the clothes are dry and you can’t go any further. Also if an error code appears you have to call technician to fix it. Waited 4 weeks for a visit then the technician arrived, pressed a “rest” button in the back and hey presto it was working again. When asked if he could show me how to reset it he told me Samsung “…don’t allow customers to reset their own machines and he’s not allowed to tell me how its done.” Won’t be buying another one.

    5. Never had one so not a lot of hep but the reviews on them seem to be constantly good. LIke any electro mechanical device they can fail. In my view it is a judgement as to whether the extra price buys you estra life of the machine. Generally the very expensive ones look best to be avoid. They tend to go wrong more often probably because they have added so many bells and whistles to them

      Remember as well that most are just brands produced by the same manufacture . Electrolux make most of the brands such as Zanussi and AEG. in fact at least withj their Washing machines Zanusi & AEG are identical except for the branding and price

    6. We’ve had a Samsung for something over 5yrs (the guarantee period) and it has worked well. The one we have is larger (7kg) than I would have had just for myself but we bought it when son & children came back to live here. It does 2 or 3 loads a week and so far has worked well. No complaints except for the the fact that the the bit of Mozart or Beethoven that it plays to tell you the wash is finished stops mid bar in the middle of a phrase.

      1. We were all Miele in Dorset.

        I’ve had a Hotpoint here for 13 years & now it’s suddenly gone phut.

  84. The EU and Boris are working towards finalising the WA by Midnight tonight or possibly early tomorrow sat the latest. There are still some minor issues to be resolved and the agreement needs to be legally water tight so it is taking time. It is at present touch and go that it can be completed on time. This is pretty much the last date to meet an exit date of 31st of October if it is missed the EU will offer a short technical extension to enable the agreement to be finalised. It might be possible to fudge the date by saying we have left on the 31st subject to the outstanding issues being resolved by them. This would need the agreement of the 37 countries at the meeting on Thursday and Friday

    2. Why am I filled with dismay at the prospect?
      Why is the UK, the Prime Minster of the UK, continuing to dance to the tune of unelected EU bureaucrats?
      “Here’s a deadline”, says Barnier, and Boris gives everything away to meet a “deadline” pulled from the air. Why should we dance and grovel and cave in just to conform to a meeting date of the EU?
      No negotiation on leaving is necessary. It never was necessary.

      1. WE are in negotiations not dancing to their tune. The deadline is basically fixed by us as we set the 31st October

        In the end we will have to wait and see what the deal is and no one really knows

        The rumours suggest it is a reasonable deal

        1. Hmm. How can I put this?
          No deal is necessary. We just leave.
          It is like getting off a bus. You pay when you get on. You don’t have to pay when you get off. You do not need permission to get off. No consensus of other passengers is required.

          Any discussion may be about tariffs and customs duties after we leave. Not about leaving, not about letting them keep all the fish. Not about our obeying their laws.

          Anyone who believes we will not be in thrall to the EU, also believes in fairies. Anyone who thinks that Boris will ensure we leave cleanly and immediately “needs their head looked”.

          1. You get to hung up about the word deal. What is being discussed is how we withdraw from the EU. WE will need agreements on a number of things. Having no agreement on these things is not an option

  85. Ah ha! Wifi at last.
    Now in port in Narvik having got here via Alesund and Tromso.

    Wifi must be a new step to be added to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

          2. I bet that it is no longer a triangle, more a rectangle with every possible need being necessary for even the most basic existence.

            Food, drink and iPhone are now essentials.

  88. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50029635
    “Conservative leaflets obtained by the BBC suggest the party accepts the UK might not have left the EU by the time it has to fight an election.”
    If this is true, and it looks like it is, I’ll be TBP at the next GE for sure. It could just be a ‘just in case’ scenario, but the leaflet’s leak to the BBC will be damaging.

    2. That looks very like someone trying to stitch up both the Brexit party AND the Conservatives, divide and rule.

      Worse than May, last time around

      1. Boris must work with Nogel Farage on what seats to stand in. Then the two partys could form a coalition, If Boris goes it alone the Torys will be finished. We should leave cleanly on the 31 October without a deal. Treacherous remainers and political judges should no be allowed to stop Brexit.

        1. I agree.
          Torys will never win certain Northern seats that TBP might well be in with a good chance.

        2. Boris is not daft. If he needs the support of the Br exit party he will come to an arrangement. It is not as if we are taking a coalition or even confidence and supply agreement. IT is just a deal over which seats each party will fight

          In most cases the seats the Brexit Party will want to fight will be Labour seats where the Conservatives face no chance

          If you take the last couple of by elections if the Brexit part had stood aside in Brecon the Conservatives would probably have taken it and in Peterborough if the Conservatives had stood aside the Brexit party would have taken it

  89. What a frustrating day, given it’s the only dry day this week. Two hours trying to get my ride on mower to start, only to find the throttle linkage has a design fault. Fixed that, but then I find the gearbox has locked so it won’t move. Grrrrrr! It’s like Christmas tree lights, which work OK when you put them away but don’t work when you get them out 12 months later – after 30 minutes untangling them, to boot.

    1. I may be being dim here but why did you want to put Christmas Tree lights on your ride on Mower?

      1. Duh ….. the evenings are drawing in. Don’t want to veer off into the herbaceous border. 🙂

    2. I’m having a similar experience with my washing machine. Worked before the holiday, but not working now when I have a suitcase full of dirty washing.

  90. ERG have been briefed on the proposed deal and its progress and they are happy with it

        1. BJ,
          The erg are IMHO both end ,candle burners, as in a prior post I said they run an attack / defence campaign in regards to may
          leaning mainly towards defence, right up to the wire.
          Doing the same with johnson.

    2. Oh well that’s alright then, nothing to worry about. Is this the same ERG who are now at the centre of government with official cars, a seat at the cabinet table, and the illusion that they can help to shape the future? Well, they won’t have any reason to rubber-stamp this Withdrawal Agreement this time then.

      Did you even see the embarrassment on Jacob Rees-Moggs face as he tried to defend his change of decision on the news?

      I have read your comments about the W/A for a couple of days now, and they lead me to ask “Are you aware of what is in it and how bad it is for the United Kingdom?”

      If you are aware of what it means, and you think it is a step forwards, then I have this nice shiny bridge over the Thames that I would like to show you. It is quite expensive, but you would be buying a piece of history. We can even ship it to the USA for you.

      1. The unofficial rumours coming out sound good. The UK will be out of the Single Market & Customs Union except there my be a bit of a fudge with NI in order to get around the border issue

        There has been no information on the payment to the EU. It will be fa less than the £39B being bandied about. THere will be some payment to them and hopefully Boris will make it a stage payment linked to progress witha TRade deal with the EU, No progress no payment

        1. Bill, Rees-Mogg on LBC this morning let it slip that we will be paying around £5,000,000/annum 60 years hence. If Barnier and the Irish PM are happy then you can guarantee Boris has shafted us.
          The best we can hope for is that the shower in Parliament turn it down and we end up with an election. Mogg also admitted that the ECJ will still have some say on how this Country is run: e.g. why should a foreign political court have a say in how EU people who have freely chosen to live here be treated? How is that OUT?

          1. That may or may not be correct but £5M is nothing that may be membership fees for certain organisation such as Euro-pol and European medicines agency etc

        2. “The unofficial rumours coming out sound good.”

          Who on Earth from? Every single website that I have seen set up to warn about the W/A has been ringing alarm bells loud and clear for months. It is VERY good for the EU and hands over control of our legal system and the keys to our treasury to them. Not for 2 years in transition, but for an unlimited number of years as that period is extended.

          The EU has a whole raft of “closer integration” plans that are coming up as soon as this mess over their replacement staff is sorted out and they get into office, and their new budget is brought in. The UK will be subject to all of these new laws.

          If you think that we will be paying the EU “far less than the £39bn” as you say, then I take back my offer to sell you London Bridge. I have this herd of Unicorns that might suit your needs far better.

          For goodness sake, learn the basics of what the W/A are and realise that Boris cannot change it, only tinker with the meaningless backstop. The backstop is the “distraction” to how disastrous the W/A will be for our country.

          This was written by John Redwood a year ago and the only thing that has changed is the backstop. There is FAR more wrong with the W/A than this, but it gives you the basics.

          http://johnredwoodsdiary.com/2018/12/27/8-things-wrong-with-the-withdrawal-agreement/

          1. It is not th only the back stop. WE will be out of the single market and customs union as well

          2. Bill, oh do read the agreement before you make such statements. We will be in alignment with the EU, paying their bills, under their legal control and subject to their new laws UNTIL the end of the “transition period” which will be extended for years and years without end.

            We will NOT be out of the Customs Union or the Single Market at the end of October in any meaningful way.

          3. I cannot read it and nor can you as it has not been released yet, You are assuming it will be Mays deal minus the backstop

          4. Bill – it CANNOT be anything else! Do you understand the timetables involved and Boris’s motivations, clearly laid out by his refusal to go anywhere near The Brexit Party?

            For Boris to offer a “new deal” then they would need to go back and get the other 27 countries to open the W/A back up and agree to the changes. Then bring them back again.

            There is no time for that, the EU has said they will not do it, Boris is laying the ground for the W/A to be accepted. Boris has been doing this for weeks with his ever increasing focus on the Backstop and not the W/A that he and every other real Brexiteer said was a terrible deal.

            It is clear that we are going to get the W/A again, and it will sail through Parliament this time with so many MP’s who voted against May’s 3rd attempt saying they will vote for it this time.

            But enough of this. There is no time for a radical new deal to be passed and the EU LOVE the W/A as it is, because they wrote it for Theresa May to bind the United Kingdom. Even a basic level of research on the W/A shows this to be true, which is why the media is focusing on Ireland and the Backstop to distract people from the looming disaster of what Boris is about to offer us.

  91. “UK / eu negotiating teams close in on deal,”
    I do believe that boris held out for the future twelve zones making up the former UK be giving nice names & not to be known just by numbers.

  92. Looks like Boris is caving in and it will be a tweaked WA, 39 bil and NI getting a very complex new backstop.

    If he approves giving the EU more power over Britain during a transition period without a veto, it would be totally insane. That would be G S’ dream come true.

      1. I’m prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt.

        The repeated carping against him makes me sick.

        1. I agree.
          After the last three years in particular, I am very cynical about the British political establishment, but I still live in hope.

        2. I dislike the muck-raking intensely but what has he done that makes you think that May with glitter isn’t just around the corner?

          1. Peddy and Sos

            I shall be the first to applaud Boris if he pulls off a splendid Brexit which frees us completely from the EU.

            If he sell us short how will you react?

          2. Negotiations are a two way thing. Most rumours suggest he is taking us out of the single market and the customs union and those are the key items as far as I am concerned

            Untill we see the deal though we do not know

          3. I’m in France, I’ll get my carte de sejour and watch from the sidelines as the country I love is destroyed.
            I will Grieve (see what I did there) and then delight as a Corbyn, swiftly replaced by an even leftier lefty destroys the UK and hopefully takes the Euro and the EU down with it.

          4. Most of the rumours are that we will be out of the single market and customs union and the back stop goes if that true that good enough for me

            I cannot see Boris going for just a tweak to the back stop. The one thing Boris is, is ambitious and he wans to remain PM and he know that will not happen if all he delivers is Mays deal with a tweak to the back s
            top

          5. More fool you.

            Read the bits under the headlines. The WA and PD are death by a thousand cuts for the UK

        3. Peddy – I think you are in the same position now that many Conservative voters were in after the last Conservative leadership election.

          There were many like myself who were saying “give Theresa a chance. She will pay at the polls if she does not deliver.” There were people back then trying to tell us what she was like, and it started to grate with us as well. We have now seen what has happened.

          So now I am in the “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me” position. I have watched Boris for several years and my opinion on him is not “carping” it is an honest appraisal based on his words and deeds.

          I do not believe that he ever had any intention of allowing us to leave the EU, and has been fully working with them to allow this charade of democracy to play out. This makes me sad for our country, and for the disappointment that many will feel when this becomes clear.

          Which is why I try to keep the spark of hope alive that even if Boris does what many think he is going to do, and keeps us tied to the EU for years, then this is NOT the end. It will just take us longer to be free, that’s all.

          I have not typed this much in one night before. Far too much for one human. Have a good night. 🙂

          1. I gave May the benefit of the doubt and wished her well. But then she showed us very clearly that, with or without doubt, she was an evil and treacherous liar.

  93. Royal Mail union votes in favour of strike action

    A bit daft of them they already have an agreement over pay and hours with their hours being reduced to 35 hours by 2022

    I think they need to consider that the core Royal Mail business is in decline and the parcel side is subject to fierce competition

    The dispute between workers and the firm is over job security and terms and conditions of employment.

    More than 97% of votes by members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) backed a strike. Turnout was 76%.

    Strike dates have yet to be announced, but the union could target the annual Black Friday retail sales event in late November and the Christmas post.

    Strikes at the privatised postal service were averted last year after Royal Mail agreed to raise pay, reform pensions and reduce weekly working hours from 39 to 35 by 2022, subject to productivity improvements.
    However, the CWU has claimed that the deal is “under threat” under recently appointed chief executive Rico Back.
    Royal Mail has said it is abiding by the agreement and has awarded two pay rises since last year.
    It also said it had cut the working week by an hour – although discussions with the CWU about further cuts had stalled.

  94. LAST POST.

    Just seen the local news. It is exactly one year since the terrible rain and floods that did half a billion euros of damage in a small area around here.

    The local telly (think Look East etc on yer beeboids) did a special, live prog about it. About half the people taking part are STILL without compensation or insurance. A poor chap who ran a hairdressing salon had to close for ten months – and understandably – as he said – all his former clients have found new places.

    Effing politicians were there, grieving, hand-wringing, promising the earth- and then got in their helicopters and effed off.

    God, it was sad to see – despite the heroic work done by locals to help their neighbours. In one small village – 30 houses were demolished – “We are still hoping that the state will help the disposessed,” said the mayor.

    Bloody politicians they lie and they lie and they lie – and expect to be re-elected.

    Rant over. Bon appetit.

      1. Insurance might, if you are lucky, cover the short term and repairs.

        That’s fine, except that when the whole area is devastatedand there are not enough artisans to do the work and the business clientelle goes elsewhere. Insurance companies don’t tend to supply much more than the cheapest basic return.

        Think of a major hit on your car, they would write it off, you might get a fraction, and a small fraction at that, of what it would cost you to replace it.

      2. They do. But insurance companies are very good at being slow and evasive. Happy to take your premiums – not happy to meet claims.

    1. Well the unofficial rumours suggest it will not be a sell out. There will be a fudge with NI there has to be . It suggest the whole of the UK will be out of the single market and customs union. There will have to be a fudge with NI as having a hard border is out but you need some way to collect the tariffs there is no way around that even a No deal does not solve that a no deal means a Hard border

      1. “…having a hard border is out…”

        Why? The only people who say that sort of thing have not actually read the Good Friday Agreement.

          1. There you go. Who cares? We leave. We don’t need to amend our border arrangements to suit the EU. If we, as an independent sovereign country want to have a hard border we will have one, surely?
            What they do on their side is their business.
            I don’t remember the countries of Western Europe being given vote on the Iron Curtain.

    2. Good night Arlene, Arlene,
      Goodnight Arlene
      Goodnight Arlene, goodnight Arlene
      Your’e not in Johnson’s dream.

  97. Delingpole

    Every year the government takes £340 out of your household budget so

    that creepy crony capitalist Dale Vince can chop up more birds and bats

    with his wind turbines and bankroll his vegetarian football club.

    This is the shocking revelation of a report

    by John Constable for the Global Warming Policy Forum, which finds that

    the cost of subsidising renewable energy in the UK has now risen to £9

    billion per year – £340 per household.

    The only reason it’s either a ‘revelation’ or ‘shocking’ is that the

    mainstream media just isn’t reporting on one of the most outrageous

    scams in the history of government-mandated fraud.

    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2019/10/15/green-lunatics-are-dictating-britains-energy-policy/

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/8014115492475fa8a356213e052762bf46f275b78d090b9e4021a1f2e7773d2f.jpg

    1. The Government used to be very canny and protective of their assets

      Even Loo Rolls had GOVERNMENT PROPERTY printed on every sheet

      1. That’s because in the couple of decades Post WWII money was exceedingly tight – not so much now when borrowing is apparently so easy….

  98. Brexit Deal

    At present no one know what the deal contains. It is just speculation. WE may know tomorrow though

    There are two schools of thought at present both based on speculation. One is it is Mays. deal minus the backstop the other it is Mays deal minus the backstop and single market and customs union

  99. OK, I know I’ve spotted a unicorn.

    Boris sets up a lectern outside No.10 tomorrow morning and states:

    “We’ve done everything in our power to try to get a deal and the EU has rejected every proposal.
    There is nothing more that we can do.
    We leave on the 31st. It is their decision.

    Negotiations will restart from ground zero on the 1st of November and this time the EU can come to us for any trade agreements. In the meantime, we are open for business with the rest of the world.”

    1. Here’s another scenario. Boris agrees deal with EU. The Commons rejects it. Boris applies to the EU for an extension as per the Benn Surrender Act, but both he and the EU agree that there is no point in further talks, so one or more of the EU countries vetoes the extension. The UK leaves the EU on 31st October.

      Wishful thinking.

    4. She has to chase after wimmen

      No self respecting man would be found dead with the slag

      1. I think they are expressing disappointment as most heterosexual tories I know would run a mile from them (in under 4 minutes!!!)

        1. I suspect that there are many lesbian tories who would be well in front of your heterosexual ones, trying to escape.

      6. Are but they did not explain why. No Tory they came across wanted to kiss them

        The one on the end though loos as if she has kissed quite a few doughnuts and then eaten them

      1. He did win his case against the banks for costing him several million. Perhaps we should forget the politicians and have him and Cliff Richard sort things.

  102. I shall be glad when Brexit is over as I will no longer feel the need to tune into Parliament TV. However, without tuning in I’ll know that when the House is sitting they will be boring each other to death with their inanities….They deserve it.

          1. But why can they not dress as normal English people?

            Imran Khan’s latest wouldn’t come to the UK and dress in a Jaeger suit (or similar…)

          4. By the time William becomes King , everyone will be wearing stuff like that in Britain.. I actually prefer the clothes Indians wear , their ladies look glamorous and pretty and their men don’t look like swarthy faced fringed bearded weasels like Pakistani men do.

          9. I can just imagine wearing that sitting in a chesterfield armchair, reading the Times with a large scotch and cigar while the wife makes dinner

    6. I’m beginning to think that it would a kindness to remove your PC…..If only for the sake of your health and what’s left of your sanity…..

      1. I have conceded that her frock is by a British dressmaker. But yesterday…(see below). And he looks a twit.

        I’ll get me gallabia.

  106. The climate change brigade and politicians are now turning on gas boilers in spite of modern one being very efficient and there being no viable alternatives

    The do suggest some costs. No dot fall off of your chair/. You will nerd to take out a mortgage to pay for it

    In a new home they suggest £4,800 but omit to mention the small fortune you would need to pay for super insulating the house. That might make sense in somewhere like Sweden but in the UK temperate climate makes no sense but it get far worse. Just don’t have an existing home as the suggested cost is £26,300 and that without the cost of super insulating your home and it will still be pretty nippy in the winter so may need supplimetary heating

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-50041077

    1. That report is nuts. A modern “ductless split” Heat Pump unit here is abut $3,000 for a 30,000 BTU heating/30,000 BTU cooling system. And lower power units progressively cheaper. They are perfect for retrofits. You need to poke a hole through an outside wall for the piping/wiring connecting the indoor and outdoor units, and a 25 amp or so power supply, depending on size chosen.power supply. Installation costs are low, although in Britain you might need to upgrade the electricity supply to the house. Larger houses get multiple units.

      When we lived in England, I retrofitted a ducted warm air system into our (cold) bungalow. Very doable as I ran the main distribution duct across the loft (well insulated of course) and had “drops” into every room for outlets. SInce then, they have come up with so-called high pressure systems where the duct is only 2″ diameter – designed specifically to install in older houses.

    1. Well he would not say anything as it is all confidential at present any leak could be damaging to the negotiatons

    1. No wonder Airmiles Andy has been shagging his way thru teenagers the last thirty years. Awful woman.

  109. Modern Life a comment from elswhere

    Rather irate this evening.

    I’m

    Chairman of a local Air Cadet Civilian committee – the oversight and

    fund raising side of the squadron, with quarterly meetings. Tonight’s

    was dominated by the news that the Northumbria Police are no longer

    willing to assist with Rembrance Sunday parades.

    For the last 10 or

    so years we have paraded all the cadets from the local church to the

    local war memorial (that the cadets refurbished a few years ago). Before

    then it was generally ignored and forgotten. Over that time the event

    has grown, the police closing the road for half an hour or so and gone

    from having half a dozen people turn up to say around 200 now, some in

    uniform, local councillors and beat police laying wreaths.

    With six

    weeks notice we hear the police will no longer assist due to staffing

    shortages, and in the same breath ask where the forms are for a public

    event, the traffic plan and can the local bobbies attend. North Tyneside

    council are only looking after 10 largest parades so are similarly

    unwilling to help out.

    The Squadron commander has spent a lot of

    time discussing the matter with people in the community – it is the one

    thing that brings people together in the year.

    We expect a private

    traffic management company will have to be brought in, with some of our

    volunteers helping them with small side streets, at a cost to be

    confirmed around £400. So far the response has been positive – a local

    parish councillor has donated £200 that she has for community events,

    and is talking to the councillor at the other end of the route. The

    church has donated £100 so we may end up ‘only’ paying say £100. British

    Legion and Rafa can’t help as they’d quickly be swamped with requests.

    What

    an own goal by the police – they only have to have a couple of cars one

    at each end of the road for half an hour. I’m sure we won’t be the only

    ones in this position.”

    Bastards have other priorities it seems…………………..

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/ed83568f9be1075f4425cf2ce7a135a2d8f3b66f4f64b495193e41d319b8dd53.jpg

    3. We can all see at least on this forum what is happening, Rik. They blame staffing levels and cutbacks but have plenty for the agenda that they now follow.

      BTW..Those three are an utter disgrace. The trans on the left needs a sports Bra. The woman on the right needs to go to a proper military hairdresser. And the bluebeard in the middle needs a real good uparse shagging…He might then know which angle his helmet should be. … :o(

    4. My advice – carry on regardless, Appoint your own stewards to control traffic and, with sufficient home-made signs, you’ll find that the locals will all, to a man (and woman) back you.

      Fluck the ‘gay’ police farce.

  110. Evening, all. Horses are going to be able to travel to the EU even if we leave with “no deal” because we have got trusted third country biosecurity status AGAIN. We had it before, then the pillocks in Parliament extended our bondage, so we’ve had to jump through the hoops again. The sooner we’re out, the better.

    2. Good news about the horses, Con. Maybe Boris has a cunning equine plan to beat Barmier’s deadline …..

      I sprang to the rollocks and Boris and me,
      And I galloped, you galloped, we galloped all three.
      Not a word to each other: we kept changing place,
      Neck to neck, back to front, ear to ear, face to face:
      And we yelled once or twice, when we heard a clock chime,
      “Would you kindly oblige us, is that the right time?”

      I unsaddled the saddle, unbuckled the bit,
      Unshackled the bridle (the thing didn’t fit)
      And ungalloped, ungalloped, ungalloped a bit.
      Then I cast off my coat, let my bowler hat fall,
      Took off both my boots and my trousers and all –
      Drank off my stirrup-cup, felt a bit tight,
      And unbridled the saddle: it still wasn’t right.

      Then all I remember is, things reeling round,
      As I sat with my head ‘twixt my ears on the ground –
      For imagine my shame when they asked what I meant
      And I had to confess that in vain I’d been sent
      With the pain in my arse and my cramped aching muscles
      I’d forgotten the news I was bringing to Brussels,
      Though I’d galloped and galloped and galloped and galloped and galloped …..

      :

  113. Well the deadline is fast approaching. The EU are briefing the 27 countries at 13:00 BST tomorrow. So in theory we should here something tonight or early tomorrow but this is the EU it may be they say provisional agreement has been reached and provided by a certain date they may go with that. It would be a bit like quality audit where you get a conditional pass

  117. One caller to Iain Dale on LBC summed it up aptly about 20 minutes ago:

    “If all it is is the WA with tweak or two, all this Johnson-Cummings sound and fury has been for nothing much at all”

    1. We dont know. I personally doubt it is that Boris wants to remain PM and he knows if he want to remain PM a tweak to the back stop will not cut it . All the vibes are that we will be out of the single market and customs union

      In theory we should know later to day or early tomorow as the 27 EU countries are being briefed on the proposed deal at 13:00 BST tomorrow

  119. Massively humiliating how the EU, sorry, I mean GS, is pushing Britain around…

    Just goes to show.. never negotiate from a position of weakness !

    1. I reckon Theresa May would be down to her panties and bra in no time if she ever tried to play poker or 3-card brag. Clearly none of this sort of activity was in her background. In contrast, I bet Mrs T. would have caught on within a minute or two.

      1. Margaret Thatcher would have had Barnier and his cohorts for breakfast and despatched them to Elba.

        The problem which is inherent in the UK relationship with the EU is law. The Napoleonic system assumes that you are guilty until proven innocent. The British system assumes that you are innocent unless proven guilty.

        This dichotomy cannot be resolved by any further engagement with the EU. Nobody but a fool would suggest otherwise, yet the rich vagrant Corbyn and Tits Swinson (whose husband is in the pay of George Soros, to the tune of hundreds of millions), imagine that we do not observe their hypocrisy and deception.

        1. If you are trying to upload using Safari it gets indigestion. I have to switch to Chrome to upload images and screenshots….

          1. I spent the last 15 years of my working life system managing small and medium sized computing systems ( Windows and Unix ) and ended up wanting to retire with a Unix based system from that experience, Apple kit is expensive but my iMac is now 6 years old and has never given me a moments trouble until this minor wibble with the blog. I will admit that Apple sits with the brand snobbery shared by the like of Bang and Olufsen but it is beautifully designed and performs faultlessly. The ‘phones however, I cannot get my head around . The annual rehash at appx £1000 a pop leaves me bewildered. P.S. rather honoured to be likened unto the Grizzly one. 8^)

    2. Bristol is more extreme than even London full of Extinction Rebellion types and similar anarchists

      2. The papers are all owned by two or three companies and you can quite often end up going to stories nothing whatsoever to do with the local area

  122. Neil Woodfords Empire folds

    The two remaining funds are to close and Woodford Investment management will then be wound up

      1. Not yet. He seemed to marketing the fund as a low risk Unit trust but it appears he was heavily investing in high risk unlisted start ups

        1. Then he is a scoundrel.

          People invest their pensions in low to medium risk schemes. Me being one of them. I hope he is not only ruined but also hung drawn and quartered. The last time this happened to me the utter bastard ended up in a high security prison as a librarian. He’s still there. (Bernie Ebbers)

          1. Nothing wrong with a very small percentage of them. Most will fail but if you get one that succeds the rewards can be high buts that the risk

          3. I remember thirty odd years ago following Hargreaves Lansdown advice to place my £7000.00 Tessa Allowance with a Japan fund.

            Five years later my investment was worth a mere £3500.00.

            After investing with supposed ‘ethical’ investor funds such as Friends Provident (Quakers) And the wretched Equitable Life conspiracy I eventually cut my losses. Total combined loss was about £35,000.00.

            Investment is at at the best of times dangerous. You can loose tens of thousands to sharks in the blink of an eye.

            The same sharks are now active in the selling of Equity Release (which would probably leave the policy holder homeless within their lifetime).

            Add to that the selling of Funeral Cost Insurance which is on every TV channel with the most unconvincing and repulsive ‘actors’.

  129. Evening all. I’ve just been watching Godzilla on DVD. I did pretty well. I watched thirty minutes and then turned it off and threw it in the bin!

      1. The latest Meredith. Released today. It looks like they’ve pinched some footage from the last one and stuck some humans in there for screaming purposes. The “plot” was moronic and the script juvenile!

        1. Ahh – I am out of touch and did not even know they were making a new version of it. This is something that actually can be blamed on Brexit, as it is drowning out so many other aspects of life.

          Well, I can fix that for this evening. Time for a glass of something that makes you sing along to the music later in the early hours. Have a good night. 🙂

  131. Why are the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge wearing funny clothes on their visit to Pakistan? I could understand her wearing full length dresses or trousers out of respect but there is no reason to wear costumes. William just looks plain silly in his silky dressing gown and pyjama bottoms. The British High Commissioner, tuk-tuk driver and many of the ‘locals’ are wearing a proper suit and tie.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7575707/William-Kate-Middleton-turn-Tuk-Tuk-Islamabad.html
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-7574279/Kate-Middleton-channels-Princess-Diana-second-day-running-blue-kurta-scarf.html
    After all, it’s not as if all the slammers from that sh**-hole who live here (and their offspring) bother to wear Western clothes, learn the language or abide by British laws and standards of behaviour.

        1. Why do they feel the need to dress like a pantomime clown? Looks, and is, ludicrous.

        1. It is what the woke young things do nowadays.

          You would have hoped that they had more sense.

    6. They have sold us out to Muslims and Halal and a different culture .

      We should all feel rather angry and insulted by this appeasement to Allah

      1. I am more than ‘rather’ angry. Still, it briefly takes our minds off the Brexit fiasco/surrender.

    7. When I was on a job in India, we were forbidden to take an auto-rickshaw, as the risk was too great.

      1. I was there for quite a while back in the late ’90’s. The only things the company were firm about were:

        (a) I should not drive, but be driven in case of any liability issues, plus if the driver got into an accident I was to get out of the way in case a brawl broke out. While I was there a child got run over in the city and the resulting mob strung the driver up, so wise advice.

        (b) I should under no circumstance end up in an Indian public hospital. If I felt sick and my provided medical kit (everything from Dramamine to Cipro, and a supply of syringes in case I needed an injection) could not handle it, I was to get on a plane to civilization and then get treated. As it was, our local operation had a private hospital they used and paid a lot of money to have their people treated to Western standards. Luckily apart from the inevitable Delhi Belly when I first arrived (Immodium and fluids), I was fine. And that was caused by eating a meal provided as a welcome by our JV partner to be – and us non-locals got sick afterwards.

  132. Is it not wonderful having the UK powered by Renewables, Hold on though Wind 8%, Solar 0%

    Houston we have a problem stoke up the boilers with coal

      2. But I have a big mirror redirecting my Canadian sunshine. It is warming Bills solar panels nicely.

    1. I wonder if they would be allowed to abstain, and if so, how the mathematics of votes would play out.

      1. I get the impression that Corbyn wants any deal opposed and hopefully defeated. Abstainers not welcome.

      2. I love the way MP’s who flit from party too party claim we are voting for a party and then we get if they don’t follow the party line they will be thrown out
        We all know they are lying. WE vote for an MP that represents a party which is why they are called rebels when they defy the party line

  134. Ian Blackford’s address to #SNP19 (SNP Conference 2019)

    When we last met I warned that: “Within months we could face Boris Johnson becoming Prime Minister.

    A real nightmare scenario.” Conference – we are now living in that nightmare.

    The UK government is in crisis, pursing a policy of economic and social

    destruction, being led by a Prime Minister who lies, makes racist

    comments and aspires to be his own Etonian version of Donald Trump.

    Can you imagine, the reaction if Boris said something along those lines about Nicole Krankie

    https://nttl.blog/tuesday-15-october-its-crunch-time-for-brexit-and-the-future-of-britains-democracy/

    1. WE will have to wait until we see it. There will have to be compromises around the NI border that’s just a simple fact. Some how tariffs have to be collected which means there has to be a tax point somewhere

      There do seem to have been some key concessions from the EU. The rest of the UK is out of the single market and customs union. NI appears will be out of the single market and technically will be out of the customs union but will opt temporarily into it. NI will be able to opt out of this backstop if they choose to . IT is unclear though what happens if they do

    1. Good morning Geoff,

      You are up and about early .

      My spaniels have just dashed into the garden to cock legs!

      Damp, breezy mild start to the day here , may improve later I hope .

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