881 thoughts on “Tuesday 8 October: The Supreme Court’s Brexit interventions are a threat to democracy”

      1. Morning, Bob; hope you had a good time yes’day.

        No, some ‘male’ who is far bitchier than Bercow.

    3. You have a little friend living under a bridge in Norway
      as my Conservative home old friend Sally used to say.

      Good morning Mr Viking.

  2. Once again, the Kurds have been betrayed. Spiked. 8 October 2019.

    Make no mistake. Trump’s decision, which reportedly goes against the advice of the Pentagon and the State Department, imperils the very people who did so much to defeat ‘the ISIS territorial “Caliphate”’. It is a decision as morally indefensible as it is politically craven. If it wasn’t for the Syrian Kurds’ People’s Protection Units (YPG), which later took the lead role in the Syrian Democratic Forces, ISIS would still hold large parts of northern Syria. Yes, the blunt military assistance Russia leant Syria’s embattled president, Bashar al-Assad, certainly contributed to ISIS’s defeat. But it was the courage and determination of the Kurds, their willingness to put their lives on the line, that was decisive.

    Morning everyone. There is no doubt that this is a morally repugnant decision that will only enhance Russia’s position in the Region, but it has grown out of the mess that is the United States Middle East Policies of the last twenty years and all go back to the original decision to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein. This was an operation based on false premises and barefaced lies from the very beginning and in which the then UK government of Tony Blair was a Prime Mover. No good at all has come to anyone involved in this debacle, aggressors, victims, neutrals, all have suffered, though not equally. One would like to think that there is some light at the end of the tunnel but if so it is a train coming in the opposite direction.

    Erdogan’s coming invasion and occupation of what is actually Syrian territory is not going to usher in an era of Peace and Tranquillity. He will almost certainly use it as a base to try to destabilise the Assad Government and release the worst of the ISIS jihadists onto Europe. The probability of this spreading into serious confrontations with Russia or the EU is obvious.

    Were sensible government available in the UK we would get our people out, sever our political ties to Europe and distance ourselves defensively while pulling up the drawbridge to any incomers.

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/10/08/once-again-the-kurds-have-been-betrayed/

    1. The final paragraph is not good enough. Erdogan-liberated ISIS is quite capable of smuggling their fighters into Britain. They would then radicalise and mobilise the British Pakistanis – several million of them – to make many British cities no-go areas for the infidel. We cannot keep out large number of potentially aggressive Muslims who are already here and British citizens by right. By relinquishing our military co-operation with continental Europe, we would be at the mercy of Trump’s America, which has shown itself concerned only in its own short-term financial interest and would betray its most loyal and doughty friend to that end. The United States no longer has any conscience nor morality, and is certainly not fit to run NATO – Trump admits this openly.

    2. I’m all for Russia dealing with the Middle East. They are not so ‘understanding’ as the spineless west.
      It was a shame that they pulled out of AfGaff; from a woman’s point of view, they had more freedom during that period than at any time in the country’s history.
      The Americans have bigly effed up that area. Western democracy doesn’t suit all cultures. Heck, it doesn’t come easily to the country that actually invented it in its modern form; as we are currently witnessing.

      1. I had a resturant for a time. My chef was Russian. He had done his national service in the Russian Army. He told me that his cohort were on the point of being sent to serve in Afghanistan when the Russians pulled out completely. He felt relieved. The cohort previous to his had been sent to Afghanistan. They had all been killed.

        1. We have meddled in Afghanistan before. It’s never ended well. The PTB should learn from history.

    3. Over on ZH there is a report that one lightly guarded POW camp in NE Syria holds 70,000 ISIS supporters. An invasion by Turkey will likely lead to a mass breakout….

      1. The only hope is for a huge massacre of 70,000 people. What a prospect for humanity or the hopes of re-establishing peace and civilisation!

        1. Given all the “players”involved of which there are at least nine, it is truly a mucking awful fuddle and in my view absolutely no chance of peace any time over the next millennium.

          1. Let loose the dogs of war. So Trump is arrranging, simply by withdrawing a small force of independent police officers, none of whom have gone home in body bags – this being reserved for the brave Kurds, who have done the heavy work of containing ISIS, and see what thanks they are given for doing this!

          2. Let loose slip the dogs of war.

            Mark Antony in Act 3, Scene 1, line 273, Julius Caesar:

          3. That Mark he was always creating havoc….or was that another of Bill Wobbledagger’s plays?

        2. It’s no good hoping for a massacre of a random 70,000 – it has to be the right 70,000.

          3. I’m glad that you raised that, Elsie.

            There’s a Yankie expression “Take the red-eye” referring to flights or trains. I have always been puzzled whether it means a very early trip or a very late one. Perhaps you can confirm which?

          4. One arriving overnight – so that you are “red-eyed” from lack of proper sleep. I think.

          5. I suspect that if one spends the evening “drinking the night away” then one fails to get enough sleep and thus has red eyes when woken by the alarm clock at the normal time. The same occurs when going to bed at a sensible hour but setting one’s alarm for the middle of the night in order to catch a very early flight/train. So my guess is that “red-eye” refers to a lack of sleep where one rubs ones eyes…

            Drat and double-drat. Uncle Bill has put it so much more succinctly, i.e. “red-eye” means not enough sleep.

          6. I know what red-eyed means, but that still doesn’t answer the question as to whether it refers to an early flight, after not enough sleep, or a very late flight after a long day when sleep is overdue.

            Knowo’Imeahun?

          7. Yerrst! The “red-eye” is a middle of the night flight/train, so that “I’m catching the red-eye” or “I caught the red-eye” simply refer to whether when the words are spoken.

  4. Morning all

    SIR – Barri Stirrup (Letters, October 7) highlights the obvious consequence of the Benn extension request letter being ordered and dictated by Parliament, which is that the EU will have to treat Parliament as Britain’s de facto negotiator. But now there’s another player in the frame.

    On Friday the former Supreme Court judge Lord Sumption told Newsnight that, if the Prime Minister doesn’t send the letter, the court can do so itself. In that case, presumably, the EU would have to treat the Supreme Court as its negotiating partner. And if the Supreme Court arrogates to itself these executive powers, it follows that it would have the authority to order the country to war in defiance of elected politicians.

    Martin Burgess
    Beckenham, Kent

    SIR – While I was looking up the Supreme Court on Wikipedia I came across something attributed to Joshua Rozenberg’s BBC programme on September 8 2009 at the time the court was set up: “Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury, later President of the Supreme Court, expressed fear that the new court could make itself more powerful than the House of Lords committee it succeeded, saying that there is a real risk of ‘judges arrogating to themselves greater power than they have at the moment’. Lord Phillips said such an outcome was ‘a possibility’, but was ‘unlikely’.”

    Andrew Rixon
    Hertford

    1. Good morning, Epi! I am amazed that in the case of each of your posts today (3 DT letters, then 2 DT letters) I personally know one writer in each of your two posts.

  5. Morning again

    SIR – Professor Glen Plant (Letters, October 7) appears to believe that a duty of sincere cooperation imposed by Article 4(3), Treaty on the European Union, means that Britain is not allowed to use its veto powers if the EU objects.

    David Cockerham
    Bearsted, Kent

    SIR – Has Professor Plant any concern about the months and years during which the EU has failed to show cooperation over Brexit? All of its remarks have been insulting to Britain, our Government and the voters.

    Andrew Smith
    Epping, Essex

    SIR – I spluttered over my muesli when I read Professor Plant’s claim.

    Duty of sincere cooperation? Has anyone told Michel Barnier?

    Terry Lloyd
    Derby

    1. Yo Epi

      Spooky

      My post from yesterday

      Brexit latest news:

      Boost for Boris Johnson as Court of Session refuses to set out sanction if he defies Benn Act

      I take it that from now on, each and every iota of governmeantal proposal, law and discussion

      will be subjected to the same scutiny, as what has happened about Brexit

      The ‘legal’ intervention cannot and must not finish with the conclusion of Brexit ‘negotioation (sic)’

      If the Remoaners win, each and every action carried out by them must be open to legal scutiny.

      Mr B Thomas, will be in charge of that

      https://www.telegraph.co.uk…

  6. SIR – We coordinate the pro-Brexit “We Voted Leave” demonstrations in Parliament Square. Photographs of our large red boards have appeared in the media throughout the world.

    Our group is made up of ordinary, decent people, most of whom have never been politically active. Yet, over the past 10 months, the fear of having our vote overturned has driven us to spend three days a week peacefully demonstrating.

    Recently, a number of unwelcome people have been trying to pass themselves off as members of our group. We face verbal abuse when we move our boards away from theirs, and professional photographers miraculously appear to record the scene. We suspect someone is being funded to cause trouble or give the impression that we share their politics.

    We don’t like the way things are going. It is a critical time in the Brexit saga, but we have concluded that this situation is getting too hot for us to handle. We are therefore withdrawing our boards from Parliament Square until we feel comfortable enough to start demonstrating again outside the mother of parliaments.

    Robert and Sally Wright
    Tunbridge Wells, Kent

  7. Does anyone understand the point of the ER protesters? our successive governments appear to be leading the way with the Nation State economy destroying world communism agenda in any case without arousing any public protest.
    The activists say that want to make ordinary people think more about climate change, well they asked the British people to think more about EU membership and that backfired. The more people actually do think about the scam and what is happening under the radar the more obvious that what they are preparing for us would not be of the slightest benefit to climate whatsoever assuming there was a problem, all it does is give politicians and people in positions of power fascistic control over everything we do.

    1. All of this climate protest nonsense is useful to fill up the news and distract people from the very real threat to our futures that is spreading from our cities to our towns across the country. It is the classic “Look at the shiny thing! Don’t look over there.”

  8. The Trans hysteria marches on as another madness of crowds.

    SIR – You report (October 3) that a doctor has been sacked because, during an “abstract discussion” with his manager, he said he would have a problem addressing a “6ft bearded man as ‘madam’ ”.

    He was objecting to a culture where, for example, a man who “identified” as a female could choose to be on a women’s ward in a hospital. The next logical step would be to allow an adult who identified as a child to be admitted to a paediatric bed.

    Where is the science in all this? There is a small number of individuals whose gender has been misassigned because of genetic anomalies or ambiguous genitalia at birth, but for the increasing number of others who claim to be non-binary there is no biological explanation. No wonder many of us are bewildered.

    David Nunn
    West Malling, Kent

    2. David Nunn is making the mistake of looking at the Trans phenomenon in isolation. Disturbing as it is this phenomenon has to be seen as just one weapon in the armoury of the PC/Globalist cabal. The latter’s intent is to disturb and disrupt western society with a range of ideas and actions e.g. mass immigration with no benefit to the hosting country, climate change and the current nonsense going on in London, enforcing PC ideas, not addressing criminality etc. It can be no coincidence that all these anti-common sense and sometimes completely bizarre ideas are coming to the fore at the same time.

      1. Those trying to disrupt our society have a nasty priority of trying to lower the age of sexual consent, and of talking more and more to children about their “sexual identity.” These people should be on a list and be banned from going within a mile of any school.

      2. A cowed population is easier to control.
        How many of us now look round the room – even in our own homes – before expressing an opinion that might to against this week’s accepted views?

      3. Frankfurt School list of objectives verbatim. Heck, a lot of carp has come out of Germany.

        1. It’s eleven objectives, isn’t it? They must have opened up all eleven cans of worms by now.

    3. ‘Morning, Epi, because of slight differences in the mechanical make-up, a man, identifying as female and choosing to be on the Women’s ward might be unlucky enough to find itself scheduled for a hysterectomy. That would certainly make its eyes water.

  9. I wonder why James Forsyth was given this…..? I find it quite refreshing but why open up the plan to torpedoes from the Remainers?

    How Number 10 view the state of the negotiations
    James Forsyth – 7 October 2019 = 9:00 PM

    Earlier today, I sent a message to a contact in Number 10 asking them how the Brexit talks were going. They sent a long reply which I think gives a pretty clear sense of where they think things are.

    So, in the interest of trying to let people understand where Number 10 reckon the negotiations are, here is their response:

    ‘The negotiations will probably end this week. Varadkar doesn’t want to negotiate. Varadkar was keen on talking before the Benn Act when he thought that the choice would be ‘new deal or no deal’. Since the Benn Act passed he has gone very cold and in the last week the official channels and the backchannels have also gone cold. Varadkar has also gone back on his commitments — he said if we moved on manufactured goods then he would also move but instead he just attacked us publicly. It’s clear he wants to gamble on a second referendum and that he’s encouraging Barnier to stick to the line that the UK cannot leave the EU without leaving Northern Ireland behind.

    There are quite a few people in Paris and Berlin who would like to discuss our offer but Merkel and Macron won’t push Barnier unless Ireland says it wants to negotiate. Those who think Merkel will help us are deluded. As things stand, Dublin will do nothing, hoping we offer more, then at the end of this week they may say ‘OK, let’s do a Northern Ireland only backstop with a time limit’, which is what various players have been hinting at, then we’ll say No, and that will probably be the end.

    Varadkar thinks that either there will be a referendum or we win a majority but we will just put this offer back on the table so he thinks he can’t lose by refusing to compromise now. Given his assumptions, Varadkar’s behaviour is arguably rational but his assumptions are, I think, false. Ireland and Brussels listen to all the people who lost the referendum, they don’t listen to those who won the referendum and they don’t understand the electoral dynamics here.

    If this deal dies in the next few days, then it won’t be revived. To marginalise the Brexit Party, we will have to fight the election on the basis of ‘no more delays, get Brexit done immediately’. They thought that if May went then Brexit would get softer. It seems few have learned from this mistake. They think we’re bluffing and there’s nothing we can do about that, not least given the way May and Hammond constantly talked tough then folded.

    So, if talks go nowhere this week, the next phase will require us to set out our view on the Surrender Act. The Act imposes narrow duties. Our legal advice is clear that we can do all sorts of things to scupper delay which for obvious reasons we aren’t going into details about. Different lawyers see the “frustration principle” very differently especially on a case like this where there is no precedent for primary legislation directing how the PM conducts international discussions.

    We will make clear privately and publicly that countries which oppose delay will go the front of the queue for future cooperation — cooperation on things both within and outside EU competences. Those who support delay will go to the bottom of the queue. [This source also made clear that defence and security cooperation will inevitably be affected if the EU tries to keep Britain in against the will of its government] Supporting delay will be seen by this government as hostile interference in domestic politics, and over half of the public will agree with us.

    We will also make clear that this government will not negotiate further so any delay would be totally pointless. They think now that if there is another delay we will keep coming back with new proposals. This won’t happen. We’ll either leave with no deal on 31 October or there will be an election and then we will leave with no deal.

    ‘When they say ‘so what is the point of delay?’, we will say “This is not our delay, the government is not asking for a delay — Parliament is sending you a letter and Parliament is asking for a delay but official government policy remains that delay is an atrocious idea that everyone should dismiss. Any delay will in effect be negotiated between you, Parliament, and the courts — we will wash our hands of it, we won’t engage in further talks, we obviously won’t given any undertakings about cooperative behaviour, everything to do with ‘duty of sincere cooperation’ will be in the toilet, we will focus on winning the election on a manifesto of immediately revoking the entire EU legal order without further talks, and then we will leave. Those who supported delay will face the inevitable consequences of being seen to interfere in domestic politics in a deeply unpopular way by colluding with a Parliament that is as popular as the clap.

    Those who pushed the Benn Act intended to sabotage a deal and they’ve probably succeeded. So the main effect of it will probably be to help us win an election by uniting the leave vote and then a no deal Brexit. History is full of such ironies and tragedies.’

    Now, this is—obviously—only one side of the negotiations view of things. It does, though, make clear Downing Street’s pessimism about getting a deal this week and its thinking about how to handle the coming extension and election campaign.

    1. ‘Morning Z, you beat me to it, I had just read this in the Spec and was going to post it here with a similar question to yours, (great minds and all that 😃).

      IF this is an accurate summation of No.10’s thinking and stance. They want to ensure that they are ahead of the Tea-Pot and EU in the blame game. It is their fault that no deal is available because they refuse to negotiate and that failure also belongs to those that supported the Benn Surrender Act. It also makes clear to the EU that there is no point in delaying any further.

      At the same time as passing all the blame they are ‘drawing aline in the sand’ and making it clear that the alternative is ‘no deal’, no more delays, we get out.

      This is a very strong message which will be popular with the Electorate and keep the Brexit Party at arms length.

      I hope it is accurate and Boris sticks to his guns – WTO exit on the 31st October.

      1. Latest polls suggest that Bojo is Teflon-coated as far as blame for failing to get us out of the EU is concerned. Large numbers blame Parliament in general and remain MPs in particular, the EU and the Irish Teacup. Few lay the blame on Boris. This includes those supporting the Brexit Party. Very convenient if the scenario I outlined yesterday were to be true; Bojo fails to get us out as he schemed, but doesn’t get the blame (for not scuppering the Benn Surrender Bill when he had the chance), so gets away scot free.

    3. Interesting. And amazing that some Government insiders are still willing to break confidences – if this item is true and to be believed.

        1. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

          1. Just to be pedantic, Peddy, didn’t you forget a few RRRRRRRRs between the Us and the Gs?

          3. Oh, I thought you were posting in English! :-))

            PS – Is that why people from that nation say “Deutschland” instead of “Germany” :-))

          4. No, it’s why they say ‘Kaghte’ (in the North) instead of ‘Karrrte’ (in the South) for ‘Karte’.

            die Karte = the map, usw.

          5. So you are saying (© Cathy Newman) that Germans put the “Haus” before the “Karte”? :-))

        2. Which is why certain politicians are so desperate to stop us Leaving.

          They fully understand the Tories will collapse into oblivion.

      2. After the ‘Brexit will cause an explosion of dogging’ news item, I’m afraid we call all play the daft scenarios game.
        People no longer know what to believe.
        Maybe the next Brexit ‘news item’ could be the subject for today’s Happy Hour.

    1. If we had that you can bet the police would act with lightening speed to remove them

  11. Heidi Allen

    So she is the latest MP to flip to yet another party so Conservative to Change UK to Lib-Dems. I suspect her latest flip is down to her having zero change of being elected as a CHUK MP so she thought dhe would have a go as a Lib-Dem where her chances improve a bit

    She is clearly totally disinterested in letting her electorate have a say on what they want. IT is all about her interests

    The law needs to be changed but I dont see our unaccountable MP’s wanting that to happen. The change could be a simple modification to the Recall Legislation

          1. Good morning. After a very late start yesterday when I did not turn on the computer until 07:00PM, I thought I’d get down on the beach for 06:00AM this morning and see how dark it was. I have a small lamp hanging from my pack so that people can see me coming and don’t stumble into a 6 foot guy wearing a long black coat at that time of the day. 🙂

  13. I hears some claimed expert on Climate change trying to say that the UK had not significantly reduced CO2 emissions. What he tried to do was claim we should include emissions incurred from the goods we import which is just daft. If you follow that logic as well you should deduct UK emissions for good we export. In practice it would be impossible to account for things that
    way

    We should of course deduct CO2 emission produced by all the illegals and asylum seekers in the UK as well

      1. On my visits to Chile, I couldn’t get used to the fact that Orion was standing on his head.

  15. Has Priti Awful made any comment about the failure of London’s perlice farce to deal with these marxist anarchists?

    1. They seem to have started of removing them and then lost interest. The numbers involved are not high and clearing Bridges is quite easy. You just put a large number of polici in position at one end of the bridge and they push forward. At the other end of the bridge you have a large number of police and police vans to collect them as they are forced off of the bridge

        2. I bet no reporter will question them on migration. WE need to dramatically reduce migration including asylum to the UK in order to reduce congestion and pollution

          2. THe growth of our population each year is in the region of 700,000 to 1M. Exact figures are hard to come by and what data is published is often conflicting

            Our housing stock is increasing by about a 150,000 as year again detailed figures are hard to come by and data conflicts

            So currently the population is growing a lot faster than the housing and services needed to support that population and in my view we have no chance of our housing and services keeping up with population growth

            Those in favour of mass migration will claim we built a lot more hoses just after the war and indeed we did but the situation was very different then. WE had a lot smaller population and a lot of houses had been bombed during the war. It was relatively easy and quick to clear the sites. The foundations were there the service were there so what they did was clear the bomb site and put prefabs on them. That is not an option now in built up areas. THe land is simply not there

  16. For any Royal Watchers there is an open piece in the DT on HRH Prince Andrew. The comments BLT are astonishing. I’m wondering if the DT has declared open season on the bloke ….

    1. I dedicated my first book to my cat, Freda, who had overseen (and walked on) every page!

  19. Silly clapping – Geoff Fleming, Warminster, Wiltshire

    SIR – I dearly hope that the new Commons Speaker will bring a halt to the silly clapping, allowed by John Bercow, that follows some speeches.

    Here, surely, is a chance for the Conservatives to highlight the partiality of the Squeaker by loudly clapping every speech from their benches, until Mr Squeaker reprimands them; at which point Jacob Rees-Mogg should identify, on a point of order, the precedent already set by him (The Squeaker) in not stopping the Opposition Benches from making their hideous non-Parliamentary displays.

    1. I think the Tories should start clapping every time John Bercow strings together something more than two sentences – and especially when he’s having “throat trouble”.

          1. Morning R,
            Precisely, the numbers increase as the mental health issue is
            continued to be neglected.

  23. Good morning thinkers

    Some blue sky showing here , sparrows are active in the garden.. We have a telegraph pole covered in ivy and roses .. looks like a giant lollipop..sparrows and starlings use it to shelter ,squabble and twitter on.

    There are still a few stray flocks of house martins and swallows skimming around.. I expect they will be pretty hungry .. not many insects around now, and it has been so wet.

    The BBC was getting it’s climate change message across in Only Connect last night . Sneaky eh?

    Where have all these climate protesters come from, don’t they have jobs.

    Still, they will all have criminal records now ..and they will soon realise what life is all about !

        1. #Me too.

          I usually wake at about 4 am, read for a while, rise at 6, deal with emails, etc., after a strong coffee, then have a 2 – 3 hour nap during the day. Go to bed at midnight. No alcohol except for a stiff G&T during the 6 pm News.

          1. I find myself often falling into that same pattern. I rarely go to sleep before midnight and wake early. Fortunately I have bought some of those excellent high-backed chairs you often find in clubs. It has tremendous lower-back support and after dropping off for an hour while reading a book, I feel more refreshed than when I get up in the morning. 🙂

            https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/1053436ec19a365e142405aec49eb4176c2b9e2e7144b6a1a04a783d079d3253.jpg

          4. NoToNanny – Indeed they are. It took a while to find the style that I wanted but the comfort is well worth it. 🙂

          5. Regardless of how much alcoholic fuel I have used if I go to bed too early I need to get up for two ‘pit stops’ during the night. If I don’t go to be until after midnight I only need one.

          6. I had my 50th birthday 2 months ago (born in the Summer of ’69) and I have just started to notice that I sometimes need to get up in the night if I drink tea after 9 PM. From the comments that I have read here, there are a number of things that I will have to look forward to in the coming years. 🙂

          7. I have been waking up at 4.30 am .. I turn over , the dogs hear me , then they want to fidget and go outside .. I move they move, when Moh gets up for his pees , the dogs don’t stir..

            So I end up faffing around , letting the dogs into the garden .. me yawning and needing to get back to bed ..and the dogs have had a real old sniff around in the garden probably on the trail of a visiting cat.

            I did think about booking into one of those cheap hotels for a good night’s sleep , but there is nothing like that around here.

          8. When our 2 Labs got restless in the night, they would wake my wife, who in turn would wake me with a dig in the ribs: “The dogs want to go out”. So I had to go downstairs & let them out, they would sniff around but not pee. By the time I got back to bed I was too annoyed to sleep.

  24. Catching up on ‘The Spectator’, I really liked this article – a good introduction to Hayek:

    It’s difficult to go into the office nowadays, since most of my colleagues are so distraught by the prospect of a no-deal Brexit that they rarely speak. The finance department have painted European flags on their faces for solace, and spend the day staring blankly out of the window sobbing over a tear-stained picture of Guy Verhofstadt.

    Except, um, no. None of this has happened. In fact, most businesses seem weirdly calm in contemplation of a no-deal Brexit. I have met people from multinationals who are sanguine about Brexit, and those who are worried, but few get emotional about the subject as, say, academics, politicians or journalists do.

    Brexit has all along been a political problem, not a commercial one. As one eminent German businessman commented under conditions of anon-ymity: ‘If you put 15 businesspeople in a room, we could sort out a deal in an afternoon.’ Which might cause us to wonder why we need a vast bureaucracy with an annual budget of €160 billion just to allow businesses to get on with the perfectly natural habit of trading with each other.

    Remainers have almost exclusively made their case on economic grounds, yet in a manner far more fanatical than the businesses they claim to defend. One of the strangest aspects of the Brexit debate is how readily people on the left adopt neo-liberal beliefs about free trade when it supports their emotional predisposition. This may explain why such people have won so few converts; after all, it doesn’t sound convincing to hear leftists suddenly profess passionate concern for global supply-chains. Theirs is an emotional fear disguised as an economic argument; a bit like saying: ‘Please don’t nail my testicles to the table, it’s a very valuable table.’

    You can’t help but think: ‘That isn’t your real reason, is it? What are you hiding? Maybe you really are part of a secret cabal of metropolitan lizard-people who hate the nation state and would be happier governed by an unaccountable bureaucracy staffed by lizards like you.’

    If businesses seem relatively unfazed by the disruption of Brexit, remember that most businesses exist in a permanent state of disruption. If you are worried about the automotive industry after Brexit, this is nothing to the crisis it faces over electrification. For the next five years, people may hold on to their cars for twice as long as usual, since no one wants to buy another petrol car now, but nor do they want to buy an electric car just yet. Consumers have learned that, when buying anything with a plug, it pays to wait. Microwaves, computers, LCD televisions all got far better and cheaper with time, so nobody wants to risk making the mistake of buying too soon. Yet nobody suggests we ban electric cars to prevent uncertainty in the car industry.

    The truth is that the market mechanism is much more resilient and better at solving problems than economic theory gives it credit for. Business approaches problems using a distributed intelligence applied locally, so problems that seem intractable to a central policy-maker are often solved easily through hundreds of instances of local ingenuity.

    Just as there are things which work in theory which don’t work in practice, there are also things which work in practice but not in theory. The bicycle has been gradually perfected over 100 years — yet physicists still have no idea how it works. We underrate markets because we forget that there is present in the system overall a far greater intelligence than is present within any one person inside it. In this respect, business is the opposite of politics, where the system overall is dumber than the people within it.

    Rory Sutherland is vice-chairman of Ogilvy UK.

    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2019/09/why-business-is-perfectly-relaxed-about-brexit/

    And here is the top BTL comment:

    •Edit•Reply•Share ›
    Avatar
    Lamia • 10 days ago • edited
    Another excellent article.

    Politicians and administrators delude themselves – and, sadly, too many others – that trade happens, and wealth is generated, primarily as a result of trade deals and regulations. If it were really the case, then all the governments of the world would have to do to create or facilitate prosperity for their countries would be to spend all their time devising, signing and finessing trade deals and regulations.

    And that of course, is precisely what the EU does try to do; and that, in turn is why in reality the EU is an economically stagnating behemoth, being left behind by the rest of the world. Because while regulation is needed at certain points, for the most part it is best to leave business and markets well alone.

    21
    •Reply•Share ›

    1. Which reminds me that the ludicrous government decision to prevent the installation of gas in new builds from 2025 means that as well as using electricity for heating, any idiot buyers would have to use electricity for cooking! Only the rankest amateur is prepared to use this highly uncontrollable mechanism for cooking, except in ovens.

      1. I like my electricity-powered induction hob.
        It’s as sensitive to use as gas, and much easier to clean.

        I hate my electricity-powered air-source underfloor heating system.
        The house is either too hot or too cold, depending on whether the sun is shining, with the heating system too slow to respond; bathroom radiators that take forever to warm up, and they never get very hot; and if/when we have a very cold winter, God forbid anything like the US has had, the heating system won’t provide heat if it gets too cold, or if there’s a power cut…

        2. I like my solid fuel heating and cooking. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once mastered, it produces tender meat and tasty meals.

      2. You are missing the point js.

        Smart meters allow the Government to isolate any area, or individual dwelling, if they wish.
        They cannot remotely switch of the gas to any dwelling.

        To some members of government Control is all important.

        Kindly reread the textbook “1984” .
        [It’s much easier switching off their power supplies than physically stamping on peoples’ faces].

      3. They could always install a butane-fueled gas hob. But why indeed should they have to?

        1. That’s what we have, Peddy being out in the sticks where there is no ‘Mains’ gas.

          We got rid of the oven with electric hob plates, as they are nowhere near as adjustable as gas.

          1. I had butane gas when I lived in the countryside, many years ago. Moving to the SE and living in apartments I became ‘stuck’ with electric hobs, ovens and heating.

            One of the things top of my list when we were looking to buy (3 years ago) was gas hob and heating. It is great and I will never go back to all electric again.

  25. Nothing to see here,move along

    “A man driving a stolen truck plowed into several cars in the center of

    the German city of Limburg on Monday, injuring 17 people, according to

    police.

    The driver, who was also injured, has been arrested.

    “Based

    on what we have learned and several witness accounts, the man seized

    control of the truck at about 5:20 pm (1520 GMT),” police said in a

    statement.

    According to police, the articulated truck slammed

    into eight cars that were waiting at a traffic light near the main

    railway station of Limburg in Hesse state, “crushing them together”.

    https://www.dw.com/en/stolen-truck-rams-into-cars-in-limburg-germany/a-50731717

    I first found this story via this tweet and checked it on the net

    https://twitter.com/TerrorNewsWorld/status/1181296575978622976

    You have to love one reply

    “Does it mean the driver was a Muslim?He could be a Christian or Jew trying to defame Islam”
    Aye Right,those Christians and Jews with all their recorded vehicle attacks

    1. ‘Morning, Rik.

      5.20pm German time is 16.20 British time, which is still one hour ahead of GMT.

  28. Reposted from The Slog:

    Adrian Hill has posted this at the very fine website Conservative Woman: https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/eu-fuhrer-merkels-echoes-of-the-third-reich/

    ‘I meet and deal with Germans every day including their diplomats. They’re very cocky, already think they’ve won, that they can advance further and further, sweep aside all resistance in Britain, force us to stay in the EU whether we like it or not. They are the economic sun, we’re just a big planet. Sooner rather than later we’ll see sense, that escape is impossible – real gravity economics is highly political and has nothing to do with free trade.

    What they’re actually doing is showing the ordinary British voters that if we think our version of representative democracy needs a bomb under it and radical replacement, the version in Europe is for the bin. Our judges of the Supreme Court have revealed themselves as the kind of well-meaning old folk who take for ever to get through the check-out at Waitrose: lovely people, harmless really, but without a grain of common sense and thus easily used by the unscrupulous.

    Falaise Gap will close when the British voters react. Sales of anything German will sink like a stone. Lidl and Aldi may sell up. BMW may try to close down, and Boris should get ready to take over their car plants. He could hand them to some of our bright engineering students: Cambridge University has plenty of young people who could transform our car industry. For the first time since 1973 they will be able to develop their ideas free from German regulation or hobbling – ask Sir James Dyson how they tweak the rules in their own favour and have done since the single market was created.

    The most urgent reason for leaving the EU is a looming disaster, the implosion of the euro. When it crashes all member states are liable for a bill. Ours will be about 200billion euros. With luck euros will be worth a penny each but let’s not rely on luck. Let’s go – now!

    Boris needs to stand back and stop spouting things he has no intention of doing. Of course, he can ignore the Supreme Court and the Benn Act. They are politically motivated on behalf of a foreign power. The Supreme Court order was against the Bill of Rights of 1689, part of the foundation of our democratic monarchy. Do these people want to start a civil war? One can be forgiven for thinking so. But then none of them know what life is like at the sharp end.

    Boris should apply for an extension – one hour.

    Landlords, apply for a pub extension for starting our leaving party at midnight GMT on October 31.

    1. I’m not sure that invoking the battle for the Falaise Gap is a good analogy. The Falaise Gap was closed with the help of the valiant Polish 1st Armoured Division. Today, can we rely on the Poles a second time or are they going to support the ‘other’ side in this battle for our freedom?

      1. They should be reminded that they fought “For Our Freedom and Yours”. They would prosper out of the EU, too.

  29. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    Then there were the prospective shenanigans by the Remain Cabal in the HoC yesterday. Well, that turned out quite nicely – for Leavers:

    “The Remainer

    alliance yet again failed to agree on who should be the caretaker PM to

    stave off No Deal Brexit. The latest round of talks in Westminster ended

    in a stalemate as Jeremy Corbyn insisted he should get the keys to

    Downing Street if Boris Johnson is ousted in a confidence vote. […] The

    opposition groups were also unable to settle on any new tactics to bind

    Mr Johnson’s hands more tightly over Brexit.” (link)

    These are the MPs who want to govern

    the fate of our Nation! These are the MPs who believe they can

    negotiate with the EU! These are the MPs who believe that they will be

    re-elected in the coming GE!

    According to this report in The Express

    this failure was down to the ‘Tory Rebels’ who thwarted the Corbyn

    aspirations. Perhaps they were given a sneak preview of a ComRes poll

    undertaken for the DT:

    “The survey found

    both Leavers and Remainers blamed Parliament ahead of anyone else for

    the Brexit impasse, on 94 per cent and 79 per cent respectively.” (paywalled link)

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-tuesday-8th-october-2019/

    1. Morning Rik,
      Well, looking over the current political field I can only find one politico with proven integrity and, of an honest political persuasion to fit the temporary PM bill.
      He has been / is fighting for the exit cause for 27 plus years through a blitz of misguided hate & smear and is still standing.
      All the electorate have been building for the last 4.5 decades has terminated in failure.
      Try something different.
      One Gerard Batten

        1. Morning NtN,
          I know of 650 who should be awarded the DCM but the MRD ?
          DCM = don’t come Monday.

          2. NtN,
            Bit slow before the third pint of tea, thanks for the expla.
            The way I do see it is that over the eu dominant years the
            Lab/lib/con pro eu coalition have been no benefit to these Isles
            and insanity is proving to be rapidly rising via the ballot booth
            shown by keep returning political sh!te to power.
            As the chap said following the same failed political course expecting a different endgame will lose you a nation.
            Try something radically different could be the answer.

    3. It must have been a challenge to find 10 thin ladies from the far left. Although judging by the 6th one in from the left, they failed to find even that many and sneaked a man in to make up the numbers.

  32. Men arrested in connection to illegal sheep butchery

    Two men have been arrested as part of a police investigation into illegal sheep butchery in Northamptonshire.

    A 23-year-old man and a 35-year-old man from Birmingham were detained in the early hours, police said.

    Officers responding to a report of suspicious activity in a field near Welford on Sunday October 6.

    They discovered an offence in progress and went on to stop a vehicle on the A14 shortly after 1am on Monday morning.

    https://www.farminguk.com/news/men-arrested-in-connection-to-illegal-sheep-butchery_54083.html?fbclid=IwAR2C3Z9d68G_ZiV-lThZVS9vTmRXAVaYIohbP1kiXBH8GDgEKBi1kSAwmuY

    Huge list of places where the poor farmers have been targeted.

    1. Birmingham? Hmm – well what can you expect with all this Peaky Blinders legacy being so in vogue.

  34. Victor Hill article on Master Investor website, from a couple of days ago:

    https://masterinvestor.co.uk/economics/the-brexit-beast-encaged/

    The Brexit Beast Encaged?
    “Mr Johnson occupies Downing Street but he is a prisoner of a Remainer parliament and the rule of lawyers. Has the Brexit beast been caged by the forces of Remain? Could it spring from that cage to devour its tormentors soon? Victor Hill speculates.”

    1. I really hope Tommy Robinson stays quiet about all this or he will be locked up, in an Ali’s Snack Bar Prison for life

        2. On 5 July 2019, Robinson was again found guilty of contempt of court at the retrial and was committed at the Old Bailey to nine months in prison on 11 July․ … He was released from prison on 13 September 2019 after serving 9 weeks.
          Aug 10, 2019 – Jailed Tommy Robinson is reportedly being kept in solitary confinement … of being attacked by “Muslim prison gangs” while he is behind bars.

  37. 16 of 25 Knife Crime Hot Spots are in London

    The data from 34 of the 43 police forces include crimes of assault, robbery, sexual offences, the threat to kill, attempted murder, or murder committed with a blade. The report comes as the capital looks set to see the murder rate surpass that of last year, which was already a decade-high level.

    Analysis in May by the London Assembly’s Conservatives claimed since Labour’s Sadiq Khan became mayor in 2016, the city has seen knife crime rise by 52 per cent. Mayor Khan has come under criticism for diverting funds on non-essential services, including spending £1.7 million on an online hate crime hub and £34 million on green projects

    Analysis revealed that London remains the most dangerous region for knife attacks, the rate of serious knife crime in other areas is outstripping some London boroughs. Those listed include Manchester, Slough, Liverpool, and Blackpool. Other non-London regions listed in the top-25 are Nottingham, Birmingham, and Oldham.

    Khan’s London: Average of 40 Knife Crimes Every Day

  38. UN running out of money

    “Member States have paid only 70 per cent of the total amount needed
    for our regular budget operations in 2019. This translates into a cash
    shortage of US$230 million at the end of September. We run the risk of
    depleting our backup liquidity reserves by the end of the month,” he
    wrote.

    To cut costs, Guterres mentioned postponing conferences and
    meetings and reducing services, while also restricting official travel
    to only essential activities and taking measures to save energy.

    Guterres
    had asked member states earlier this year to up contributions to the
    world body to head off cash flow problems, but they refused, a UN
    official said on condition of anonymity.

    “The ultimate responsibility for our financial health lies with Member States,” Guterres said.
    Good,good starve the beast until it dies

    1. Can anyone think of anything useful the UN has done in recent decades. Like Charities it has morphed into a political organisation

      Best thing to do with it isa to wind it up and close it down

      1. It always HAS been a political organisation, only over recent decades far too many countries without standards of democracy and decent conduct have gained the upper hand.

    4. “while also restricting official travel to only essential activities ”

      Why were they spending a single cent on inessential travel?

  39. For those of us that were pleased that the latest piece of lawfare from the EU trolls was dismissed by the court – don’t celebrate too quickly.

    The trolls have been allowed to appeal – which is what they are really after, they want to get their case to the Supreme Court who as we know will gold plate the decision for them.

    The puppet government has no democratic legitimacy left so it is using the law to keep us under EU occupation. They now realise Jeremy Corbyn is a roadblock in their designs so they are carefully preparing the ground to remove the Prime Minister and install someone else without calling a General Election.

    Two questions that need answering immediately – who is actually financing this lawfare and why are their cases getting fast tracked by the Department of Justice?

    1. I cannot see how they can find in favour. as it is a nonsense are we going to get people going to court where people have been sentence to community service because they think they might not do it?

  40. Last night I watched the tail end of a film on “Talking Pictures”, called “John and Julia” about two children going to London to see the Coronation of the Queen. The film used newsreel footage of crowds and it was astonishing to see the numbers of people on the streets. One vast homogenous happy crowd, Tens of thousands and only two or three non-whites. The streets were lined with sailors and the parade included thousands of soldiers from the Commonwealth. Most of the people seemed well dressed. Absurd considering that food was still being rationed, and this was only a few years after the second economy destroying war in one lifetime. Changed days.
    The programme following that was “Special Branch”. It opened with young woman being detained at Heathrow and who was about to be immediately deported. The young woman was white. No lawyers were involved. The reason was that she has a Rhodesian passport and the UK did not recognise Rhodesia. The young woman said her parents were born in the UK…
    I did not watch the end. No matter. In the space of twenty minutes I was able to see unintentional evidence of the extent to which we have destroyed ourselves.

    2. Morning HP,
      “We have destroyed ourselves” over the last 4.5 decades via the ballot booth truth be told.

        1. But far too many of our compatriots, even when given plain evidence of the lies & corruption of many of our politicians, still insisted on following the same tribal voting patterns.

          2. Exactly and it is this fact that has given the main parties the stranglehold on British Politics for far too long.

        2. Afternoon N,
          Agreed, but via the keep in / keep out, hold the nose, best of the worst, tactical
          voting pattern & maybe a dash of unintended consequences the country is in dire straights ( no puns required).
          If there was opposition shown among the toxic trio I could understand the voting pattern a little but they are a coalition as through condoning mass uncontrolled immigration via the ballot booth.
          Maybe we did not mean to turn the country over to an alien force but
          unintended consequences are winning the day.

      2. Victim blaming cheated electorates is the way backwards not forwards, target the cheats. And it’s been happening for a lot longer than 4½ decades.

        1. Listen up,
          To cheat the electorate once, is accepted, to cheat the electorate twice is viewed with alarm, to cheat the electorate
          thrice ongoing shows clearly, collusion, even a fool can see that
          do you not agree ?
          Please refrain from using “brainwashing” as a reason, the electorate have freedom of choice.

          1. Listen up! ROFL. Your arrogantly asserted ‘threat’ is amusingly indicative of your actual belief system.

            The electorate in 2019 is probably made up of 70 / 80%+ different personnel to that of 4½ decades ago!

            We’re ALL victims of the ‘cradle to grave’ brainwashing program that has been ongoing for decades, possibly longer, Even those of us who are less susceptible to the direct brainwashing.

  41. Paging Clegg,paging Nick Clegg

    “EU needs more troops and must use them, says incoming foreign affairs chief as he calls for ‘power politics’

    “We have the instruments to play power politics,” he said at a European

    Parliament hearing into his candidacy to head up the EU foreign affairs

    service, “The EU has to learn to use the language of power.”

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/07/incoming-eu-foreign-affairs-chief-declares-brussels-needs-troops/
    Now tell me about that “status quo” all you remoaners said you were voting for

  42. Extinction Rebellion activists have occupied the UK’s biggest meat market and set up fruit and vegetable stalls on the second day of disruption in the capital.

    London’s world famous Smithfield Market in Farringdon was blocked overnight by Animal Rebellion – an offshoot of the climate change protest group – and transformed into a vegan market.

    Where is Dickless Dick ? Hiding in her office as usual. The police new an attempt was going to be made to take over Smithfield yet did nothing. They could have easilly stopped it

    Cressida needs to be held to account. She is continually failing London and in my view is not fit to be Commissioner

    1. Dick is the professional head of the Metropolitan Police but the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime holding the police to account through a Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime appointed on the Mayor’s behalf.
      Ergo, Sad Khant controls the Met and is Dick, another useless waste of space, merely doing Khant’s bidding in this affair? His political affiliations are such that he would very likely have sympathy with the protesters. If he wanted to close down or more tightly control the protests he could have a word with Dick and see that it was done. London has become a shambolic crime ridden shit-hole on his watch.

      1. Presumably so. The function of the police is now to protect these insane people from being beaten to pulp by ordinary sensible members of the public. We have seen this at every manifestation of this madness, including the police in Scotland guarding a boat blocking a main street in Glasgow.
        I am thinking that the police and courts are now proceeding on the basis that these loonies will be running the country in ten years, and not just because they have been bribed or are members of the New World Order.
        I have seen no comments that the behaviour of these activists is very similar to the behaviour of the NASDAP and the Brown Shirts before their rise to power.

  44. Right, now I have a bit of time.
    Got taken to the Northern General in Sheffield yesterday morning, a bugger of a journey as a minor car shunt caused us to get caught in the rush hour traffic and it took over an hour and a half to get there.

    Straight up to the relevant department and after admin processing, in for the process.

    They went in through the top of my right thigh and it was not the most comfortable of experiences.
    Only problem found was one of the main arteries narrowed and a stent was bunged in.
    Sensation in chest when dye was being squirted in and also when the single stent was fitted.
    Whole process took about an hour.

    Back out for recovery where, after I’d asked if they had radios with earphones for the patients, the lovely lass looking after me retuned the TV from the local pop radio station to Radio 3!!
    Surprisingly everyone found the classical music rather relaxing!

    Because of the anticogulents used during the process, plus the blood thinners I’d been on since Wednesday, the bleeding from the entry point took quite a while to stop so I had to lie flat on my back and try to keep motionless for nearly 3 hours.
    The bleeding restarted in the ambulance coming back and in fact did not stop until after I’d been back here for several hours. It got rather messy, hence my sparce posting from yesterday evening.

    I feel as fit as normal but the cardiac nurse has warned me I’m not allowed to drive for another 3 weeks!

    Now waiting to see the pharmacist before being released, but they tend to be the last ones to turn up!

    2. Well, that’s a relief! Thanks for the update; now concentrate on getting better, not about the jobs at home that you can’t do.

    4. Hello Bob

      Glad all well despite the inconvenience.

      I had just the same as you in March after a scare and yes it was quite an experience.. I asked for Beethoven Pastoral.. they gave me Mahler’s 5th .. I cried my heart out .. yes my poor heart .. I thought that was the end of me !

      I thought I was invincible .. rock steady .. solid powerhouse , thinker..

      Nope, I am vulnerable and older , just as they said .. not the 26 year old I always assumed was a nice age to keep in the back of my mind ..

      Now I am similar to the old aunts, uncles and relatives and friends of long ago ..

      Health issues appear out of the blue .. one just never knows.

      I was also forbidden to drive … You have to watch the plug in your femoral artery.. it heals eventually.

      Just be careful for goodness sake.

          3. I think the plaque causes some narrowing of the arteries but obviously nothing to worry about. The length of your aorta not being what it oughta I’m in the dark about.

          4. On a more serious note, I’m just coming up to the 9th anniversary of my 8 stents being bunged in. Lots of meds, some of which had to be changed over the years as they mucked me up, but all in all I’m (touch wood) in excellent health, though I drink like a fish. The NHS might have a number of things to answer for but some of us wouldn’t be here without them.

          7. Hi TB, I had similar experience in August but with one big difference. They went in via my wrist to install the stent, this made it easier to plug the artery afterwards. They put an inflated band on my wrist which was very tight. After 20 minutes they released some of the air, this was repeated until the pressure was fully released. Then they put a sort of stretchy plastic adhesive band/plaster around my wrist. The consultant removed this the next morning (during his rounds) and inspected the ‘wound’. I was told not to drive for two weeks, still on lots of blood thinners but feeling a hell of a lot better.

      2. I’ve just had an ultrasound and the very attractive and rather charming radiologist doing it was quite delighted to have R3 playing Elgar’s Cockaigne overture as she worked.

    5. Don’t rush it. Look after yourself first for the moment.

      May you have astonishing good luck

    7. Glad you’re ok Bob and soon to be allowed home.
      I hope you’ve got your chauffeur/se ready for the next few weeks! I took OH to his dental appointment this morning.

    8. Do rest up Bob. It’s major surgery. Let your heart recover. A chum has just recovered from a stroke. Thinking he could walk around the block had him exhausted after the stairs. Be kind and take it easy.

  45. https://order-order.com/2019/10/08/no-10-merkel-killed-deal/

    ”

    Following Boris’s call with Merkel in which she has refused to budge
    on the Northern Ireland border, a No. 10 spokesman has said:

    ‘The call with Merkel showed the EU has adopted a new
    position. She made clear a deal is overwhelmingly unlikely and she
    thinks the EU has a veto on us leaving the Customs Union. Merkel said
    that if Germany wanted to leave the EU they could do it no problem but
    the UK cannot leave without leaving Northern Ireland behind in a customs
    union and in full alignment forever. She said that Ireland is the
    government’s special problem and Ireland must at least have a veto on NI
    leaving. Merkel said that the PM should tell Northern Ireland that it
    must stay in full alignment forever, but that even this would not
    eliminate customs issues.

    ‘It was a very useful clarifying moment in all sorts of ways. If this
    represents a new established position, then it means a deal is
    essentially impossible not just now but ever. It also made clear that
    they are willing to torpedo the Good Friday Agreement’”

    1. That is so backwards & forwards that I can’t help feeling that something somewhere got lost in translation.

    2. How would the evil witch take it if we insisted that as part of any deal Germany should be partitioned and the Berlin wall be rebuilt, with a free-trade zone on the other side of it?

      1. Perhaps that is the reason she wants NI to remain as EU territory – all because of the partition of Germany.

        1. Given her past life it might just be that she saw the demolition of the wall as an opportunity to absorb the rest of Europe into East Germany, while we were being presented with the opposite view.

          The project continues.

    3. The NI nonsense is just that. The Good Friday Agreement is something that both sides (or all sides) can continue to observe as long as they like, regardless of open border or closed border. There is the insane implication that the so-called “no deal” would be a signal for all sides to start shooting and bombing. Is that really so? If it is, then the UK should hand NI over to Eire whether they want it or not.

  46. SIR – I was at the induction service of an Anglican clergyman recently. I was stunned to find out later that the young man who wore his baseball cap throughout was the son of the minister. I wondered if he would wear his trainers in a mosque, and concluded reluctantly that he probably would.

    Sandra Hancock
    Starcross, Devon

    Sandra, you must be very naive if you think that anyone would be allowed to wear shoes in a mosque.

      1. Let’s try sending him into a mosque in just a nappy – he doesn’t seem to have progressed beyond that stage.

        1. Yo Peddy

          The staff of Ali’s Snack Bar will be positively salivating at the thought of a young lad in his nappy in their midst

  47. Illegal Occupation of Smithfield

    There could be serious repercussions for those occupying Smithfield market as they could be taken to court for loss of trade and could if they own homes be forced to sell them to pay compensation to Smithfield. Any cars they own could be potentially seized as well

    1. “Could”
      It will not happen. How many have been forced to pay up for the last time London was brought to a standstill?

      1. Different situation this time. Smithfield is a private business and they are on privater land. First step would be to go to court to get an injunction to remove them. Then if they do not go the Bailiffs can be sent in. You could probably get something put intro the injunction that would prevent them re occuping Smithfield,. If they did they could be removed immediately and could potentially be jailed

        1. How long do you think it would take to get an injunction? Remember whose side the Courts are on. It would take two weeks not two hours.

          1. WE are dealing with civil law here not criminal law. It does not take long to go to court to get an order.

      2. Can’t access the URL here, but there is a youtube clip of Verhofstadt DEMANDING the member states cede more powers to the EU to solve problems where one almost expects him to demand the ceding of the Sudentenland.

        1. I was in Berlin in 1992 and a chap asked me where I had come from. I replied Czechoslovakia. “Ah,” he said, “The Sudentenland…”

    2. Simple for a transition period Ireland becomes aligned with the UK until the EU can come up with an alternative arrangement that is acceptable to the UK

  49. “The comments from the German Chancellor to the Prime Minister

    that Northern Ireland must remain in the EU Customs Union forever now

    reveal the real objective of Dublin and the European Union.

    For the United Kingdom to be asked to leave a part of its

    sovereign territory in a foreign organisation of which the UK would no

    longer be a part and over which we would have no say whatsoever is

    beyond crazy. No UK Government could ever concede such a surrender.

    The EU is not interested in a negotiated outcome at this time.

    Their position is the UK can only leave with a deal if it agrees a

    binding piece of international law permanently tying either the whole

    country or a part of it to the EU’s legal order over which it has no

    control.

    The true purpose of the “backstop” is now in the open for all to

    see. Those who eagerly supported the backstop as the best of both

    worlds can now see the error of that assessment. It was neither

    temporary nor an insurance policy.

    It appears that Martin Selmayr’s remarks about Northern Ireland being the price of Brexit is still the EU negotiating stance.

    The Prime Minister’s proposals have flushed out Dublin’s real

    intentions to trap Northern Ireland in the EU Customs Union forever,

    where Dublin rather than the United Kingdom’s elected representatives

    would be in the driving seat.

    We will not accept any such ultimatum or outcome.”

    http://www.mydup.com/news/article/foster-pms-proposals-have-flushed-out-eus-real-intentions
    We regret to announce that no such undertaking has been received and a state of war now exists between the UK and the EU

    1. Merkel’s demand is nothing more than a land grab by the EU. They are obviously planning on the idea that no British PM would break up the Union and that Johnson would fall into line and keep the whole UK in the EU rather than isolate NI. Their fallback position being that if Johnson wouldn’t sellout all of the UK then they would at least start the break-up and have NI with Sturgeon’s Scotland to follow.
      All the EU’s and Remainers’ claptrap about the Backstop being necessary to ensure that the “Troubles” would not be resurrected is now so much meaningless hot air and an attempt at misdirection.
      If they were to get their way as now stated then it’s very likely that they would see what real ‘trouble’ is with hundreds of thousands of very unhappy Unionists in Ulster being betrayed by the UK Government. Good luck with that.
      It’s now time for Johnson to grow up and stop talking about our allies and partners in the EU; they are are neither of those things.

  50. An awakening at last.
    What’s clear, as in so many articles on the WA and PD, is the complete lack of any criticism of the person who allegedly “negotiated” those documents and willingly accepted them, Theresa May. Hopefully, as Brexit unfolds, more and more of this awful woman’s intentions and actions will be revealed and much deserved opprobrium will be heaped upon her.

    BORIS JOHNSON was last night facing a revolt by Tory MPs over fears that British troops could be dragooned into an EU defence force after Brexit. Members of the European Research Group of backbenchers will today meet senior figures from the Veterans for Britain pressure group that is campaigning against close military ties with Brussels.

    Former minister Steve Baker, the chairman of the ERG, said: “Just as Boris is now firmly headed towards an advanced free trade agreement instead of the hated Chequers plan, we must also escape commitments to the EU’s Defence Union.

    “Many of us are concerned but it’s not too late to preserve the independence of our Armed Forces.”

    Daily Express – British Army Troops in EU Defence Force

  51. Good morning from a Saxon Queen with long bow and axe .
    Boris was right about those protesting loons.

      1. I am finding lots of new soups with a pea and ham
        soup to join them, I like many soups with the really
        dark German rye bread that I don’t find easily.

          1. Aha ! Never popped into Lidl or Aldi , no idea
            why, I suppose Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have always
            been around. I love German breads and chocolate
            so should pop into one of those shops.

        2. Tinned salmon and potato soup.
          Carrot and coriander soup.
          Stilton and broccoli soup.

          ♫These are a few of my favourite things♫

          2. I didn’t want to go all posh with poaching the salmon but tinned will do it. The potato will thicken it and Dill or your favourite herb will finish it nicely. Filling..cheap..and tasty..just like me. Ahem…

    2. Good morning, oh Great Queen. Any chance of your going to London and showing the Climate Emergency nutters the sharp end of your axe?

      1. Good morning.
        Notice they all live in big cities ( instead of clean rural areas )
        love their cars and foreign holidays ( including flights )
        hypocrites the lot of them .
        I shall travel to London forthwith and point the long bow at them .

  53. Industries that wiil die out in the next 20 years. Can probably add Estate Agencies to it as well and we may well see Trains become driveless

    The big unknown is what new industries and services will spring up. I think we can safely assume parcel delivery services will continue to grow. WE may see growth in Bus services for local journeys

    In the list below huge numbers of jobs are at risk and it is difficult to see where large numbers of new jobs will come from

    Telemarketing

    The telemarketing industry as we know it is set to die out completely in the not-so-distant future. Advances in technology means it’s cheaper and more efficient to make the process computerized. Indeed, telemarketing is the industry most likely to be obliterated by robots, with a 99% chance that the job will be totally automated within 15 years, according to a study called The Future of Employment by Oxford University. Still, those robots will still have their work cut out for them: 93% of calls fail, according to the Data & Marketing Association.

    Print media

    Newspapers and magazines are quickly becoming a dated concept. The ease of access to news online and on TV means they simply no longer have the readership they once did. Most recently UK women’s magazine Marie Claire announced the closure of its print publication after 31 years. Ad revenues also took a beating following the 2008 recession and, despite the economy thriving since, they’ve never recovered. In 2016 print advertising for the New York Times decreased by 19%, just one example of the upcoming death of the industry.

    Staffed retail

    While retail will always exist in some form, the industry could be almost unrecognizable in just a couple of decades. Store workers are already being replaced by self-checkouts, and as a result it’s been estimated that the self-serve kiosk industry will be worth $34 billion by 2023. There will also be fully automated stores, like the 10 staff-free, checkout-free Amazon Go stores that have opened in cities across America since 2018. Customers who have the app can simply walk out with the items they want, with their shopping charged automatically to their Amazon account.

    Paralegal and legal research

    Artificial intelligence is having such a large impact on the legal sector that some experts believe it will completely eradicate the need for paralegals and legal researchers within the next decade. Many firms in the sector are already using AI to perform research and due diligence, making these processes less expensive and more efficient. With AI technology becoming more advanced and less expensive every day, the legal sector as it stands could be changed forever.

    Accountancy

    Research from Gartner states that 33% of all jobs could be performed by robots by 2025. Accounting is likely to fall into this category. Accounting firms are already using AI systems for tasks such as data entry and reconciliations, and as the technology continues to improve the need for humans will be greatly reduced. Indeed, Google predicts that human-level AI will be available by 2029, making traditional accounting obsolete

    DVD manufacturing

    Streaming services officially overtook DVDs as the most popular format for home viewing in 2016. Since then, things have only gone further south for the DVD industry. In 2018 UK retailer John Lewis announced it would no longer sell DVD players thanks to a 40% drop in sales, and Christmas that year saw a $304 million decrease in sales of physical copies of films, music, TV shows and video games in the UK. The Blu-ray industry is set to follow suit: Samsung has already stated it’ll stop making Blu-ray players for the U.S. market in 2019.

    Libraries and Information Services

    The invention of e-books and the internet has created less demand for public libraries in modern society, and if current trends continue it won’t be long before they’re completely gone. In the U.K. alone there were 242 library closures between 2011 and 2016. Book borrowing has fallen by up to a half in some areas, and over 8,000 librarian jobs were lost between 2010 and 2016 according to a BBC investigation.

    Travel agencies

    In 2017, a report from Local Data Company (LDC) revealed that 700 brick-and-mortar travel agencies had closed in the U.K. alone. Unsurprisingly, the research found that the most prominent reason was competition from online travel agencies and holiday rental companies such as Airbnb. Currently, just one in five travelers book their holidays through traditional travel agents. With online travel agencies offering an increasing level of convenience and greater value for money, their traditional counterparts won’t be around for much longer.

    Coal

    As renewable energy sources continue to become more affordable, and with countries globally committing to reducing greenhouse gases, the coal industry is on its way out. More than 34,000 coal mining jobs have been lost in the U.S. over the past decade, and the figure continues to plummet. One of the largest coal plants in the U.S., the Navajo Generating Station (NGS) in Arizona, is set to be closed by 2020, signaling the beginning of the end for the coal industry.

    Oil

    The oil industry is facing a large number of challenges which make it unlikely to survive the next 20 years. Environmental policies, electric cars and cheaper, alternative energies mean the industry is en route to becoming obsolete. A downturn beginning in 2015 saw a loss of 300,000 oil and gas jobs worldwide.

    Photofinishing

    The introduction of digital cameras and smartphones has caused the steady decline of the photofinishing industry. Nowadays people simply snap photos on their phones and upload them to social media, rarely printing physical copies. As a result, the industry’s revenue has been decreasing by 11% each year for the last decade, and employment has shrunk by almost 58%. Kodak, which filed for bankruptcy protection in 2012, posted losses of $18 million in the first quarter of 2019.

    Tobacco

    As the negative health impacts of smoking have become widely known over the last few decades, tobacco use has seen a large decline. In fact, 16% of Americans are smokers today, compared with 45% during the 1950s. Most people take up the habit before the age of 25, but health-conscious young people today are avoiding it or using electronic cigarettes instead. In the U.S. cigarette sales were down 11.2% in May 2019, part of a consistent 18-month decline, according to research from Nielsen.

    Apparel knitting

    In 2008 the U.S. was home to 229 apparel knitting mills. By 2018, this number had shrunk to 139. The industry, which provides knitted garments such as outerwear and nightwear, has seen a 64% drop in employment over the past decade. Reduced demand and competition from imports has resulted in the U.S. industry being almost obliterated. Its survival over the next two decades seems unlikely.

    Frontline banking

    Banking jobs are at great risk from AI. In fact, in late 2018 finance leaders warned that those in customer service, middle and back office roles are likely to be replaced by computers in the near future. A 2019 report by IHS Markit estimates that 1.3 million bank workers in the U.S. will be affected, and 500,000 in the U.K.. Why? AI and quantum computers are replacing the need for bank workers, and there’s also competition from new online-only banks. And people seem to like it that way: An increasing number of people now do their banking online and a report from GP Bullhound revealed that 91% of people prefer to use an app than go into a branch.

    Instore bookselling

    It’s fair to say that the rise of digitalization has lead to the death of the bookstore industry. Amazon e-book sales overtook their paperback counterparts back in 2011, and the company now has a share of 50% of the U.S. book market. Traditional seller Barnes & Noble has a share of 20%, having closed one in eight stores over the last seven years. During the period between 2008 and 2017 employment in the U.S. book store and news dealer industry plummeted by over 43%.

    Postal services

    To say the U.S. Postal Service is struggling would be an understatement. Mail demand has fallen dramatically, and the volume decreased by 42 billion pieces between 2006 and 2010 alone. As a result, the USPS is losing billions of dollars every year – $2.7 billion in 2017. And it’s the same story in postal services the world over. With paper billing becoming obsolete and people using social media to keep in touch, the future of the Postal Service looks very bleak indeed.

    1. People will no longer communicate with one another. They will all live in identical communal housing, and eat bird droppings. The internet will have collapsed long ago, when e-mails were replaced by e-persons.

        1. Hello Sue,

          That was a good story, and precient, IMO. I had it in a volume of short stories by E M Forster which included the Omnibus one.

    2. When I first visited New York many moons ago, they still had Automats, but they went away to be replaced by fast food outlets like McD’s and Burger King with staff to serve the customers. No sign of them coming back, either. Kind of against the trends?

  54. Why are the Extinction Rebellion types wearing clothes?

    They dont want man made materials used and they dont want animal based products used. That somewhat limits their options

    1. Quite right. Wasn’t there this bloke on a bicycle that managed to get all the way from Lands End to Inverness before they arrested him?

      1. I guess they could have cloths made from hessian but you really would not want to wear them and it is not water proof or even water resistant

          1. Hessian is worse than hair shirts. IT is he material sacks typically used to be made from

      2. The naked rambler. He was walking.

        He did the English bit without too much trouble, because nudity in public isn’t actually illegal in England, except under certain circumstances relating to sex acts in public, intent to cause alarm etc.

        Things changed when he got to Scotland on his second trip They are not tolerant of nudity in that dour land. He finished up in jail, several times, and in fact spent a long time behind bars, because each time they let him loose, off he went again sans-culottes and sans-everything apart from his boots. Back to court, back to jail.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Gough

    2. Woad is a vegetable dye? Perfect solution if they really want to turn back the clock. Paint themselves blue and stick on yellow paper stars. Wots not to luv?

      1. They could then climb up Snowdon with their woad on, never mind if they get rained or snowed on!

  55. I watched an interesting and uplifting programme on the BBC last night about our imports and exports of seafood. Ten minutes from the end, the following quotation jumped off the telly and landed on the carpet:

    “With only 30% of our (seafood) exports going to the rest of the world, these markets would have to see very rapid growth if they were to make up for lost EU exports.”

    The subtle implication was that post-Brexit, our trade with the EU would dry up.

    Utter and biased claptrap, says I.

    1. Well look who’s presenting the programme! (& I don’t mean the eye-acting, inane-grinning blonde.)

      ‘Morning, Eddy.

      1. Morning peddy.

        I mentioned uplifting because it showed us there’s a world out there which wants our produce and that there are people working their socks off to ensure they get it – and vice versa. The cod-slicing machine in Iceland was absolutely mind blowing, by the way.

        Whatever the ‘just in time’ problems of our trade with the EU will be (hinted at by the programme), and there will be problems, they will be sorted out by the talented people on both sides of the channel.

        1. I saw Pt 1 on i-player (fruit & veg) & I shall catch up with Pt 2 in the next few days, as I didn’t see it last night.

    2. The French and Spanish buy our seafood because it is very good. It goes to top restaurants. Why would that change?

    3. Two things could happen there might be a slight drop in the exports to the EU and there would probably bee a significant increase to non EU exports

      1. Either way, Bill, it will be transient and not permanent. Our fish aren’t going to scurry off on holiday come November and the EU will still want them.

        1. WE may initially have no deal with them and tariffs are quite high on food. Not sure what exactly it is on fish but the tariffs could lead to a short term drop in exports to the EU

          2. AS best I can understand the complex rules it is 15% on fish but there appear to be quotas allowed tariff free. WE would have to agree a quota with the EU or better still a simple free trade deal

            Whilst we are still in the EU they will in my view be obstructive. WE export fish to the EU now tariff free and we meet EU food standards now. After we leave that will not change the EU only want to impose tariffs to be obstructive and to meet their aims of a Federal Europe

          5. First things first, I think.

            The imperative for me is to leave the EU in three weeks time but without the ties which Mrs May would have agreed to. The sooner we leave, the sooner we can get our house in order and develop a new trading relationship with the EU. We’ll need their products well into the future and they’ll need ours.

        2. The EU will want to buy our fish even more after Brexit, when we reclaim our waters and keep EU trawlers out of them.

        3. If there is a reduction in fish exports to EU markets it should make fish more affordable at home.

          1. In theory, Harry.

            It seems that the Chinese (booming) and American markets are keeping prices high.

        4. In which case the EU will just take them. Thumbing their noses at our inability to stop them.

      1. Morning Plum.

        Any fool who thinks there won’t be problems when we leave is a fool.

        Some of us, though, think there’s enough talent on both sides of the channel to overcome those problems.

        1. There is no problem moving goods around. What the Remainers are going on about are system last used about 40 years ago when the Internet, and Commuters and bar codes did not exist and checking goods going across boarders required lots of paperwork and physical checking off goods. That simply no longer happens. It would be impossible in any case, Every day huge container ships come into London Gateway & Felixstowe with several hundred containers on them. They are off loaded and shipped out of the port within 24 hours because it is all dealt with electronically

          1. I suspect many of us, remainers or not, haven’t a clue what goes on behind the scenes. Last night’s programme opened my eyes.

            If we can stick tons of fish in the holds of passenger aircraft, why not the medicines we’re told will run out when we leave?

          3. The last Sunday Times yet again was over dramatic about us all running out of medicines.

            Yet their Business section had a piece on an air brokerage company that had been awarded a contract by the Government to fly in any medicines that Britain is short of.

          4. The last Sunday Times yet again was over dramatic about us all running out of medicines.

            Yet their Business section had a piece on an air brokerage company that had been awarded a contract by the Government to fly in any medicines that Britain is short of.

          5. I read somewhere that the Thomas Cook repatriation exercise proved that we’d be fine after Brexit; after all, if we could get all those people back, bringing in essential supplies should be a doddle.

        2. Let’s just get out Pronto………………..we’ll cope with any inconvenience we’re British FFS.

          1. Spot on.

            The delaying tactics of the lunatics must be creating havoc with businesses’ plans.

          1. Morning Anne.

            As the saying goes, there’s no situation so bad that a politician can’t make it worse.

            I remember once where they removed some traffic lights and the traffic flowed better than it had ever done.

            Ditto politicians.

          3. Bristol, though I think there is a Dutch village that has done without them altogether.
            We have the same – sadly temporary – situation in Colchester.
            Traffic flowing absolutely fine.

      2. We watched “Britain’s Greatest Generation” on BBC4.

        The second article was about a very elderly eccentric supporter of CND speaking at a CND rally with Jeremy Corbyn behind her.

        We switched off!

    5. Well, Eddy, on the news (Classic fm) this morning it was reported that the UK’s debt will rocket after Brexit. “Proof” of this was then said to be because figures show that Britons are borrowing more and more year on year. So it’s the debt of individuals and not of the country, and it has been increasing over the past year or two (and we are not out of the EU yet).

      1. More Spin. Yes we have been borrowing more but that whilst in the EU. In the end you max out your credit and debt starts to fall, WE are towards maxing our credit out now so it is highly unlikely that UK debt will rocket

      2. Morning Elsie.

        The current national debt is probably at its highest ever peacetime level relative to GDP so any increase is bound to take it to record levels. Since both the Tories and Labour have given up on financial prudence, the direction of travel was upwards in any case.

  56. Great news – the French RU World Cup team have “deposed” their captain and are planning to ignore their coaches!

    Vive la France!

    1. Good Day, William

      Remember that France lost to Tonga in the preliminary round of the Rugby World Cup in 2011.

      They then went on to the final against New Zealand which, had it not been for abysmal refereeing, they would and should have won.

  57. Things get interesting in just over a week. Boris will have his Queens speech. This forces the hands of the opposition. They will either have to accept it or Reject it. If they accept it we are certain to leave. If they reject it we are almost certain to leave as it triggers a General Election

    1. The norms of Parliamentary and Democratic government in the UK have been thrown away. Anything could happen!

      1. Well what I have put is all but certain. There is going to be a Queens speech and there has to be a vote on it

        Boris will include in the Queens Speech a part that says “This government will take us out of the EU on the 31st October”

        What do the opposition do Vote for it or Reject it ?

        If they vote for it they have consented to us leaving the EU on the 31st . If the reject it it forces a General Election and that means we Leave

        1. Is a Queen’s Speech paramount over an Act of Parliament? If the Opposition abstains, what then?

          Does the Government have the power to ask the EU for the extension (as stipulated by the Benn Act), which may be granted, and then withdraw from the EU anyway on the 31st, extension or no extension?

          1. If they abstain then the bill gets passed (assuming the Conservatives vote for it)

            I would say if it is in the Queens Speech which lays out the governments programme of work that we leave on the 31st October and the Queens Speech is passed that overrides The Benn Act as parliament would have voted for it

          3. The Queens Speech comes first. . WE are though in uncharted territory.
            If parliament votes for the Queens Speech and it includes in it taking the UK out of the EU on the 31st we have the Queens Speech and Article 50 which both state we are leaving on the 31st but we have the Benn Act saying we have to ask for an extension

            It is an interesting Constitutionality argument. I would say the Queens Speech and article 50 take precedence but it might end up going to court

          4. …and interestingly, a Queen’s Speech is always preceded by a Prorogation of Parliament to allow for the preparation of the Speech

          6. If they abstain then the bill gets passed (assuming the Conservatives vote for it)

            I would say if it is in the Queens Speech which lays out the governments programme of work that we leave on the 31st October and the Queens Speech is passed that overrides The Benn Act as parliament would have voted for it

          7. That depends on the terms the EU put on any agreement to an extension. Any terms are bound to be punitive. In their absence (most unlikely) all that is being extended it the end date. We were alway able to leave under the original Article 50 provisions before the end date, without or without an agreement.

        2. If it triggers a General Election, I don’t think that there is sufficient time for it to be held before October 31st so we leave by default on 31st October.

      2. Anything could happen!

        Especially if No 10’s provocation, re the letter released to James Forsyth, convinces the Remainers to actually try and form their “GNU”. The political fallout from such a move would be incalculable.

  58. We have reached our Chamberlain moment today, a repeat of September 1939.

    The first Peshmerga soldier that is shot by Turkish troops in Syria East of the Euphrates, and our Turkish ambassador goes home, and hopefully every Turkish embassy in Europe will be closed forthwith.

    Turkish people must be made to pay for continuing to sustain Erdogan in office.

    The correct solution should be for Turkey to work with the Kurds and with Assad to deal with the ongoing ISIS menace and all these stateless refugees, not all of them one would want camped in the next field. This is unlikely to happen without the intervention of an honest broker who can keep the peace between them. Trump’s announcement is an attack on the whole of Europe and the Middle East, and for what end?

    We now have to turn to Putin and the Ayatollahs to maintain world peace! We in the West seem no longer up to the job.

  59. Productivity in the UK fell at its fastest annual pace in five years in the April-to-June quarter, according to the Office for National Statistics.

    The experts claim to be baffled by this but the answer is very simple “Mass Migration”
    Business has become dependent on cheap labour and does not invest in training or new equipment. Companies also export jobs abroad because they can cut cost that way as well going to lo tax cheap labour countries and the EU help them do that by subsidising factories being set up abroad

    The figure – measured by output per hour – fell by 0.5%, after two previous quarters of zero growth.

    Both services and manufacturing saw a fall from April to June, the ONS said.
    It added: “This sustained period of declining labour productivity represents a continuation of the UK’s ‘productivity puzzle’.”

    The ONS added that productivity since the economic downturn in 2008 was “growing more slowly than during the long period prior to downturn”.

    Stagnant productivity ‘costs workers £5,000 a year’

    UK productivity continues lost decade

    1. Productivity comes from investment. There’s been a problem with malinvestment here since the early nineties when it started flowing heavily into land assets rather than productivity improving technologies. Nothing at all to do with cheap labour, or offshoring. Those things of course cause problems but not with productivity.

  60. From DT Live

    ‘Cummings Memo’ sets out how Tories will fight election on no-deal platform

    As Shakespeare’s Brutus, ‘the noblest Roman of them’ all said:

    There is a tide in the affairs of men if taken taken at the flood leads on to fortune.

    Now is the time for Cummings and Johnson to swallow their pride and embrace Nigel Farage’s offer of an electoral pact. Both parties campaigning on a no-deal with the EU platform will surely lead on to fortune

    But Brutus added:

    Omitted, all the voyage of their life. Is bound in shallows and in miseries.

    Which is what will happen if they fail to follow Horace’s advice:

    CARPE DIEM

    1. ” to urge someone to make the most of the present time and give little thought to the future.”
      That’s the problem. Bexit done, which of our leaders has the ability to deal with the future ?

      2. But if you do not seize the day then the day will seize you – and probably by the goolies – which is what the EU is trying to do.

    2. We need to get out cleanly by 31 October otherwise the Conservatives will not get much support in any esubsequent election. The EU will never compromise and to delay further on Article 50 will be futile and expensive for the UK. Boris must stick to his promise. There will be no blame for him as the people voted to Leave the EU in 2016.

    3. When is this election going to happen? There’s only 23 days to the 31st. If we’re not out by then the Conservatives will be a spent force.

  62. Good Moaning.
    Hoorah, OffCoff week is over; to celebrate, I read RL’s diatribe. I think we can say he ain’t impressed.
    Cleveland, anyone? Or, since our legal lords and masters now go back to the C17 for precedents, how about Matthew Hopkins?

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-7548403/RICHARD-LITTLEJOHN-isnt-Nonce-Finder-General-Tom-Watson-dock.html

    RICHARD LITTLEJOHN: Why isn’t the Nonce Finder General Tom Watson in the dock

    “The damning catalogue of police failures in the Paedos In High Places scandal will come as no surprise to readers of this newspaper — or this column in particular.

    Nor will yesterday’s predictable whitewash from the policing watchdog that concluded no one is to blame. Lives were destroyed, reputations ruined, careers disrupted and, in some cases, ended. But there’s nothing to see here, move along now.

    All the senior coppers who were up to their neck in this disgusting miscarriage of ‘justice’ have not only been exonerated, they’ve been promoted or allowed to retire on full, gold-plated pensions.

    Trebles all round!

    The bombastic, over-promoted provincial Plod, Bernard Hyphen-Howe, Met Commissioner at the time and the man ultimately responsible, has been rewarded with a peerage.

    Labour’s disreputable deputy leader Tom Watson looks like walking away scot-free and even has the gall to present himself as a ‘victim’. Watson’s fawning apologists, not just in Westminster but in the media, should be ashamed of themselves.

    When I read the impeccably independent findings of the former High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques, I simply shrugged and thought:

    Tell us something we don’t know.

    He could have been reading out loud from my spoof column a couple of weeks ago, which had the BBC’s Line Of Duty team investigating Scotland Yard. Mother of God!

    The script will have been familiar to anyone who has followed in the Mail Stephen Wright’s brilliant, forensic investigations of this scandal dating back several years.

    Police routinely abused their powers, misled judges to obtain search warrants and dragged the names of distinguished public figures through the sewer.

    Nobody at the Yard emerges with any credit from this ghastly episode — not least the sainted Cressida, Dick of Dock Green, who has done a passable impersonation of her political sponsor Mother Theresa and spent the duration hiding behind the sofa, just as May did during the Brexit referendum.

    Shamefully, when she subsequently admitted that officers were wrong to say publicly that the false allegations made by the fantasist known as Nick were ‘credible and true’, she made no effort to correct that statement. It was allowed to remain on file for another nine months, by which time the damage had been done.

    Understandably, much of the recent media criticism of the police has concentrated on the appalling treatment of war hero Lord Bramall and ex-Home Secretary Leon Brittan.

    Some of us have longer memories. Where were the ‘distinguished’ newspaper commentators when the Old Bill were persecuting a random assortment of disc jockeys and TV presenters in the wake of the failure to bring Jimmy Savile to justice?

    Where was the outrage when popular newspaper journalists simply doing their job were being treated like terrorists by coppers investigating ‘misconduct in public office’?

    Where were they when a young couple living in the same building as equally innocent ex-Tory MP Harvey Proctor were threatened with having their baby taken into care? This was Soviet era Stasi-style treatment straight from the chilling movie about Communist East Berlin, The Lives Of Others.

    The monstrous treatment meted out to the Brittan and Bramall families was also visited upon blameless entertainers including Jimmy Tarbuck, Jim Davidson and Paul Gambaccini, to name but three.

    It took me about ten minutes and a couple of phone calls to confirm that Tarby and Davidson couldn’t possibly be guilty of the ‘historic’ crimes of which they were accused.

    But Plod couldn’t even be bothered to check out the facts and kept them dangling in a hell on earth for months on end.

    Hyphen-Howe was getting measured for ermine, his reward for doing the bidding of his political paymasters.

    The monstrous treatment meted out to the Brittan and Bramall (pictured) families was also visited upon blameless entertainers including Jimmy Tarbuck, Jim Davidson and Paul Gambaccini, to name but three

    Dick of Dock Green was keeping her head down at the Foreign Office, waiting for Bernardo to swan off to the Lords before assuming her rightful position as First Lady of the Met.

    The appalling Deputy Assistant Assistant Deputy And One For Yourself Or Whatever Ridiculous Title He Had At The Time Steve Plodhouse was polishing his buttons in anticipation of a lucrative new gig running ‘Britain’s FBI’. We’re not talking J. Edgar Hoover here, are we?

    Dick’s successor as head of the witch-hunt, ‘Fat Pat’ Gallan, was allowed to slink away with a full pension before the solids hit the air conditioning.

    The fact of the matter is — and I mean no disrespect to the proper coppers trying to keep us safe every day — Scotland Yard is no longer fit for purpose. I’ve long since given up on the Mind How You Go files, as the conduct of those who run our police forces is simply beyond parody.

    Only yesterday we learned that, in concert with London’s two-bob spiv of a mayor, that preening self-publicist Sadiq Khan, the Met has blown the thick end of two million smackeroonies on an investigation into internet trolls — resulting in just half a dozen convictions.

    Just as well there’s no knife crime in London, eh?

    For years, the Yard has been making wrongful arrests, illegally ransacking homes, terrifying innocent men, women and children, in pursuit of alleged ‘misconduct in public office’ and ‘historic sex crimes’ based on nothing more than the crazed imaginings of a known fantasist.

    Yet no one at the top of the Yard, or anywhere else, is being brought to book. Which brings me to Tommy Watson, the wicked, politically motivated orchestrator of so much misery over the past few years. At one stage, the Yard seemed to be taking their marching orders directly from him.

    Prior to writing this column, I checked the cuttings library. It was back in November 2012 — seven years ago — that I first dubbed him The Nonce Finder General. On that same page, I wrote about Barack Obama’s second election victory. That’s how long ago it was.

    Watson abused Parliamentary privilege to falsely accuse leading Conservatives of being child molesters, and worse. His wild, unsubstantiated allegations emboldened soppy Speaker’s wife Sally Bercow to identify the blameless Lord McAlpine as one of the guilty men.

    I have maintained all along that, at the very least, Watson should be collared by the highest authority for his role in perpetuating injustice and placed in the public dock. The lies and filth he peddled, along with his tame fantasist paedophile and a Left-wing ‘news agency’ intent on smearing Tories, continue to reverberate.

    His recent, self-pitying pretence, claiming to be a ‘victim’ of all this, is vomit-inducing. From where I’m sitting, Watson — to adapt an outrageous jibe he directed at Leon Brittan — is as close to evil as any politician can get.

    Come to that, half the top brass at Scotland Yard over the past few years should be in the dock alongside him.

    Meanwhile, Jimmy Savile . . . well, you know the rest.”

    1. The late Jimmy Savile once shared an office at The Sunday Times with an investigative journalist.

      1. And would pass Esther Rantzen of ‘Childline’ on the BBC’s Corridors, who was “aware” of rumours, and remained totally inactive on the Savile matter.

    2. Hi Anne, Ithink that the ‘investigation’ was deliberately set up to try and convict some British ‘senior’ white men of abuse. It has filled the pages of newspapers, TV screens and radio waves for years. The MSM jumping into action at the slightest hint from Scotland Yard that another ‘name’ was being investigated. Innuendo followed innuendo continually, round and around the accusations went but any sign of innocence was revealed very, very slowly, if at all.

      To return to my point – during all this time the furore over Muslim rape gangs has been diluted. TPB may have failed to convict anyone of white British heritage – to show “it is not just muslims”, but they have succeeded in removing the growing accusations concerning the Muslim Rape gangs in all of our major cities from the mainstream narrative.

  63. The South African team contains some wonderful names.
    South Africa: Willemse, Gelant, De Allende, Steyn, Nkosi; Elton Jantjies, Reinach; T Du Toit, Shalke Brits, Vincent Koch, Snyman, Mostert, Kolisi (capt), Kwagga Smith, Louw.
    Replacements: Malcom Marx, Kitshoff, Malherbe, Ebtzebeth, P Du Toit, Hershel Jantjies, Pollard, Le Roux.

  64. It is pretty obvious now that Brexit is not going to happen. I suppose we will all settle down quickly to realising that it was a nine day wonder.
    After the Climate Change spectacles have gone, there will really be nothing else to worry about, and we can get along with our everyday lives.
    Exciting while it lasted, I suppose.
    The Queen will be able to relax a bit, too.

  65. DT Story

    Harriet Harman: Electing me as Speaker would show people that women in their 60s are not past it

    That Harriet Harman thinks she should be Speaker because she is a woman and because she is over 60 is an insult to both men and women over 60 who have any self-respect. Decent contenders for the position surely want the job because of their competence rather than out of pity.

    Ms Harman is worthy of contempt more than pity in demanding that she should get the sympathy vote.

    More importantly she is grossly insulting to the position of Speaker which requires a person of integrity, character and impartiality to undo the gross damage that the current incumbent has done to the respect in which the Speaker’s position should be held.

    2. Shouldn’t she put her husband up for the job?
      He’s over sixty and, presumably, female since he stood on an all woman candidate list.

    5. Both sexist and ageist. She shouldn’t be considerede because she’s a menace to society whose equalites bill has done untold harm to the economy and society, setting back common sense for decades.

      That’s why she should be ignored. Her age and gender are irrelevant.

  66. Why have we spent three years in negotiation with Brussels when as it now turns out all the deal decisions are all with Merkel

    1. Were we not told that the UK is an insignificant island and would drift off into the Atlantic Ocean without trace.

    2. They do not understand the meanings of good faith, fair play and integrity. They do not experience it their daily life. It is not reinforced by their culture and it is not in their DNA.

        2. Which is what I implied – they are not British, it is not in their genes, it is not in their DNA.

    3. They are land grabbing imperialist control freaks of the first order. Currently they are trying to hoover up parts of the Balkans that nobody in their right mind would want in a “democratic” club. As for the UK, NI will do for starters and then go for Sturgeon’s Scotland: however, it should now occur to many in Scotland who felt independence was something to embrace and would allow them to rejoin the EU, that the latter is not a good friend or partner of anybody. The Scots should speak to the Swiss.

      1. I’m with Marx* on the subject of clubs. I don’t want to be a member of any club that would let me in.

        * Groucho. I don’t know Karl’s view on clubs. I only got to page 4 of Das Kapital. He probably mentioned clubs a bit later on.

    1. If you want a practical demonstration of what the word ‘hypocrite’ means – this is it.

      1. This ‘religion of peace’ is so unlucky, everywhere they go they are forced to defend themselves, often having to resort to violence.

  71. After the next election certain things need to be done urgently:

    i) End this nonsense of a fixed term Parliament which has created mayhem. This was introduced by Clegg to safeguard The Lib/Dems’ coalition with Cameron after their betrayal of students;

    ii) Rearrange parliamentary constituency borders to make elections fairer to all parties – this would have been done in Cameron’s time had Clegg not reneged on his promise;

    iii) Tighten up the rules on postal voting;

    iv) Make it essential for an MP changing party in mid-term to submit him/herself to a by election.

    2. I agree. I just hope someone from a future government will be reading your words and the nttl.blog.

      1. From what I’ve culled from LBC it would appear that Johnson’s and Merkel’s phone conversation was acrimonious. About time a British politician stood up to the old hag and told her how it’s going to be. Have to hope he stands his ground like so many did in those two wars to save the Germans from themselves – never appear to learn though, do they?

          1. Was she angry or just knocked out of her stride? Perhaps Johnson was less deferential than what she is used to. More strength to his elbow, I say.

    1. “I asked him his name and he said, ‘My name is Mohammed’.””

      Just a coincidence really.

    1. That is sickening and the reality of this mindset. Attacking a woman from behind and stabbing into the rib cage and the neck. At any other time in our history someone who did that would not walk away from that scene alive. But we would not do that in the first place.

      These people are not us, and should never have been allowed to come here and multiply. Yet still our borders stay open and we pick up new arrivals from the channel and bring them here. These are the real world results of our politicians delaying us becoming a free Nation State again with our own laws.

      This will happen outside of all of our houses, to us and our children, whether we are in a small town or sleepy village. This is our future if we keep electing MP’s who won’t let us leave the EU.

      1. We should not have invited a barbaric foreign culture into the UK.

        We have taken a while to evolve and exist fairly peacefully apart from the Fenian terror that still hovers in the background , but inviting people to Britain who live by the sword of Allah is another matter

    3. If this did result in murder then the perpetrator needs to be caught and given the death penalty.

  76. Good morning, all.

    See from “Oor Annie’s” earlier post that Richard Littlejohn, in the Mail, has written a powerful condemnation of the senior police officers involved in “Operation Midland”, the investigation into the alleged VIP paedophile ring. RL also tears Tom Watson, the slimy Labour Deputy Leader, a new one for the part he so disgracefully played in this scandal.

    FM Lord Bramall’s home was illegally searched under a warrant issued based on false sworn testimony given before a court by police officers. Lady Bramall, his elderly and frail wife, died before the Field Marshall’s name was cleared.

    If there is to be any faith in the criminal justice system, the police officers whose falsely sworn application for a search warrant was given before a judge, should be arrested and charged with perjury. All senior officers involved in overseeing “Operation Midland” should be sacked and forfeit their pensions. If they’re already retired, their pensions should be terminated. Bernard Hogan-Hyphen should be stripped of his peerage.

    As for Tom Watson, surely to God there must be some way of holding him to account. Why is he not being called out by the PCSO for abusing parliamentary privilege?

    1. Now that the supreme court has effectively decided that parliamentary privilege no longer applies perhaps those slandered in the HoC could sue him.

  77. Extinction Rebellion is a menace

    Brendan O’Neill – Coffee House – 8 October 2019 – 12:55 PM

    It’s tempting to laugh at Extinction Rebellion. I do it myself frequently. Those yoga sessions on Westminster Bridge. The amateur dramatics of wandering around in naff crimson-red outfits to symbolise ‘the common blood we share with all species’. That lame rave-style dancing they do as some bloke in an overlong beard plays the drums while his parents in the Home Counties wonder when he’s going to come to his senses and join his dad’s law firm.

    It’s all so ridiculous. They fancy themselves as revolutionaries but really this is just Hampstead and Homerton, the posh and the hip, descending on Westminster for a few days to wail about how howwible modern society is. It’s primal therapy for crusties. It’s an emotional release for the modernity-sceptic middle classes. The temptation is to chortle at them, or shout ‘Get a job!’, as I did a couple of times in central London yesterday.

    And yet that isn’t enough. Because there is actually something quite chilling about Extinction Rebellion. Let’s be frank: they’re nuts. These people are crazy. If society were to cave in to their demented demands, humankind would be propelled into the most devastating form of austerity imaginable.

    If they got their way, the poor would stay poor, the Third World would never develop, meat would be banned, flying would be unaffordable to all but the wealthiest people, and you would be shamed for having children. These people want to inflict misery and penury and barrenness on humankind and it’s about time more of us said so.

    Extinction Rebellion protests increasingly resemble cult-like gatherings. I’ve seen these people forming circles and swaying back and forth as they warn of the hellfire that will shortly consume mankind. ‘What will you do when the world gets hot, what, what?’, they chant.

    Like all end-of-world sects they warn of floods and fire and pestilence. ‘Sea levels are rising’, their leaflets pronounce. They also tell us that ‘Africa is on fire’, which of course isn’t true. I can’t be the only person who finds it pretty obnoxious that these mostly white, well-off, time-rich protesters reduce the complex continent of Africa to a mere symbol, to a tragic victim of ‘fire’, and then use it as a warning sign to the rest of us. Gross.

    They demand the reduction of carbon emissions to net zero by 2025. That’s less than six years away. Such an extremist measure would involve the shutting-down of industry and the reining-in of progress on a scale that we have never witnessed since the Industrial Revolution mercifully dragged us off the land 200 years ago and gave us something approaching a decent life.

    Factories would close, jobs would be lost, driving would no longer be an option for many people. It might even be difficult to switch on the lights. As one Extinction Rebellion activist said on Sky News on Sunday:

    ‘I look around me at all this electricity…and yet we are facing a catastrophe.’

    So we should we get rid of electricity? These people want you in a yurt cooking locally-sourced veg over a naked flame with no TV or iPads or travel or fun. Their vision is genuinely backward and depressing.

    They want to ban meat. That was the demand of the Animal Rebellion — FFS — that occupied Smithfield meat market in London yesterday. They want to close down all coal mines, going even further than Thatcher, who only wanted to close down certain coal mines.

    As for China and India and Africa and those other parts of the world that long to achieve the same levels of industrialisation and modernity as we Westerners enjoy — they’re horrified by all of that. Whenever I raise the economic and material aspirations of people in the Third World in debates with Extinction Rebellion activists, they say things like:

    ‘Those people should learn from our mistakes. The world can’t sustain any more fossil-fuel activity.’

    That is, stay as you are, in your condition of poverty, because otherwise your societies will get more polluted. What a nasty, arrogant sentiment.

    Extinction Rebellion is a menace to reason and progress. It is reliant on the politics of fear. It uses exaggeration and hyperbole and emotion to try to convince us that End Times are around the corner. It demonises as a ‘denier’ anyone who questions this depressing, anti-human script. And it campaigns, tirelessly, for less — less production, less consumption, less meat, less travel, less joy.

    As George Monbiot honestly put it in his 2006 book Heat, the most important thing about environmentalism is that it is a campaign ‘not for abundance but for austerity’. Exactly. And Extinction Rebellion confirms this beyond all doubt.

    XR is a movement of privileged, comfortable people who lecture the plebs and foreigners about our allegedly destructive habits and who want to create a more austere and punishing society. Every sensible person will reject such misanthropy and continue supporting the genuinely progressive project of liberating all of mankind from poverty.

    BTL:

    sir_graphus • 2 hours ago • edited
    I liked the photo yesterday of Stephen Fry, Olivia Coleman and someone else proudly holding Extinction Rebellion paraphernalia. That’s Stephen Fry who has advertised Heathrow Airport; Olivia Coleman and the other one who had advertised British Airways business class.

    In their world, it’s the Hoi Polloi like us who will live in unheated houses, not be able to travel without difficulty. They dream of the old days when travel was a glamorous activity that only the rich & fashionable could indulge and the rest of us admired in newspapers.

    2. A bit like St Greta’s crusade, ER look like a shambolic bunch of simple eco-lunes who have taken time out from knitting spaghetti. But there a lot of money and power behind the scenes coordinating the chaos and the world-wide protest. As Polly says, who could it be!

      1. very loon has congregated there and they are protesting about anything and everything. It does show how many workshy we have though as most will be living on benefits. Who else can take time off work for days on end

    4. If they got their way, the poor would stay poor, the Third World would never develop, meat would be banned, flying would be unaffordable to all but the wealthiest people, and you would be shamed for having children.- & as vegans we’d be farting vast quantities of methane & CO2 just like cattle.

    5. …going even further than Thatcher, who only wanted to close down certain coal mines.

      And Heseltine finished them off, following up that with the squandering of our gas reserves.

    6. ‘What will you do when the world gets hot, what, what?’ Be grateful that my heating bills are reduced, of course.

  78. Center Parcs: Investigation after children hurt by raft flip

    Does not sound good for Centre Parcs as there seems to a history of these rafts turning over for no apparent reason

    A Center Parcs ride is the focus of an investigation after a raft flipped over, injuring a man and two children.

    The man and his nephew, 12, and niece, 13, were hurt on the Tropical Cyclone ride at the holiday firm’s site in Longleat, Wiltshire, on 19 August.

    The man was taken to hospital with suspected broken ribs, while both children suffered minor head injuries.

    Center Parcs apologised for the upset caused but said it was “simply an unfortunate accident”.

    There have been 23 reports of rafts overturning on the Tropical Cyclone in the last six months, across the four Center Parcs villages that have the ride – Longleat Forest, Elveden Forest, Sherwood Forest and Woburn Forest – according to Center Parcs figures.

    One of the incidents led to someone needing hospital treatment, a Center Parcs spokesman said.

    1. An inherently unstable craft, with an unevenly and unpredictably distributed load of inexperienced people of various shapes and sizes (and temperaments) let loose on a turbulent and only partly-predictable body of water.

      Not much to go wrong there, is there?

      1. Yes looking at it the whole thing is potentially unstable and is an accident waiting to happen. The shape of the raft is wrong and it comes down in a totally controlled manor. The water it goes in to seem to have waves etc so that’s another uncontrolled variable. Fortunately most of the accident have been minor but potentially they could be serious. 26 incidents with this ride in 6 months tells you there is something wrong with the safety of the ride

        1. ” ……. it comes down in a totally controlled manor.”

          Perhaps the lord of the manor is a control-freak?

    2. Hmmm, ‘Tropical Cyclone’, something in the name makes me think there would be a little violent motion in store.

  80. The BBC’s paranoia about causing offence has reached a new high
    Hardeep Singh – Coffee House – 8 October 2019 – 10:26 AM

    If the Naga Munchetty fiasco wasn’t cause for enough embarrassment for the BBC, an apparent attempt to censor a script referring to a Sikh Guru’s martyrdom for fear it, ‘might offend Muslims’ should certainly be. The Beeb’s in-house ‘thought police’ have driven Lord Singh to quit a radio slot he’s contributed to for thirty-five years. It’s a sorry state of affairs – not just because it highlights a new high in BBC paranoia on giving imagined offence to imaginary people, but because it demonstrates how historical facts (not just opinions) are not immune to censorship. In the end, the broadcast went ahead. It did not criticise Islam and unsurprisingly received no complaints.

    It goes without saying Lord Singh’s – (known to listeners as Indarjit Singh) longstanding contribution to Thought for the Day (TFTD) on Radio 4 has been widely appreciated, in Britain and beyond.

    One of his talks caught the ear of Prince Charles, leading to the establishment of the Lambeth Group to celebrate the Millennium in the Royal Gallery in Parliament. His first ever contribution to TFTD, a humorous reflection on irrational prejudice, is still used as a teaching aid in schools. In 2004, he came second to Bob Geldof in a ‘people’s peer’ poll of Radio 4 Today programme listeners. The softly-spoken crossbench peer will leave behind an incredible broadcasting legacy; in Estonia, he was introduced by the British ambassador as ‘the man who brought Guru Nanak to the breakfast tables of Britain.’But even a man in possession of one of the calmest of temperaments I’ve come across has had his fill of censorious producers when he says even Jesus Christ himself wouldn’t get past the BBC’s ‘thought police’ today.

    The offending script in question was in relation to the martyrdom of Sikhism’s 9th Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur. In 1675, he gave his life defending the freedom of religion of the indigenous Hindu priests in Kashmir, who like Yazidis under Islamic State, were given an ultimatum to convert to Islam or perish by the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb.

    The central message from this dark period in history is clear: the Guru chose to give his life in defence of freedom of religious belief for a faith other than his own. He stood up for the oppressed against the oppressor, despite knowing he’d pay the ultimate price. The essence of Tegh Bahadur’s sacrifice is captured in words penned by Evelyn Beatrice Hall in her summing up Voltaire’s position on free speech, ‘I don’t agree with what you say but I will defend to the death your right to say it.’ The saga represents central tenets of Sikh ethos: tolerance for the belief of others, whilst standing up to tyranny, whatever it takes. So why the need to try and whitewash a seminal moment in the history of the Indian subcontinent, and one which Sikhs and many Hindus commemorate each year?

    Political correctness is partly to blame, but there are other things at play here. Over the last few years, we have seen the growing influence of various well-funded lobby groups and activists, aiming to place boundaries on free speech, or what journalists can and can’t say in relation to Islam.

    Will Heaven has written about the latter in the Spectator highlighting dangers to the free press, and it’s frightening. I’m guessing those who’ve backed a controversial APPG definition of ‘Islamophobia’ are likely to be sympathetic to the BBC’s attempt to censor Sikh history, because it fits their criteria for so-called ‘Islamophobia’. According to the APPG report, ‘claims of Muslims spreading Islam by the sword or subjugating minority groups under their rule may be ‘Islamophobic’. Worse still the expansive term is absurdly equated to ‘racism’.

    What this all leads to is a situation where it is only possible to discuss positive aspects of Mughal, Ottoman or Moorish rule, and be selective when discussing historical facts – or face consequences, perhaps arrest, if this ever becomes a legally-binding definition. Let that be your thought for the day, especially given all main political parties, (bar the Conservatives) and many ill-advised councils up and down the country have formally adopted the definition.

    Although it’s regrettable Lord Singh has left TFTD, his decision speaks volumes of his character. On his departure, he wrote, ‘I am leaving Thought for the Day with great reluctance. But I can no longer accept prejudiced and intolerant attempts by the BBC to silence Sikh teachings on tolerance, freedom of belief and on the duty we all must share to build a more cohesive and responsible society.’

    No doubt lesser individuals would have compromised their values and made free speech an afterthought in order to maintain the BBC’s illiberal status quo. But not Lord Singh.

    1. “even Jesus Christ himself wouldn’t get past the BBC’s ‘thought police’ today” . And Jesus wept…..

      1. Of course he would not. First, he would be vilified for being Jewish, then for his views on good and evil – far too judgmental, implying absolute moral values, a BBC no-no.

        As an aside, many years ago, we all laughed when the Python crew sued ABC TV in the US for “censoring” their programs. A classic was removal of a shot of a man in a wheelchair to avoid “offending disabled people”. ABC wanted to cut 22 minutes out of one program “to meet their standards”.

        Now, the BBC seems to be on a similar path. But it’s not about upsetting the advertisers, it’s about upsetting the luvvies who delight in taking offence on everyone else’s behalf.

    2. As I posted the other day, Lord Singh and his chums had a theatre closed in 2004 because the play was unsympathetic to Sikhism.

      Perhaps he now regrets that…

    3. Perhaps Lord Singh should reconsider his decision to leave TFTD and just take a couple of weeks Sikh leave to recuperate.

    4. …the Guru chose to give his life in defence of freedom of religious belief for a faith other than his own…

      And therein lies the contradicition: should Islam be defended?

          1. Just like that Scottish nurse who went through Ebola twice wasn’t an indigenous Brit.

  81. Extinction Rebellion: Police order activists to move or face arrest

    A bit late why did they let them set up these blockades in the first place. If need be call in troops top assist the police in arresting them

    Extinction Rebellion activists intending to continue protesting in central London “must” go to Trafalgar Square or risk arrest, police have warned.
    Police enforced a Section 14 notice to stop “serious disruption” to communities, after officers removed those camped out in Westminster.
    Police have made 471 arrests over the two days of protests.

    3. The crying protester says he has two children aged 10 months and 4 years. However, the photo seems to show that the age gap between the two is less than that. I’d say the baby is no more than 6 months, while the elder child seems to be no more than 2 years. Perhaps it’s my suspicious mind, added to the fact that he is able to produce a photo very quickly.

      1. I’m pleased my dad was a faceworker and not a blubbering spineless waste of space.

      2. They are probably vegans and thus the children will be malnourished and underdeveloped for their chronological ages.

  83. Weren’t Mosley’s Blackshirts driven off the streets of London by mob violence in the 1930s? Lefties in particular have long lauded such actions and many of us I reckon are proud of the fact that fascism and anti-semitism were – unlike in much of Europe – stopped in their tracks here.

    Gosh, I reckon there are some ringleaders amongst the climate fascists who I’d like to see get the same treatment. These people are evil and are – without any regard for the suffering caused – affecting the livelihoods and lives of many in London.

    2. Roderick Spode, the leader of the Black Shorts who made his money out of his ladies’ underwear business, Les Soeurs Eulalie, and was later elevated to the House of Lords as Lord Sidcup is sorely needed in these dire times.

    2. You are obviously too young to remember ” school dinners ” during and just after the second world war.

    3. Hahahahahahahahahahaha (deep breath)
      Hahahahahahahahahahahah!

      Oh my sides don’t 1/2 hurt!

      1. The “not as young as he looks” socialist dreamer is on form once again.

        “Let us create a taxpayer-funded system that undermines private sector business’s that already sell food across the country. We will lose tax revenue as they go out of business, and increase the unemployment figures in deprived areas, but we can feel good about ourselves for righting social wrongs.”

        Oh, we seem to have run out of money.

  85. Well given at the moment any talks with the EU will be a waste of time will the EU meeting of the 17th/18th go ahead ?The next impotent milestone is the 14th of October. This is a critical date as the Commons has to vote on it

    I suspect Boris will include in the Speech that he intends in the next parliamentary session to take the UK out of the EU on the 31st of October with or without a deal

    WE are in uncharted waters now but if Boris puts that in the Queens Speech it forces the hands of the opposition. They have 3 options. Vote for the Queens Speech. Abstain or vote against it
    It seems highly unlikely the opposition will choose the first two options so that leaves the third option. Given the current make up of th commons even with Opposition rebels it seems highly unlikely the Government would win the vote so that means a General Election

    We are in uncertain times though so who knows. The odds though are in favour of a General Election

  86. Raining heavy here, I wouldn’t want to be sitting in a tent up London, they will be praying for climate change

  87. Trudeau has been moonlighting as Canada’s rugby coach
    “If our opponents slaughter us we win”
    It’s working well………………
    47 0 half time
    I wonder if SA can hit the ton

  88. I posted this late last night so some of you may not have seen it.

    Boris has won victory in the Scottish court, but the case should never have been brought in the first place

    BOBBY FRIEDMAN

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/10/07/boris-has-won-victory-scottish-court-case-should-never-have/
    _______________________________

    It’s Premium so I can’t read it but this BTL amused me:

    Mike Davies 7 Oct 2019 9:48PM

    Regarding the Benn “Surrender” Act, I think this may hang on the UK Supreme Court decision in October 2018 concerning the bakery that refused to write “Support Gay Marriage” on a cake.

    The ruling was that freedom of expression, as guaranteed by article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, includes the right “not to express an opinion which one does not hold”.

    The judge, Lady Hale, said, “This court has held that nobody should be forced to have or express a political opinion in which he does not believe.”

    That’s the same Lady Hale who was President of the Supreme Court in the ruling on prorogation.

    Nobody can force the PM to write or sign that letter.
    _______________________________

    1. The judge, Lady Hale, said, “This court has held that nobody should
      be forced to have or express a political opinion in which he does not
      believe.”
      Now about that doctor that got sacked for refusing to call a bearded freak “madam”
      Square THAT circle
      Or is that “different”

    1. You can see why the “forces of darkness” have spent so many years undermining our political parties and legal systems. They are trying to bring us down from within because they cannot do it from outside when men like this are in power.

    3. Excellent. Take care and follow the instructions you have been given…. don’t rush things.

    6. Now – tricky, I know, but just do as the DT tells you. Without question. (I speak from experience…)

    1. Ada “If you can’t see God how do you know he exiists” ?

      Bert “He doesn’t, if he did religion would never have been invented”

    2. Ada “If you can’t see God how do you know he exiists” ?

      Bert “Can’t stop the other three wives are calling.”

  94. With all these anti-German tropes I wonder whether the remainers have considered what might happen if we signed the surrender agreement and political declaration.

    Imagine if a new Brexit dominated Government then gets elected and claims that no earlier Govt can bind a successor and they then try to leave.

    Would the EU and its combined defence-force be prepared to declare war to enforce their one-sided Versailliac Treaty against Britain?

    Listening to Verhofstadt and Barnier, not to mention the new appointees, I wouldn’t be surprised if they threatened it

  95. Domino’s is losing the pizza wars

    Another Pizza outfit that is struggling

    t wasn’t that long ago that Domino’s was the darling of the pizza industry. Its stock was soaring thanks to solid sales, the company’s embrace of technology and a risky but successful mea culpa ad campaign that apologized for how bad its food used to be.

      1. Make your own Pizzas You can buy the bases in most supermarkets and put your own toppings on them. Cost about £2 at most

    2. Hopeful that we’ll get back to the position before these bloody awful American imports (I know we’re supposed to consider them ‘Italian’, but my first experience of them was of kids holding a triangular piece of yellow and red stuff that they called ‘pizza pie’ to their faces in my Superman comics) blighted our diets and our high streets.

      Repeat after me. “Pizza is not food, going out for a pizza does not count as ‘eating out’ “.

  96. Great stuff – a French parliamentary (I know, I know – but who are we to mock) committee is having a real go – live – at the Interior Minister about Knife-geek.

    “An unprecedented dysfunction at the heart of the security system” – one of the milder comments….

    Can’t wait for Priti Awful to identify dozens of equivalents at Scotland Yard, GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 and, natch, the Home Office.

  97. Joy unbound! I’ve got my Google bookmarks back after several months of not being able to access them.

    1. Bugger me – my € sign has just reappeared using Ctrl + Alt + 4

      We must have suffered from – and now been cured by – the same update!

      1. I had an update during last night. I always put the laptop on ‘sleep’ before I go to bed.

        1. My new laptop was set up by husband a week ago,
          I still haven’t actually used it yet. Meant to last Sunday
          but didn’t. I’ll get to it eventually. But it’s not the type of
          thing you dip in and out of like a tablet, there needs to
          be a reason to use it .

          2. Gosh. My PC is switched on when I get up and turned off when I log off NoTTL around 7 pm…

          4. That’ll mean it’s always out on a table which is isn’t
            practice and I’ll use it for a precise reason,
            The tablet which is the size of a paperback is for dipping
            in and out of. Although the husband has remarked that
            I’ve not even touched it yet, I shall this coming Sunday .

          6. Yes but it’s a laptop and expensive .
            The tablet is small, handy and not so expensive.

          7. I’ve only once used a (borrowed) tablet and I didn’t like it. Too much like trying to do stuff on my phone – tiny keyboard, etc. I use my laptop all the time, it has all my files and folders from years of family history research, thousands of photos and all my hedgehog hospital stuff, plus much more, all there and at my fingertips.
            It’s getting old now and a bit slow, so will have to be replaced at some stage. My good fortune is that my son in Basel has everything networked and backed up overnight so if I lose something unexpectedly, it’s all still there.

          9. That’s OH’s job – though as he has his arm in a sling I will probably have to do it this week.

          10. Mine, too – I am extremely good at it. Yer military training had a lot to commend it…

          16. Aha, yet another woman who thinks it’s essential that a man leaves it down but doesn’t bother to lift it for his convenience (ho ho)

          1. I know she explores the table top during the night, although she knows she’s not allowed on the table. So I always hinge the screen over so she can’t walk across the keys.

  98. Lord Provost of Glasgow claimed 23 pairs of shoes on expenses

    Taking he micky in my view

    The figures, obtained under a Freedom of Information request, cover claims between May 2017 and August this year.

    The paper reports Ms Bolander spent £1,150 on shoes, including a single order for two pairs from Watford-based Sole Bliss which cost £308.

    The Lord Provost’s expenses also included £389 for Harris Tweed fabric, around £992 for 14 dresses and £435 for seven blazers.

    Ms Bolander – who earns £39,310 – got her nails done 20 times and claimed for 10 hair appointments totalling £751.

    The most expensive items were a pair of £358 spectacles and £200 hat from milliner William Chambers.

      1. I wonder if all the employed at the council can claim expenses for clothe after all they are representing the council and must be seen to be smartly dressed

        It seems expenses abuse is not confined to Westminster

  99. Just got home and found a periodical newsletter through the door. From Conservative Councillors.
    Main header – ” AN END IS IN SIGHT ”
    ” Whoopee” , I thougnt – a No Deal Brexit. I read on –
    ” After nearly a year and a half, finally, we are told,..
    the road works at St John’s roundabout are coming to conclusion by the ender of December “.
    Sigh of disappointment…….

  100. Dry ice ‘could stop leaves on line rail delays’

    Dont quite understand their theory as the pellets will be on the surface of the leaves so I dont quite understand how them turning back to gas will work I guess though it might just be enough force to break up the now bittle leaves

    Engineers at the University of Sheffield have developed dry ice for removing leaves and will test this system on five routes this autumn
    .
    These include: Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, and Sutton Park, West Midlands, for freight; and Blackpool, West Highlands and Swansea passenger services.

    The University of Sheffield’s cryogenic method, developed with Icetech Technologies, uses dry ice pellets.

    They are blasted onto the tracks with air which causes the leaves to freeze and become brittle.
    The pellets then turn back into gas and increase in size, blasting the leaves off the line, the university said.

    Professor Roger Lewis said the method means “more predictable braking and traction than current technology” and does not damage the wheels or rails, as trains are not required to carry heavy water tanks.

          7. Clarity. Being CO2 had a different emphasis to being ‘made with CO2’, which could suggest that it is only one of several ingredients, or alternatively that CO2 is used in its manufacture, but not necessarily a component of the product.

          9. Commercial CO2 is extracted from the atmosphere, so any net gain in CO2 is from the energy processes needed to make it.

          10. Nothing to do with net gains or additional CO2. Dry ice is simply the solid form of carbon dioxide.

      2. The test rig seems to be quite light. Will it work as well with normal trains or will the renments of the leaves be crushed to a slippery mess on the rails
        Maybe it need to have compressed air blown to the line shortly afterwards to blast th remains of the leaves off of the track

    3. “…trains are not required to carry heavy water tanks…”
      Actually electric trains powered by on board nuclear reactors do have to carry heavy water. They also have to carry graphite rods to dampen down the reactor if the heavy water evaporates.

  102. That’s me for today. A mixed success. The English couple who really want to buy the house came again to look over.

    BUT – having told the agents that they were cash buyers – they have TWO houses to sell. They married two years ago – and failed to take tax advice. The wife owns a house where they now live; the husband moved out of his house to live with her. Thus (under yer French tax thingy) his only house is a “second home” – so if he sells it he is clobbered for CGT.

    We explained that she must sell her house pronto (BUT it was flooded last October); and then live in HIS place for a year – so that HIS house is then his only house – and then buy ours.

    We are looking at a year at least…….

    At least he was open enough to say that their marriage had been, “A financial disaster…”

    The only thing that seems true is that they really DO want our place.

    Watch this space (or turn off and watch Kay Burley…)

    A demain – briefly. Cancer Support France coffee morning tomorrow. A great cause that (yet again) I commend to any Brit NoTTLer living in yer France – and, yes, you know who you are.

        1. I would have thought would have helped , All those remainers wanting to flee to the EU

    1. That road looks like it needs a new layer of tarmac.

      Send in the pavers. No need to precede them with planers. The slobs would get the massage when they smelt the hot tar on the wind. They might leave a coat of skin or two, but what the hell.

          1. Sadly, our far fewer farmers are too busy farming – unlike yer French agriculteurs with a dozen acres and a cow (and huge subsidies).

    2. Take all of the cameras away and leave them with only one real person looking at them all, slowly eating a ham sandwich. After a few minutes just say “You are so boring.”

      (That crushes their fragile little ego’s faster than any other words.)

      Then walk away after turning on the CD player and blasting them with German marching songs from World War 2. Then see how long it takes them to free themselves.

    3. Well nah nah nah nah nah nah to your planet saving types!

      We just flew over at the front of the bus AND we had beef for dinner.

    1. I think I read somewhere that in the event of such a storm the match is cancelled and two points would be awarded to each side.
      I would be delighted if such a ruling saw Scotland go out.

  106. After today’s murky merkels masignations surely johnson must upgrade
    the threat to walk and break into a trot rapidly leading to a full on
    Emil Zatopek, NOW.

    1. But zee law won’t let him………..even a U.D.I. wouldn’t keep him out of jail…….

      1. T,
        Then let him be jailed, a touch of Tommy Robinson’s.
        One blokes freedom against a nations freedom,
        no contest.

  107. BREXIT

    Well after today the EU pretty much let the cat out of the bag. The price of a deal is to give up NI

    I think now a deal is unless there is a considerable change by the EU is off of the table so we are heading for a General Election

    All the polls have consistently given the Conservatives a small lead but not one that would give
    them a working majority and I dont see any indication that will change so there is a considerable risk for the Conservatives

    The only sensible option is a deal with the Brexit party. It is a win win situation

    1. I think the public at large are so fed up with the Brexit shennanigans (if I can use an Irish word) that what you suggest would make no difference.
      It will be many,many, years before we see any stability in Parliament.

        1. Article 50 hasn’t been extended yet as far as I am aware. How can we get an election before 31 October. An election will not solve anything. A delay will not solve anything. A clean Break on 31 October will. No deal is better than a bad deal and much better than no Brexit.

          1. The election will not be before then but the decision will be made on the 14th as that is when the Queens Speech is. The Queens Speech will include a clause saying the Government will take us out of the EU on the 31st October with or without a deal . The opposition will have to decide whether to accept or reject a Queens speech. Rejecting is the trigger for a general election

          2. Why should the fact that we are leaving on 31 October be in the Queens Speech as it is the law. I don’t think he needs to put that in. No need to look for trouble.

          3. It is very sensible as a vote has to be taken on the Queens Speech. If the opposition vote for it they have accepted that we will leave on the 31st October. It means the Benn act is overruled

          4. There appears to be confusion over the Law and the date of leaving. I have read that the 31st of October is written into both the law of the UK and the EU treaty, with the EU law being supreme. Therefore the UK Parliament cannot change that date, for if the EU says we are out, we are out.
            However, over the last day or so it has been posited that the Benn Act is supreme and leaving without a deal is illegal. What happens if the EU states that the UK is no longer a member of the EU from 31st? It’s a shambles that will probably require lawyers to sort out.
            Perhaps having the leaving date in the Queen’s speech will bring things to a head.

          5. I think the key to this is the statement by Boris that he would rather be ‘dead in a ditch’ than request an extension to Article 50.

            I read somewhere that Brenda Hale herself ruled that nobody should be forced to act on or express an opinion in which they did not believe. This surely applies to the cooked-up Benn Surrender Act which basically insists that Boris should request an extension against his own better judgement.

            There is something circular in the unwanted political judgements of inexperienced Courts such as the Supreme Court. Most of its members know nothing of constitutional Law and should never have ignored the judgement of their more learned colleagues in the supposed ‘Lower Court’. The Supreme Court appears to be inhabited by tired old lawyers of no particular distinction, a bunch of failed academics and political appointees and not of the real world.

      2. Not so sure. I imagine quite a number of Northern labour MPs will come a cropper, hypocrites such as Cooper Balls representing the Leave constituency of Pontefract and others in the northern Leave-voting heartlands.

        Then hypocritical Party flippers such as Soubry, Wollaston and Heidi Allen will be sent packing. To this you might add deselected Tories such as Grieve and Gauke plus a number of other pro Remain liars and dissemblers. Another plus, the ghastly old cretin Ken Clarke is retiring.

  108. Another last minute change

    Boris and Varadkar to hold critical Brexit summit in last ditch attempt to secure EU deal

    Whether anything comes from it who knows. My view is the odds are well against it

    2. Johnson should both metaphorically and literally not touch Varadkar with a barge-pole. The creep has finally been exposed to all and sundry as the EU’s sock-puppet in their battle to entrap the UK in a never ending Backstop over which Varadkar was promised a veto to stop the UK ever being free again, or as second best, start the break up the Union. He is a treacherous snake and must be treated a such. If Johnson makes any concession then he is done. Cummings’ results from his ploy to expose the reality behind the Backstop must not be wasted by Johnson.

      2. I dont think anything will come of it but he needs to be seen to be doing everything he can to strike a deal

  110. Latest News just Breaking, the Germans got up very early this morning and laid out their towels over Northern Ireland

  113. As to be expected considering the news, Farage was in top form tonight on LBC. There remains still a few who can only see the EU as the good guys in this continuing shambles; not sure what they read or whether they can understand the words in what they do read.
    Why would any true British person want to remain under the EU’s control after everything that has been exposed this past three years and especially this week? It’s gone well past the economic argument and has been exposed as purely political but still some will not see past the economics. Attempting to annex part of our land is as close to a declaration of war as you can get without the fighting starting. Merkel has to be told that the UK is definitely not Austria nor Czechoslovakia, as history has shown in the last 105 years.

    1. Just been talked at by mother in law. Heavens above, EU kept peace for fifty years, Boris has done nothing. Really got her going when I asked about Canadian troops in Eastern Europe.

    2. Remember, it’s the Remainers that have been keeping us in. You can’t blame the Europeans for being arrogant after it became apparent that our intent to leave was so much hot air.
      Theresa May is still laughing.

      2. It is almost impossible to negotiate when the opposition are signalling they will accept anything

      3. I can blame the EU for their joint enterprise with the Remainers and for being arrogant while their lapdogs do their bidding in our Parliament. Also, ‘our intent to leave’ is in no way inclusive and should be corrected to, our politicians’ intent…

    2. I just get a “page not found” when I try to follow that link. It is possible that it has been rapidly taken down. What was the gist of it, if you can remember?

        1. Thank you for that link. I can see why some people tried to stop it from being seen. 🙂

          If anybody knows – Who is the man in the middle? Is that the new UKIP leader or is it somebody else?

          2. He looks very young. I must be getting older when politicians and police look like schoolboys. 🙂

            I have just checked and he is a year older then me. Ha(!) He must have led a clean-living life with early nights and lots of prayer. 🙂

        1. Twatter wouldn’t like that. Too close to the truth, which is why the page has disappeared.

  115. I finally got around to watching BBC4’s ‘Spitfire’.

    Here are a couple of quotes from two of the pilots:

    “I don’t know why human nature is such that we have to fight each other and destroy each other.”

    “It never goes away, this threat of warfare…in all conscience the world needs a change from all this hostility…”

    The first answers his own question even as he asks it. The second confirms the first.

    To anyone who has yet to see it: it might take you longer than the 90 minutes running time.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0008rmy/spitfire

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/069d440aa0aa1257f9dbdff707019b6afed0a35cf677ce8cffe426bfda374cc4.png

    1. Received a purchase of warm hoody sweaters today, got to keep my smoothish pate from radiating my body heat.

          1. Someone else cuts your hair? There’s posh. I give myself a no.1 buzz cut every few weeks. I love that ultra-short hair feel to the scalp. 🙂

          2. Second Tuesday of the month the Barber of Gunnislake comes to my local at 5pm. Every Monday he runs open mic. I’ve got a couple of clipper things but it’s nice when someone else does it for you while you’re having a pint. Yup, just rubbed my scalp, I’ve had the short cut for the last forty odd years.

  117. So (© C Newman) we have now prorogued Parliament for the second time since September 5th.

    I have to ask the question, “By declaring the last proroguing unlawful and returning Parliament before the Queen’s Speech on 14th October, how much RELEVANT business did the House of Commons achieve?”

    In my book it appears to be 7/8ths of 3/16ths of fück all. Am I wrong?

    2. It achieved nothing useful, but it did put in place the idea that the Supreme Court now puts its own authority above that of the Government and the Queen.

      They are now the ultimate authority in the land, which must be nice. Unless their masters in the European Union override them of course.

    1. Many beautiful buildings were destroyed in Dresden. Berlaymont has no architectural merit whatsoever, unless brutalism happens to be your cup of tea – or poison?

      1. Coventry and Dresden are twinned cities

        Both have a dislike of aircraft released Ordanance

    3. Somewhat bad taste.
      I blame the EU negotiators even more than Merkel; she might be pulling strings but Barnier and co have done their best to humiliate the UK.Hopefully the rest of the EU will say to Hell with this, and refuse to extend.

      1. What is the point of extending? At some point a General Election will happen and the Leavers will romp home – assuming Boris comes to an accommodation with Nige.

        1. Zero point, but I wish I had your confidence.

          I’ve been reading an arch-remainer stating that it’s going swimmingly and the chances Brexit will be overturned are increasing by the day.

          1. Didn’t Hitler look across the Channel and expect to be setting up his holiday home in Blackpool?

  119. I was surprised there was no reaction from the Smithfield workers,if this is true it is an utter disgrace

    “The Smithfield meat porters got told yesterday by the police that they
    MUST allow the eco loons to erect tents and market stalls at the
    entrance and if they hindered them in any way or tried to disrupt them
    THEY would be arrested for breach of the peace.
    And people think the police are on the side of ordinary people.”

    2. The police may be exceeding their powers there. Smithfield Market itself is private land so they are trespassing. Trespass in itself is a civil offence
      The simplest way to deal with it is to got to court and get an order requiring them to leave. This could take several days though. Once they have the court order if they don leave the baliffs can be sent in to remove them

      If the protesters are on public land and obstructing the entrance that is potentially a criminal offence and the police should order them to move

    4. The Porters work hard for a living and pay Tax. They are the little people. Protests must be allowed. Even at the disruption of people carrying out their lawful activity. When the balance swings too far…I’m with the white guys with the big knives. The Met turns a blind eye to mass stabbings and mass rape and terrorist atrocity and attempts to highlight far right extremists…..What the brainwashed idiots don’t realise is they will create what they most fear.

      1. Very good. I hadn’t thought of that.
        I watched a wildlife programme some time ago about an orca hunting and killing a large white shark. It was thought the orca was a female with a calf and as well as protecting her calf she was after the shark’s liver as that was all the orca took. The shark never had a chance as the orca stalked it, went deep and then rapidly came up under the shark and took it out.

  124. Triumph Furniture of Merthyr Tydfil folds with 252 job losses

    It supplied Office Furniture , It had previously run into trouble in 2011 and was bought out by the management. Sounds to me as if it was to dependent on one customer and that customer has gone to another supplier

    A furniture company has gone bust with 252 job losses after reporting “a catastrophic collapse in orders”.

    Triumph Furniture of Merthyr Tydfil, which has bases in the town and Dowlais, supplied more than 600 furniture sellers, as well as being a major supplier of central government.

    The firm went into administration on Tuesday, after an “unprecedented fall in sales” over the last 10 weeks.

    Administrators said 239 jobs will go immediately.

    The remaining 13 will be kept on in the short-term to help administrators.

  126. Who spends £200,000 every working day in the UK to get what he wants from politicos ?

    1. Oh dear. So many specialist Deliveroo orders.. Can’t imagine how the Met will cope. They will probably just send them all to Smolenskys on the Strand to sort it out. Then arrange accommodation at the nearest 5 star hotel. It is after all how these ****** spend our money.

    2. Don’t suppose there will be many arrests overnight, unless of course the suspects turn themselves in. The Met Police shun the streets of London after dark, when the powers of evil are exalted.

      Remember the Met’s motto:

      “Nox enim obscura est et plena terrorum”

  129. Occupation of Smithfield

    They need to apply for an Interim possession order under section 3 of the civil procedures rules part 55. an accelerated process to gain a possession order. once the court has issued such an order and it has been served they have 24 hours to leave or return they commit a criminal offence under section 76 of the criminal justice and public order act 1994

    1. What fun.

      Peoples lifes work at stake and they have to apply to the courts for assistance. When they can be bothered to sit.

  132. When it comes to police failures, ‘sorry’ just doesn’t cut it any more

    ALLISON PEARSON

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/228b4d97840b49196e15c8f93a5ad5e0ade55cdb43521b63f5ac03945e3175c5.jpg
    “Hands up, copper!”
    “Ooh er! You’ve got me bang to rights!”

    You know when you’ve reached a point where things are so mental that you think nothing can shock you anymore? Then along comes a report from the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) on Scotland Yard’s investigation into an imaginary Westminster paedophile ring.

    The report not only clears five detectives of misconduct, it concludes brightly that the utter shambles, the monstrous trashing of reputations, the shameful lack of basic policing, the millions wasted, the preference for lies over truth, the trusting the word of a fantasist over that of one of our most distinguished soldiers, can be seen as “an opportunity for organisational learning”.

    Lunatics taking over the asylum we can just about live with, but self-satisfied, management-speak morons in the highest echelons of the police monitored by a toothless watchdog? That is truly frightening for each and every one of us.

    If an Army officer had tried to tell Field Marshal Lord Bramall, accused by Carl Beech of torturing children, that some catastrophic battlefield cock-up was an “opportunity for learning”, he’d have been court-martialled.

    Compare the response of Dame Cressida Dick to the police watchdog’s “whitewash” of the disastrous Operation Midland. “I recognise our mistakes will have a lasting effect on those who endured intrusive inquiries,” the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police admitted. “This is a matter of great regret for me.”

    Alas, Dame Cressida is not so sorry that she understands why the fools who oversaw one of those most inept police operations in history need to be made an example of to restore confidence in her tarnished force. As is all-too common when public services look into their own failings, that well-known culprit “Nobody” is discovered to be at fault.

    Mistakes having been made” – the absolving ablative absolute is applied as a soothing balm to national disquiet – followed by our old friend “lessons will be learned”.

    While the IOPC does indeed acknowledge that “mistakes” were made when the Met followed their own policy and “believed” the “victim”, Carl Beech, when he said that Lord Bramall, former home secretary Leon Brittan and ex-MP Harvey Proctor, among other VIPs, had raped and murdered children, those errors had nothing to do with actual police officers working on the case. Dearie me, no. It was “gaps in processes and systems”.

    See what they did there? Detectives are no longer to be held accountable for appalling lapses in judgment, like the one that led to a 91-year-old D-Day hero Dwin Bramall being terrorised in his own home. It’s the system that failed them, apparently.

    After BBC News’s lengthy apologia this week for perpetrators of knife crime, I’m surprised that Dame Cressida didn’t deploy the fashionable excuse and claim that her poor coppers suffered from inadequate parenting and a lack of youth clubs.

    When former High Court judge Sir Richard Henriques accused the IOPC of a “lamentable and inadequate” inquiry, as well as pinpointing 43 separate mistakes made during Operation Midland, you would have thought it was a safe bet that, in its report, the watchdog would severely censure all concerned. Sir Richard had been aghast when the IOPC’s lead investigator belatedly got in touch with him and admitted she had no legal training and didn’t even understand how police applied for a search warrant. (Sir Richard’s concern that search warrants had been applied for illegally was central to his case against Midland.)

    Five officers were supposed to be under investigation by the IOPC, but four were never even questioned. The one who was got promotion and retired before she was officially cleared. At least if they ever make Carry On Police Watchdog, no one will have to invent any jokes.

    Behind this grotesque farce lies a serious flaw in the criminal justice system. A curious nine-year-old would have rumbled Carl Beech faster than five adult detectives. Why? Because the child would realise that a story which seemed so far-fetched was probably made up.

    According to the IOPC, officers were “under immense pressure to do the right thing”. They would not have gone to the lengths they did, “had it not been with the intention of maintaining public confidence, particularly in view of the damaging impact of the Jimmy Savile and other high-profile cases”.

    To put it less flatteringly, after Savile got away with mass sexual abuse, police were eager to believe self-styled “victims” like Beech because, in that way, they could restore their own battered reputation. Even if it meant failing to properly investigate pleas of innocence from distinguished old men. Even if it meant not bothering to look at Beech’s computer where they would, rather inconveniently, have found child pornography.

    Dame Cressida said something which was more revealing than she knew. She’d been listening to the radio in December 2014 when she heard Det Supt Kenny McDonald say: “We believe what ‘Nick’ (Beech) is saying is credible and true.” It was “a mistake”, she recalled thinking.

    Notice that the Met Commissioner didn’t say it was “wrong” for an officer to state, quite disgracefully, that Operation Midland had effectively abandoned a cornerstone of our legal system, which is that a suspect is innocent until proven guilty. It was just a mistake to reveal their new “we believe the victim, so we won’t try too hard to prove the guilty are innocent” policy in public.

    Priti Patel simply cannot allow this appalling whitewash to go unchallenged. I met her at the Conservative Party Conference last week and was struck by how, for once, a Home Secretary’s attitude to crime and punishment actually coincides with that of the voters. (It’s so refreshing, they’re bound to make it illegal.)

    I know that Priti wants to give the police everything they need to do their job of protecting the public. But the public won’t feel safe if officers aren’t disciplined for a shockingly bad investigation which hounded the innocent and cushioned the guilty.

    A good start would be to replace the feeble IOPC with a watchdog that knows what it’s doing; Sir Richard Henriques would be an excellent person to set that up. The complacent mantra of “believe the victim” needs to be replaced by “treat the accuser with respect”. And Operation Midland should not be regarded as an “opportunity for organisational learning”, but as a shameful low point in British policing whose mistakes must never be repeated.

    As for Dame Cressida, the Home Secretary might usefully inquire how she came to be running a Metropolitan Police that, during Operation Midland, owed more to Benny Hill than Robert Peel.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/life/comes-police-failures-sorry-just-doesnt-cut-anymore/

    2. The IOPC can join the Supreme Court and the Electoral Commission in standing against the wall when the lunatics are finally rounded up and put back into the Asylum.

    3. Just look at her. The wrist can’t hold a watch. The shoulders can’t hold a board. if she had a medal it would make her head droop.

      1. Unfotunately and probably quite undeserved, she has a bunch of gongs.

        I doubt she’s done anything brave.

        1. She looks like a dried up husk that has never accomplished anything. She probably makes a less than Stellar Lesbian.

    5. Poor Priti Patel, I hope she hasn’t taken on more than she can do. All the vested interests will be against her.

      1. Did you see the Eco Hero Swampy reappear today? Lives in a Teepee village in Wales apparently. His entire life claiming benefits and he riles against the machine that generates the fuffing money to keep him in lentil stew.

    8. And this is the woman who gave the order to shoot an innocent Brazilian electrician going to work on a train.

  134. ” Euromillions £170m jackpot won by UK ticket holder ”
    It’s too much. I don’t need all that money.
    I’m giving a substantial amount to the Cats’ Protection League.
    I’m making an offer to buy that terrific Delacroix painting in the National Gallery – you know –
    ” The Execution of Lady Jane May “.
    I’m financing a production at the ROH of Moussorgsky’s opera Boris Notgudenov.
    I’m giving some money to Liverpool Town Hall to pay for getting the beetles out of the woodwork.
    That still leaves a lot. Any suggestions ?

    1. I really shouldn’t say this but it was me. Again :o(…Sorry. Seem to be on a roll at the mo..hey. What can ya do?

      Suggestions? Well my gutters need cleaning out for winter. My drains need looking at and i also need to employ a mercenary force to destroy everyone that works at the BBC…except Sue.

      1. 1, Gutter long little doggie.
        2. The drains in Spain fall mainly in the plain.
        3. Excellent idea. How much do you need >?

    2. Better than the Delacroix, provide museums with sufficient storage space for all the excavaton archives and finds being accumulated as a result of modern development with nowhere to go.

  135. ” The European Union is poised to extend Brexit talks into as late as next summer after the
    European council and commission presidents dismissed Boris Johnson’s
    strategy as a “blame game”.
    (Latest from the Guardian)
    Is this what Donald calls FAKE NEWS ?

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