571 thoughts on “Wednesday 20 November: Politicians should be honest about who foots the bill for ‘free’ services”

  1. When wokeness goes wrong. Spiked. Brendan O’Neill 20 November 2019.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/005401d8d2cf15e458681cd5ba7961fd56a650627cc78d2f978e232ac6e3e101.jpg

    No, Plaid was saying something about itself. Look how virtuous we are. Look how inclusive we are. We aren’t Islamophobic like you people. That was the message here.

    But it backfired. Badly. Plaid warned social-media users not to subject its niqab-wearing member to racist abuse. It turned out she’s the one who has been throwing around racist insults. The woman behind the misogynistic veil is Plaid member Sahar Al-Faifi and she has previously said anti-Semitic things online. Yes, another supposedly ‘progressive’ party swept up in a Jew-hatred storm. In 2017 Ms Al-Faifi suggested that the London Bridge terror attack was carried out by ‘pro-Zionists’ – essentially an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory. She has expressed her hope that Israel ‘would disappear’. She has also cheered Hamas.

    Morning everyone. Well it did say something about itself. It said. Look how stupid we are. Mind you I’ll bet they get votes!

    https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/11/19/when-wokeness-goes-wrong/

      1. Its a political statement to say that slammers are here to stay and they will do as they please.

    4. With a record like that it can only be a matter of time before Steptoe invites her to the House of Clowns…

      ‘Morning, Minty. Don’t you just lurve it when a silly political diversity stunt goes horribly wrong?

  5. I was thinking that if they made a new series of Blackadder that they could base it on Epstein and Andrew.

  6. Good Morning, all

    Freddie with all guns blazing….

    SIR – Air Commodore Michael Allisstone’s grasp of history (Letters, November 14) is tenuous if he seeks to exculpate Neville Chamberlain’s shameful scuttle at Munich. He overlooks the whole matter of the Czech humiliation, grievous and so unnecessary, over the Sudetenland.

    In brief, after his annexation of Austria, Hitler lusted to do the same with this Czech province, which contained many Germans but not a majority. The mountain passes into the Sudetenland were narrow and steep, excellent to defend and very hard to conquer with a (then) wholly untested German army. The gutsy Czech army intended to fight for every inch.

    In Germany there was a strong opinion among the General Staff that this was an aggression too far and, if it 
was tried and failed, those forces planned to topple Hitler and arrest him. All Prague needed to resist was Western support. In London we knew all of this.

    At Munich, the Czech foreign minister, Jan Masaryk, was abandoned and humiliated. Hitler was given a clear run. The anti-Hitler opposition in the German high command collapsed and thereafter the generals cooperated with aggression after aggression. Munich was an act of cowardice and betrayal.

    A prime mover in this was the Foreign Office, then under Lord Halifax. Rapid rearmament would have been in no way retarded by some guts at Munich. In 1946 this dreadful department insisted on the shameful refusal to allow the Poles, who had fought like tigers for us, to participate in the Victory Parade in case it upset Stalin. Today, of course, it is the most diehard pillar of the campaign to repudiate Brexit. Standing up for Britain never seems to be on the FCO’s menu.

    Frederick Forsyth
    Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire

    1. Maybe large parts of our ruling political class were on board with Hitler back in the day, just like they are now with the EU.

    2. SIR – I am certain that the deciding factor in the supply of fighter aircraft in the Battle of Britain (Letters, November 19) was a decision by the aircraft designer Sir Tommy Sopwith. On learning from one of his engineers on a pre-war visit to a German engine factory that it was building fighter planes, Sir Tommy commissioned his own company to construct 300 Hurricanes without a War Office order.

      Robin Summers
      London W1

      1. I’m not sure that Robin Summers’ letter is completely accurate. Whilst Thomas Sopwith was renowned for his early flights and his subsequent design and construction of fighters in WW1, the design and promotion of the Hawker Hurricane was very much in the hands of Sidney Camm, the prototype of which first flew in early November1935.
        Shortly after it was transferred to the RAF for testing and assessment in early ’36. Following several returns to the drawing board to deal with armament, problems with spin control, the unreliability of the newly-adopted Merlin and other matters, all closely involving Camm, in early ’36 the Air Ministry gave the unofficial nod and Hawker issued drawings and started tooling up for an initial batch of a thousand aircraft (not 300) with the first official order from the Air Ministry for 600 being issued a few months later. Sopwith was, if I recall correctly, chairman of Hawker at that time, but the motivating force behind the design and ongoing testing and development of the Hurricane was Camm and his team.

        When I lived in Romsey in the late 80s I greatly enjoyed cycling along the lanes of a peaceful, rural Hampshire in the evenings. My routes often included the village of Kings Somborne, and passed Sopwith’s house. When he died in 1989 the RAF sent aircraft for a flypast during his funeral. He is buried in the churchyard at Little Somborne, his grave being marked very modestly with a simple headstone, describing him as a “Pioneer Aviator”. I always marvelled at such modesty for such a courageous and talented individual.

        1. It was a tricky time. Because of production difficulties and poor delivery from Supermarine the government was on the verge of cancelling the spitfire programme in favour of other models that were being promised, including the twin-engined Westland Whirlwind.

          1. The Whirlwind was a superb aircraft and though it was not put into large scale production, was very popular with the airmen who flew it. Despite its small numbers, it lasted quite a while in squadron service.

          3. Imagine if Whirlwinds had been modified to take Merlins and given drop tanks for cross channel daylight intruder missions.

          4. If only they had been able to fit something larger than the RR Peregrine engine, the Whirlwind could have been a formidable fighter.

      1. Many occasions in the past when the FCO has been accused of going ‘native’, especially in the Arab World.

  8. Politicians should be honest… HA HA HA! Belly laugh!
    That’ll be the day.
    Morning, folkses. Dull day in Stockholm today. Swedish papers all a’twitter over how crap it is in Malmö, what with the town being blown up by slammers daily, nobody in work… who’d a thought that importing hordes of illiterates would be a great idea?

      1. Training and meetings to prepare for a bid.Mostly in the office at Arlandastad (is dump, with aeroplanes), but it’s dark & grey enough that I could be anywhere. Home tomorrow…

    3. Morning OB

      Interesting to pick up on your comment about Malmo . Is the Swedish government in denial, and why did they accept so many migrants… for what reason . Do they use the excuse of an aging population as well..and if no one is in work why are these people still being attracted to Europe?

    4. …who’d a thought that importing hordes of illiterates would be a great idea?

      Those that concocted the plan to unsettle and then eventually replace the indigenous people who built the country, that’s who. Mass importation of the savage low IQ end of the Third World population across the whole of the Western World is most definitely not a coincidence.

      1. Morning KtK,
        Been happening en masse since the mid 70s & people supported via the polling booth
        as in lab/lib/con, they are a mass uncontrolled immigration coalition.
        Peoples are aware of the parties policies.

  9. Another sellout… Why why why

    Dorset based defence giant Cobham in US takeover bid

    The £4 billion takeover of UK defence giant Cobham has moved a step closer after the Government said it is considering giving the all clear to the deal with US private equity firm Advent.

    Business secretary Andrea Leadsom said she is “minded to accept” legally binding undertakings from the proposed buyer which would allow the sale to go through.

    The undertakings include a requirement that existing security arrangements will be “continued and strengthened”.

    https://www.dorsetecho.co.uk/news/18046456.dorset-based-defence-giant-cobham-us-takeover-bid/

    1. …binding undertakings from the proposed buyer….= ‘will you still respect me in the morning?’

    3. Hells bloody bells! Foreign ownership of established British companies does very little for UK tax revenues.

      Point of interest, was Cobham formed from the old MEXE that used to be at Christchurch?

      1. Yes I think so.. Alan Cobham (RIP) is Dorset .. The firm employs many people .. it is British .. famous.. I just don’t understand these things , why sell it ..

        Are they scared of Labour getting in , so scuttling and running now?

        1. Maggie’s Pension Holidays and Brown’s pension tax raids destroyed one of the biggest blocks of UK sourced investment in British Industry.

      2. Cobham started life as Flight Refuelling, in Sussex but have been in Dorset for most of their life. They made lots of acquisitions over the years but a couple of years ago got themselves into a bit of a financial and governance mess. Cue lots of senior management changes and a rescue plan. It seemed to be coming together so I suppose they were bound to be vulnerable to a take-over, but it is a shame to see them go to a US private equity company; it would have been nicer to see someone like BAe pick them up.

  10. SIR – Jeremy Corbyn says that Labour is the party of business, but the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has declared it his mission to destroy capitalism. Who do we believe?

    Keith Field
    Cuffle, Hertfordshire

    1. John McDonnell wasn’t joking when he vowed to overthrow capitalism
      Ross Clark – 19 November 2019 – 5:48 PM

      John McDonnell this morning invited Phones4U entrepreneur John Caudwell around for a cup of tea. If I were Caudwell I would treat it a bit like an invitation to afternoon tea in Miss Marple’s village – and keep a keen nose out for the smell of bitter almonds. No good will come of the invitation, that is for sure.

      Day by day, it is becoming clear McDonnell really is engaged in what he has described in his Who’s Who entry as ‘fermenting the overthrow of capitalism’. Today’s offering is to impose a maximum 20:1 ratio of the highest-earning employee to the lowest-earning in any company which bids for government contracts – and to threaten to delist any company which fails to reach decarbonisation targets.

      It is not hard to work out what would happen as a result of these two measures. A multinational corporation is not going to slash its chief executive’s pay just so that it can bid, say, to install a new IT system at the Department for Work and Pensions. It just won’t bid – with the result that the UK government will find itself struggling to place contracts at all. Perhaps that is what McDonnell wants, so that he can use it as an excuse to nationalise yet more of the means of production.

      As for threatening to delist companies which fail to reach decarbonisation targets, he shouldn’t worry – they will delist themselves from London, and list instead in New York, Amsterdam or Tokyo. They are not going to hang around in the hope that new technology will emerge quickly enough to help them decarbonise their operations to hit the kinds of targets that Labour looks like setting. It simply is not going to be possible for some industrial sectors to cut greenhouse emissions even nearly quickly enough for Britain to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2030 or soon after (Labour has gone back on the 2030 target).

      It wouldn’t just be oil and gas companies which would leave Britain. We have, as yet, no commercially-developed technology to decarbonise steel production or cement-making. We will have difficulties mining or manufacturing anything on a large scale. All these industries would simply leave Britain, and leave us with an economy entirely made up of organic carrot soup-manufacturers and the like.

      Labour already seems to be taking its environment policy by dictation from Extinction Rebellion. It is taking its cue from the activists who have been bullying universities, public pension funds and the like to divest from fossil fuel companies and any others to which they take a dislike.

      But of course, fossil fuel companies are also big investors in renewable energy. Under McDonnell, all that investment will be pushed abroad, leaving Britain as even more of an importer of green energy than we are already. Or at least a potential importer – how we would succeed in paying for it, when we have deconstructed virtually our entire industrial sector, is another matter.

      1. I thought the UK had already decarbonised its steel production. Isn’t the last blast furnace due to close shortly?

        Good Morning Michael and one and all. Off to the boat soon to run (whisper it softly) the diesel engine for an hour to lubricate the vitals and to charge the starter motor battery.

        I thought you might all like to see this genuinely honest speech. It makes such a change from the mendacity being spouted by our current crop of politicians. I hope you will find it inspiring:

        https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=5&v=VIR5ps8usuo&feature=emb_logo

        1. Stephenroi, whilst you are running the diesel engine on your boat you might like to consider why there has been a total blackout in the MSM on the looming problems of IMO 2020, coming into force 1st Jan 2020.

          Other nations appear to be getting organised, but in Britain…….. nothing!

        2. Stephenroi, whilst you are running the diesel engine on your boat you might like to consider why there has been a total blackout in the MSM on the looming problems of IMO 2020, coming into force 1st Jan 2020.

          Other nations appear to be getting organised, but in Britain…….. nothing!

          1. Well JJH thank you for letting me know about the 01 01 2020 IMO deadline. You will be pleased to know that I have been in compliance with this since April 2014. As for international shipping I guess the eradication of high sulphur content bunker oil will increase shipping costs which in turn will add to inflation (something which Central banks around the world have been trying to encourage as inflation helps to erode the corrosive effects of high debt interest). As for Britain – what can I say?

          2. Stephen, glad to see that someone other than MOH has been concentrating on the situation.

            As you realise, but others may not, the new fuel will come from the same fraction as diesel.

            Once they start filling up large container ships and cruise liners with diesel there will be a world wide shortage of the stuff.

            We intend to keep our diesel cars fully topped up for the next couple of months.

            …on the other hand, if you think that the British government has supreme organisational abilities, relax and don’t worry.

          3. Janet, Don’t worry. Like its steel industry, Britain got rid of its merchant fleet years ago – so it won’t be a problem. Now where did I put my sand head box?

  11. Morning all

    SIR – I feel a pressing need to introduce a new law that would prohibit any political party from describing anything supplied by a government as “free” (such as “free broadband and Wi-Fi in every home” or “free school meals”).

    Under such a law, government services would be described as “taxpayer-funded”.

    Tony Palframan
    Disley, Cheshire

    SIR – The national debt is out of control. In 2010, it stood at £1 trillion. By the end of this year it will be nearly double that at around £2 trillion.

    Servicing this debt now costs the country £50 billion per annum, and the figure is rising. This cost of borrowing is based on a policy of keeping the Bank of England base rate at the lowest level for over 350 years. When base rates rise, if only to 1.5 per cent, the cost of servicing will become the second-largest area for government expenditure, just behind welfare. This rise may be out of our control, being determined by international markets. In spite of this, each major party is promising to spend up to a further £1 trillion.

    As history shows, there are only two ways out of unmanageable national debt: hyperinflation to slash its real value, or default, whereby a government refuses to honour its debts. Britain may now be approaching a tipping point.

    There are only two questions for any politician during the run-up to this election: “How will you pay for your promises without borrowing? If you do borrow even more, how will you ensure this house of cards does not collapse?”

    Michael Stone
    Moretonhampstead, Devon

    John McDonnell: ‘Sajid Javid needs a new calculator’
    h

    SIR – Jeremy Corbyn says that Labour is the party of business, but the shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, has declared it his mission to destroy capitalism. Who do we believe?

    Keith Field
    Cuffle, Hertfordshire

    SIR – Mr Corbyn’s pledge of free dental check-ups for the nation is utterly misleading as it implies that checks are not currently free for all children, students under 19 years of age, pregnant and nursing women, and others who already cannot afford it.

    It also does not state that those who need treatment will still incur the cost of an examination; nor does it state just how this ambitious plan will be funded. The research that cost is a barrier is over 10 years old and, in my experience of seeing thousands of patients on the NHS as well as in my dental charity work, I am yet to come across cost as a barrier to NHS check-ups.

    Labour’s pledge should instead focus on preventative measures such as greater dental education in schools, a reduction in sugar consumption, or even greater taxation on tobacco products to reduce the risks of oral cancer.

    Dr Saul Konviser
    Trustee, Dental Wellness Trust
    London NW3

    1. Michael Stone

      For my money, the letter of the month (and a reassurance that I’m still in the real world).

      Like the person who thinks that because the tap’s full of water, the reservoir must also be, many people seem oblivious to the borrowed money the UK needs to pay its bills, let alone the massive pile of debt we’ll need to pay back once we’ve stopped borrowing.

      Do all the ‘caring’ politicians who make it their priority to go round kissing babies know the size of the ball and chain of debt being strapped to those babies’ ankles?

      TIME TO WAKE UP AND SNAP OUT OF THE LA LA LAND WE’RE LIVING IN.

      1. But… but… wasn’t there decades of austeritty from those awful Tories, to break the spirit of the wonderful working classes?

        1. Sadly, Ob, austerity proper hasn’t yet started and what we’ve had since 2010 has been austerity-lite.

          I hope I’m wrong but can’t see how we can carry on indefinitely borrowing to make ends meet and kicking the debt can down the road.

  12. SIR – Esther Walker’s article (Saturday, November 16) about how she has learnt to stop shouting at her children reminded me of the day, several years ago, when I picked my young children up from school after a particularly bad day at work.

    Due to forgotten homework and an uneaten packed lunch, I nagged and shouted at them for the whole journey home. As I stopped the car, my daughter said: “Mummy, you know you haven’t asked if we had a nice day or said a single nice thing the whole way home.”

    I told her she was absolutely right, apologised and explained that I was feeling angry as I had had a stressful day at the office. She simply replied: “Yes, but Mummy, that’s not our fault.”

    Jo Marchington
    Ashtead, Surrey

      1. Apropos still breathing, I read yes’day that La Maxwell is still with us but lying low in the States.

        2. I have just read that she is in Israel lying low after plastic surgery, with Epstein ditto. The things they tell us….

    2. Only bellowed at Second Son once, when he ran out into the road as a car was approaching. I wanted to make sure that his behaviour was noted as not desirable. Some woman remonstrated at me from across the road, so I told her that he needs to learn PDQ about roads and cars, and it’s better with a shouting than an ambulance siren.
      It worked, he never did that again. Thank God, I damn near shat meself.

  13. I became confused when I heard the word ‘service’ used with these agencies:

    Banking ‘Service’

    Postal ‘Service’

    Internet ‘Service’

    Pay TV ‘Service’

    Police ‘Service’

    Customer ‘Service’

    Bureaucratic ‘Service’

    ‘Help’ is what I thought ‘Service’ meant.

    Then I visited my uncle, he’s a farmer, and he hired a bull to ‘Service’ his cows.

    Suddenly WOW!!! It all came clear. Now I understand what all those agencies are doing to us!

    1. If I wanted to employ the Secret ‘Service’, would I have to order a pizza in Woking first?

      1. Perhaps. ‘Pizza’ would appear to be a code for paedophilia amongst the NWO these days. I was gob-smacked when Andrew used this as his alibi.

  14. Moh off to play in another competition.. Cloudy day , there was a pink sky earlier, not too cold , and the bird feeders are attracting lots of birds..

    I have several containers full of fat balls and seeds hanging in various trees.. and am thrilled to tell you that a Lesser spotted woodpecker is a frequent visitor .. and is currently busy wrecking 3 fat balls .

    1. Brilliant .. Good morning Rik .

      Why are the the British becoming humourless idiots.. Poking fun is what we do .. Sticks and stones and all that !

    2. I was quite confused that some folk considered an image of a bacon sandwich to be Islamophobic. The first thing that came into my mind when a Tory posts an image of a bacon sandwich is that he is having a dig at a former Labour leader, who is Jewish.

      Surely this was a clear case of antisemitism?

    3. The bacon sandwich reminds me of the chapattis that were passed on as a secret message in India prior to the Mutiny in 1857.

          1. A now long gone message board I used to use had a lady with an Indian civil service background as a frequent contributor.
            When Master’s books came up as a topic I put up a post about the excellent BBC R4 serialisation of his work some decades ago and made the quote from Nightrunners of Bengal, “Good morning Brother Ali” “Good morning Ali my Brother”, to which she responded begging me not to do that as she still got nightmares from reading the book 30 odd years previously!

    4. Conservative Leader Alan Jarrett. clearly a combination of arrogance and pathetic supine dhimmitude. How dare he, or anyone, apologise on behalf of someone who may have no intention of apologising. Quel scumbag.

    2. Morning Rik,
      The peoples of Gerard Battens ilk have warned for years of the incoming dangers only to be ignored by those that profess to know better & of course the PC / Appeasement brigade, we are witnessing the results of their “knowing better” currently.

      1. I mentioned to someone that islam was an arrow aimed at the heart of Europe. Oh, how they laughed. That was thirty years ago. Now they hear the daily calls to prayer of the muezzin.

        1. Morning HP,
          And so it will come to pass that the
          Gerard Batten / Tommy Robinson’s ilk will be inclusive in many a prayer in an anti Appeasement / PC manner.

  19. It looks like all over the democratic free world that at election time the electorate are offered up rotten choices whereby people go for the least worst choice for fear of the others, that is not how democracy is supposed to work, is it?
    It is as if we are being controlled and are not in control of our destiny.

    1. The democratic system in the UK has been hijacked by pressure groups that have taken over the Parties. Some of these like Momentum are ideologically based but most are Globalist in intent. This means in effect that the electorate have been disenfranchised. You can see it most obviously in the systems reaction to Brexit which was an expression of the peoples will to escape this covert tyranny.

    2. Morning B,
      It has been so for donkeys years it is depended on by the political sh!te in
      power & opposition.
      The keep in / keep out mode of voting.
      People power in action being used & abused.
      Controlled you say, not many Benny, & with the peoples consent, many taking on board & swallowing the vows,promises & pledges, fodder for the masses.
      This current state, of a state, in an odious state, has come about via the ballot booth & can be changed via the ballot booth.

    3. Morning to you, I have run out of sympathy for the electorate in general.
      When offered a choice, UKIP, The Brexit Party or the like to make a positive change away from their normal rotten choices, they spurn the chance.

      1. Morning VVOF,
        Not only spurned the chance but castigated those that chose to take it.
        Calling for 17.4 million new UKIP members post referendum was not a jest but
        a safeguard against treachery.
        The electorate already had a 6 year sample with the wretch cameron / may combo.

      2. On my ballot paper the following options, and only the following options are open to me:

        Harriett Baldwin, Conservative
        Samantha Charles, Labour
        Beverley Nielsen, Liberal Democrat
        Martin Allen, Green

        2. I have the same choices a tame Tory who voted for May’s deal 3 times or 3 other remainers.
          If it is dry I will walk down and make my own box and put my X in it, if it is raining I will stay at home in the dry

        3. Gosh, you have a”Green”. How very progressive! We do not. We have an SNP. A party that is now neither Scottish or nationalist.
          (That said, the candidate, a previous incumbent, seems like a good bloke.)

          1. My Green is Falklands war veteran who set up and runs a burglar alarm business, and the only male standing.

    4. I voted Leave in 2016 with the grave reservation that the British may well not deserve to be in control of our destiny, but in so voting, I was giving them that option.

      Let’s hope I did not do this in vain.

  20. By 70’s Girl

    I’m sure that you’re all aware of the very important judicial review

    taking place today. Do the police have the power to knock on your door

    and grill you to “check your thinking” after you’ve posted your opinion

    on something on social media? This happened to Harry Miller, an ex

    copper and now a business man, after he retweeted a poem critical of

    transgenderism and some unnamed person (likely a trans activist)

    complained.

    The police officers confirmed that he had broken no

    law, but the incident is recorded and on file as a “hate incident” and

    is discoverable in a criminal records check (DBS check). The

    organisation FairCop are arguing that this is incompatible with free

    speech laws.

    Really it’s a case of do some people have a special

    right to never be offended by other people’s opinions. Are they more

    equal than the rest of us?

    https://twitter.com/wearefaircop/status/1197044326146150400?s=21
    All I can add is “Gawd help us politically uncorrect lot then”

      1. A couple of years ago I tried in my best schoolmasterly manner to explain the difference between sex and gender to our friend and fellow NoTTLer, Bill Jackson. He did not understand and a recent post of his revealed that he has still not grasped it: I cannot work out if it is because he will not or because he cannot do so.

        .

    3. It was only a matter of time when the DBS process, which is not subject to any legal protection safeguards, including Habeas Corpus, is imposed for life, is not subject to appeal and where hearsay and false accusation are admissible evidence, is broadened to include political thought crime, as well as suspect paedophilia,

      Not one of us is safe, should someone decree that we are inconvenient, and have the sufficient influence to bring on the dawn raid and your entry into the Register of Offenders.

      They call this process “Safeguarding” and applies not just to employment, but to all voluntary, religious (Christian, anyway) and social activity.

    2. She’s too fluent and rehearsed plus she’s not alone. My guess is that she’s a lawyer! Probably for Labour!

      2. And she might well have gone to a private school. It is strange how vehemently against private schools those who went to such schools themselves are which would explain why she attacked NF for having been to Dulwich College.

        The best thing about Dulwich College is that P.G. Wodehouse went there and where he loved playing rugby and cricket. He eulogises the London suburb in which the school is set by his creation of Valley Fields which features in many of his stories. One of the residents is Mr Cornelius, the house agent, who cannot understand why anybody in the world should want to live anywhere else.

        1. Our next-door neighbours sent their daughter to private school in Cambridge (the child’s father attended private school) taking her out of our little village school, which is actually very good, explaining to us with these very words – slightly sheepishly – “actually private education is against our principles but….”!

  23. Daily Brexit Betrayal

    That was a duel, a ‘political’ duel? Don’t make me laugh!

    Our leading politicians don’t know wha a ‘political duel’ is – they

    haven’t needed to ever since the EU liberated them from the onerous work

    of deciding policies for our country.

    Yesterday’s “debate” between Johnson and Corbyn

    on ITV was a waste of time and resources. Worse, the MSM exacerbated

    this hour of utter inanity and boredom in today’s online papers, forcing

    everybody and their great-aunt Edna to write their ‘verdict’. So far,

    you’ll be glad to hear, no dead cats have been discovered on the

    nation’s tables.

    As for Brexit … oh dear. Johnson used the B-word

    promoting his ‘deal’ while asking Corbyn about his plan. Thankfully

    someone counted and came up with the information that Corbyn dodged that

    question nine times … (link). Phew.

    The rest of this encounter

    – you really couldn’t call it a ‘debate’, never mind ‘a duel’ – went

    according to script: for Corbyn, the NHS. He demeaned himself by talking

    about a friend of his who died in A&E. Against Johnson: ‘trust’ in

    politics. It ended with the

    hugely important political question of what they would give each other

    at Christmas! Corbyn would give Johnson a novel by Charles Dickens so he

    could see how dreadful ‘austerity’ is. Johnson would give Corbyn a pot

    of marmalade and the text of his ‘Deal’ … yes, that’ll decide floating

    voters to vote for one or the other!

    Our beloved social media addicts were quick with their thumbs and came up with a ‘snap poll’, giving the verdict of 51 for Johnson v 49 for Corbyn (tweet). I don’t know what they were watching. Nigel Farage tweeted

    the clear winner was … Ms Etchingham, the moderator. Well, not really.

    The general opinion (‘embarrassing’) amongst the friends who watched

    was that the winners were those who hadn’t watched.

    https://independencedaily.co.uk/your-daily-brexit-betrayal-wednesday-20th-november-2019-22-days-to-polling-day/

      2. …and me, I watched about 15 minutes, detected what a SHAMbles it was and left Best Beloved to watch the rest.

  24. Is the DT a national newspaper?
    Whenever the English (male) national soccer team plays, the following day there will be a dozen or more articles on the match, the players, the manage, statistical and field position analysis etc. Wales beat Hungary last night in a must-win match to qualify for E20 and I can find but one article.

  25. I got that Corbyn v Johnson fight on pay per view last night.

    Complete pants – worse than that Joshua fight I wasted a tenner on.

    Both of them looked out of shape, I don’t believe they trained at all.

  26. Pension age ‘should rise to 70’ as Britons are now living well into their 80s because of better healthcare, diet and lifestyles…..
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7704359/Pension-age-rise-70-Britons-living-80s-figures-reveal.html

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/28ec17d88d12481416fa9846a21a03fc0ab0c35b2635c123a89a788aaf22b783.jpg

    Daniel Levy appoints Jose Mourinho as the new Tottenham manager, with the £15m-a-year Portuguese earning DOUBLE the salary of the axed Mauricio Pochettino.
    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7705097/Tottenham-appointed-Jose-Mourinho-new-manager-contract-2022-23-season.html

    1. Obscene salaries for men who wave their arms, chew gum, and shout a lot .. unbelievable. what on earth do they do with salaries like that .. Ah yes , live Chav lifestyles like the Beckhams .. who are beyond parody!

  28. Boris verses Cobyn Debate

    I caught up with it last night,. Was not impressed with Julie Etchingham handling of the debate. She was to quick to butt in and did not let them finish a sentence. She let Corbyn get away with constantly not answering questions. She is in my view to much of a lightweight for this and did not even seem to be on top of the subject matter. Overall in my view Boris came out ahead , not by that much but he was ahead

      1. And I have now sorted out as to why Discuss was displaying the wrong time for the posts. I upgraded my Windows the other day and for some reason it defaulted to the US. Now back to UK and times are correct

        1. Are you windows 10?
          I’m windows 7 which is about to disappear Jan.2020.
          Any helpful advice appreciated ….not a techy geek!

          3. Take whatever comes with the new laptop, most likely windows 10.

            Windows 10 does not always play well on older laptops so I wouldn’t suggest upgrading your existing system to the latest windows release.

          4. Thanks. I tried WNDS 10 awhile ago was not impressed..

            I have to replace it soon…no idea where to start.
            I only read newspapers, youtube music, emails and the odd blog NOTTLERS….

    2. I thought she was pretty rude the way she kept shouting them down. And she certainly did not show any respect for the Prime Minister or the Leader of the Opposition. Whether you like them or not, or liked the programme or not, this was not a game show.

      1. She has to keep them to time but you should build in a bit of a buffer to allow for short overruns and at least allow them to finish a sentence

  31. Green Party Manifesto

    Any one got any views on the Green Party (England & Wales manifesto)

    I took a look at it and it looked like a student wish list but was totally undeliverable both from a practicable and financial view. They have in it for example they will build a 100,000 Council houses a year so that would be on top of the current house building and they will spend a £100B a year on climate Change plus abolish tuition fees and write off all student debt. I doubt they even have a clue as to what that will cost

        1. In Scandiweegian, we make the distinction between day (24 hour period) and day (not night), being døgn and dag respectively.
          No confusion! What’s not to like?

        1. DT & I have just been out to buy a Christmas tree.
          We’ve picked up a small, rooted & potted Fraser Fir which ought to last us five or six years before being planted out.
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f3d4aa068298ac3f2ba785d55ff19847991f4434406aa9d0dee3963e153bd641.jpg

          At which time I’m hoping this 2 or 3 yo seed grown Scots Pine might be ready to take up the festive baton!
          https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/65178c71b57d9c77105d8ed6bb30daf2705cc13aba5c3ffd421c1ee63b0ee9eb.jpg

  35. Those who were brought up on the Uncle Remus stories will remember that when Brer Rabbit is caught by Brer Fox he says time and time again that the very worst thing that could possibly happen to him would be to be thrown into a briar bush. Over and over again he says this and Brer Fox is finally convinced that if he really wants to damage Brer Rabbit he must throw him into a briar bush and so he does. Of course Brer Rabbit is delighted and mocks his antagonist saying: “I was born and bred in a briar bush, Brer Fox, born and bred in a briar bush.”

    Of course the more that Boris Johnson says that his Brexit plan is “a brilliant deal” the more we should realise that he is having us on.

    But are we as stupid as Brer Fox is in this story or will we discover, in the nick of time, that the EU is like the briar bush in which you have to be as devious as Brer Rabbit in order to thrive?

    1. Seems to me that most Nottlers think his WA stinks to high heaven – maybe a lot of the public do too – but there ain’t nothin’ we can do about it. The GE is going to bring crunch time, BoJo or Kommunist COrbyn. God help us if LimpDumbs have the balance of power. We have been sold down the river big time and nobody in The MSM will challenge BoJo’s WA because nobody in the MSM wishes to change the status quo and not one of the “interviewers” is remotely intelligent or inquisitive enough to ask proper questions. We are stuffed. (I was going to put something else but remembered my Ps and Qs just in time!).
      We watched about 5 minutes of the debate which wasn’t- then turned off in disgust at both the interviewer and interviewees.

    2. Afternoon R,
      If the electorate still have faith in the likes of johnson AKA the turkish delight, amnesties R me and his 650
      political ilk when the man has
      shown / told them his wants then the peoples deserve all they get.
      Open season on ALL the ADULT indigenous as in rape & abuse, and
      misdemeanors as in no TV licence, parking offences, rhetorically complaining in public, scrumping, by the indigenous will result in
      chattels / properties being confiscated & handed over to our more deserving guest’s.
      Goes without saying also that 5 times a day mosque attendance will be
      compulsory.
      A great many of the electorate will be
      satisfied as this is what they have been voting for for years.

  36. Sweden’s far right party surges into first place in shock new poll. Indy 1 day ago.

    At 24 per cent, it is a few percentage points ahead of the ruling Social Democrats that have towered over Sweden’s political landscape for most of the postwar era.

    “We want to be part of shaping this country over the next 100 years, just as the Social Democrats have been doing for 100 years,” Mr Akesson said in an interview at the Swedish parliament in Stockholm. “We want political influence, and we want a significant influence.”

    Good news from Sweden!

    https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sweden-far-right-democrats-jimmie-akesson-party-election-a9207741.html

  38. Mail to Mr JR in relation to his post ”Cutting Taxes”. This will never see the light of day………..

    I wonder if George Soros is in some way an adviser to ministers providing ”evidence, argument and recommendations” ?

    If so, I guess that would fit in with this part of his mission statement…..

    ”The Brussels team provides evidence, argument, and recommendations to policy makers in…. member states”.

    After all, Trevor Coult MC apparently thinks he is an ”adviser” in his well known tweet. Did you notice the very interesting coincidence in the attachment to his tweet ? Namely the mention of former Secretary of State John Kerry under Obama allegedly being an ”adviser” to the British as well as George Soros ?

    George Soros and John Kerry are long time friends……………….

    https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/george-soros-why-i-have-campaigned-across-america-to-put-john-kerry-in-the-white-house-18248.html

    Daniel Bobinski explained how George is allegedly big in Ukraine, and as a picture is said to be worth a thousand words, this picture is interesting as it purports to represent the present situation………..

    https://twitter.com/GrrrGraphics/status/1196458868458450945

    Interesting people seem to be advising the British…. I do wonder why that is ?

    Oh, and one more thing, in your interesting book ”The Death of Britain”, it’s hard not to draw the apparent conclusion as to where where the blame lies…..

    With George, apparently Tony’s best and most influential friend, who has been providing ”evidence, argument, and recommendations” for 30 years.

    All of which look to have been accepted ! I wonder why ?

    Polly

  40. I am Lewis Duckworth and I agree with the following:

    Log in to Reply
    Sluff
    November 20, 2019 at 8:17 am

    On the ITV debate yesterday there was sadly once again no discussion about the socialist nationalised entity that is the NHS other than a sort of auction for how many more billions of pounds of taxpayers money would be thrown at it. Corbyn’s risible claims about a US takeover went unchallenged again.

    What a pity no-one mentioned Shrewsbury Hospitals maternity care, where the latest leaked report showed appalling mismanagement, poor quality care, and a cover up.

    Because that is exactly what you get with socialism. The producers are more important than the public/customers/ patients. And where there is no accountability because to criticise the institution is to criticise the state, which of course cannot be permitted.

    Oh that the Tories had the b**** to call this out for what it is. But they know that 70 years of successful brainwashing of the public about the sanctity of the NHS means no critique of the situation is possible.

    A sad and bad situation for all of us.

    https://biasedbbc.org/blog/2019/11/20/midweek-thread-20-november-2019/#comments

    Vote 27 likes

    1. The NHS is sort of money but not by that much. Nor is it as short staff as it is claimed. The number of nurses the NHS is short of is about 25,000 but that figure is misleading it tends to imply there are 25,000 rolls that are not filled but that is not the case. Agency staff are filling nearly all those posts

      What has happened is the NHS has almost encouraged staff to leave and come back as agency staff

      Where the NHS does have a real problem is there are simply not enough beds and that has a knock on impact on the GP service and A&E

      Another big problem the NHS has is with management , and systems and processes

  41. Toady going full bore amplifying the sins of CCHQ’s FactCheckUK twitter account during last night’s leader debate.

    I also note the label of ‘Hard Brexit’ which used to refer to a WTO Brexit has now been transferred to Boris’ soggy soft BRINO fiasco. Thus the epithet ‘Soft Brexit’.must apply to what??? Remain??

    1. ‘Morning, Citroen. Full scale radio and TV news blackout imposed at Janus Towers, likely to remain in place until the early hours of 13th December. Bliss.

  42. Take the Jeremy Corbyn route anyone?:


    Sluff

    November 20, 2019 at 8:45 am

    Corbyn let the cat out of the bag when he said that all NHS services would be staffed only by NHS employees.
    So,….more power to the NHS unions then.

    I wonder where he will get, for example, MRI scanners from?

    A nasty private sector company like Siemens who have been doing this sort of thing for years, continue to invest in new products, and can do this because of their global scale and proven expertise?

    Or the cuddly new nationalised National Scanner Corporation…..which has no expertise at all, would have no economies of scale and be hopelessly inefficient……..but crucially would not be private.

    Don’t bother waiting for the BBC to ask these obvious questions.

    https://biasedbbc.org/blog/2019/11/20/midweek-thread-20-november-2019/#comments

    1. Has he told the GP’ that they will no longer be self employed but will become employees of the NHS

  44. Plymouth students registered to vote without consent

    That’s stretching credibility to claim it was an error. It would in my view require deliberate action and some of what they claim to have done amounts in my view to gross incompetence. People are no longer automatically registered so what has been going on in Plymouth and is it also going on elsewhere ?

    Hundreds of students and under-18s have been registered to vote without their consent following admin errors.
    Plymouth City Council said it meant 635 students were registered by mistake and another 247 who are unable to vote were sent polling cards.
    Tagging errors originating in May had caused both students and young people to be automatically added to the register, the council said.
    It has since removed anyone who should not be on it, a statement added.
    In the statement, Plymouth City Council said: “We thought we had found all the entries in our 192,000 records in May and deleted them.
    “We have reviewed our register and found that we missed 635.”
    Errors also meant under-18s in the Plymouth Sutton and Devonport constituency were sent polling cards.
    The information about students had been provided by universities and of those added without their permission, 137 had been sent a voting card.
    The council said it was writing to all students affected to notify them they will need to register themselves if they wish to vote.

    1. The cheerleaders have it. “Give me an F, give me an R, give me an A, give me a U, give me a D. What does it spell – “Democracy!”

  45. Dunno if anybody else saw the BBC Leaders (Question Time) Debate last night on BBC where NIGEL FARAGE faced a studio audience. Fiona Bruce seemed to enjoy it although the audience appeared stuffed with lefty-harridans and student snowflakes who were full of “you should be ashamed of yourself” and “that disgusting poster in 2016” and kept misquoting him or being unable to distinguish between population growth and migration. Nobody in the audience seemed to be against open borders and no-one would accept that the huge inflow of inmigrants across the Med (and Channel) in recent years were predominantly economic migrants … no they were genuine asylum seekers. Their ears and minds were closed, Nigel did very well to keep smiling and not storm out. Fiona Bruce kept smiling.

  47. Fred Forsyth’s letter, in today’s DT, on the disgraceful sell-out of Czechoslovakia in 1938 neglects to mention that Hitler could have been stopped in his tracks in 1936 when, in breach of the Versailles Treaty, 20,000 German troops reoccupied the Rhineland unopposed. The French could easily have expelled them tout de suite without breaking sweat.

    Had they done so, the Krauts would have been stymied, unable to attack in the West through the Rhineland and unable to launch an attack Eastward for fear of the French and British attacking them in the rear, opening up the German nightmare, a war on two fronts.

    Indeed, this was the German General Staff’s greatest fear and Hitler could hardly believe his good fortune when he got away with it.

  48. Lib Dems promise £50bn ‘windfall’ from stopping Brexit

    I have no idea as how they have managed to dream this £50M up. There is no saving it is pure fiction

    https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/libdems/pages/57307/attachments/original/1574251172/Stop_Brexit_and_Build_a_Brighter_Future.pdf?1574251172

    What is in the Lib Dem manifesto?
    Rail fares for commuters and season ticket holders to be frozen for the next five years
    All trains to be electric or hydrogen-powered by 2035
    A new target for 80% of UK energy to come from renewable sources by 2030
    A £10,000 grant for every adult in England to put towards education and training over 30 years
    35 hours of free childcare for children aged two to four, or from nine months for working parents
    Replacing business rates for companies with a levy based on land value
    A higher minimum wage at “times of normal demand” for those on zero-hours contracts
    £11bn for mental health services over five years, including on 24-hour support
    A new tax on gambling companies to fund the treatment of problem gambling
    The Lib Dems say their manifesto is fully costed and other spending commitments will be paid for by tax rises.
    They are proposing to raise income tax rates by 1% to pay for an extra £7bn a year for NHS and social care services.
    Air Passenger Duty will be reformed, with those taking frequent international flights likely to have to pay more. The proceeds will be used to boost green transport, including slashing VAT rates on electric cars to 5%.
    There will also be a levy on the sale of cannabis to over-18s, with the money raised going to fund community policing and youth services. The Lib Dems have long called for the legalisation and taxation of cannabis, a move opposed by the Conservatives and Labour.

    1. slashing VAT rates on electric cars to 5%. – EU rules do not allow for lowering VAT rates. So that’s wrong already.

    2. I’m quite sure that no criminal organisation would ever grow cannabis themselves to avoid the Libdems taxing it, would they?

  49. A few weeks ago I went to a Gresham Lecture in the City and as I wandered through the streets I could see thousands of young people glued to computer screens in their places of work. I wondered how long that might last? It seems not long as Banks are already beginning to lay off workers and employ AI computing:

    https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/deutsche-bank-replacing-18000-jobs-with-ai-machine-learning-fn-report-2019-11-1028696144

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/96fde84a238d829d992138956b825b8fb302e35b47ca991360daf7fe6e92339a.png

      1. Afternoon O, yes the typists disappeared in most cases but at least their “bosses” were kept on. This time it seems those folk will no longer be required in such great numbers

  50. The lib / dems intend to legalise cannibalism, I believe it
    is their way to solve the
    mass uncontrolled immigration / housing issues.

    2. But she does have a point.
      One of several Faceache posts I put up via the METRO website concerning the same matter:-

      But she is correct.
      Paedophillia is the sexual attraction towards prepubescent children.
      Sexual attraction to pubescent children and adolescents is Hebephilia.

      However, from today’s Guardian:-
      “Virginia Giuffre has claimed that Epstein flew her to London on his private jet around 2001, when she was 17 years old.”

      So, as reprehensible and morally repugnant as many will find Prince Andrew’s actions, he did not break the law by having sex with her.
      Under UK Law, having sex with a 17yo prostitute was not criminalised until the implementation of the 2003 Sexual Offences Act redefined the definition of “a child” to a person under the age of 18 years old.
      Previously the definition, as stated in the Protection of Children Act 1978, specified a child as being a person under 16yo.

      One curious aspect of the 2003 Act is that republication of the topless “Page 3” photographs of the then 16yo Samantha Fox when she first appeared in the Sun, would now be illegal.

      Link to Guardian Article:-
      https://t.co/SgIN2lSf76?amp=1

      Link to Wiki Page on the 2003 Sexual Offences Act:-
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_Offences_Act_2003

        1. But she looked spectacular at 15-16 when she first graced the pages of the Sun. Every youth’s dream at the time.

    1. Rik,
      Surely assault with intent, the locals of any decency should boycott the store
      until appropriate action is taken, a days takings soon focuses a mind.

    3. I’m no expert but that looked a lot like assault to me! Morrisons need to convince me that this wasn’t a policy that they instituted and that their staff (if that’s who they were) have been disciplined – otherwise they are off my list of places to shop! (Edit – Morrison’s getting some serious flak for this on Twitter)

  53. The Smart meter ad says UK will need twice the electrical power by 2050 – some reckon it may be as much as four times (Ref below).

    At this moment daytime demand is 45GW so we shall need at least 90GW by 2050.

    That is over a period of 30 years so we would expect in ten years time for the UK requirement pro rata to be at least 45+(45*10/30)GW=60GW.

    I thought I saw a LibDem target on BBC TV today as being 80% renewable generation by 2030.

    So their renewable generation by 2030 would need to be 60*0.8GW=48GW.

    Today, CO2 neutral power generation from nuclear, wind, solar and biomass is 7,9, 2 and 2GW respectively.

    I.e. 20GW

    That means LibDems would have to find an extra (48-20)GW = 28GW of non-fossil fuel generation by 2030.

    Now given that wind and solar can sometimes fall to zero like the other day, this power must come from just nuclear and biomass.

    Assuming we keep burning biomass plantlife at the same rate to get 2GW, the shortfall of 26GW must all come from nuclear.

    Therefore LibDems need something like four times the number of nuclear power stations that UK has now by 2030 to keep the lights, electric ovens and EVs running.

    But:

    The UK currently has 15 reactors with a total generating capacity of 10 gigawatts of electricity (GWe), operated by EDF Energy. These stations generate around a fifth of the UK’s electricity – and all but one are scheduled to be retired over 2023–30. The exception is Sizewell B, the UK’s only pressurised water reactor (PWR), which began operations in 1995 and is scheduled for decommissioning in 2035.

    https://namrc.co.uk/intelligence/uk-new-build-plans/

    Ooooops!
    (Surely my sums must have gone wrong somewhere?)

    1. I remember the headlines in the 1950s when Zeta started. The new energy source for the 1960s. Still waiting…

    2. This is why we’re running a n undersea cable to France.

      That’ll work out really well, won’t it?

    3. There is no possible way they can get anywhere near that figure by 2030. It’s impossible

      1. The problem is that it IS possible – it’s just that it will drive us all back to the Stone Age.

    4. These people need to get real – biomass is a carbon producing fuel, just a lot more inefficient than coal or oil. Especially when trees in the US are being turned into wood chips and being carted across the pond in cargo ships burning bunker fuel – one of the dirtiest burning hydrocarbons out there.

        1. I have a surprisingly large store of chopped logs for someone who does not own a wood burner. Not that I foresee troubles ahead.

  54. Dominic Raab defends Government’s decision to seek legal costs from Harry Dunn’s family

    DominicRaab has defended the Government’s move to seek legal costs from the family of a teenager who was killed in a crash outside an RAF base.

    Harry Dunn’s parents are suing the Foreign Office (FCO) having alleged that Mr Raab abused or misused his power as Foreign Secretary by granting diplomatic immunity to the woman thought to be driving the car that hit the 19-year-old.

    Now, if it were all about an Ali’s Snack Bar terrorist, any amount of money would be made available, by Raad and co, to defend the baaarstard.

    Corbyn would have ensured no IRA killer was aprehended either

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/20/dominic-raab-defends-governments-decision-seek-legal-costs-harry/

  56. Sorry folks, I’ve no where else to post this.

    I’m a ‘manager’ in a job which tests software. I have one graduate tester. He’s a great guy. Acting as lead more than a junior.

    The other 3 are apprentices. Each year, I get apprentices. They want to be devs. They don’t want to do my job. I train them, then a year later they move on. I lose whatever skills they had and reboot – everything. New guys who know nothing.

    In my last review I was slated because I wasn’t doing what the chap who thinks he’s running the team would do. They also speak to the one apprentice who has major behavioural problems and is a liability (lazy and uninterested) to the test function.

    No other team gets these kids. Only me.

    We have a meeting about the future of QA team. Despite being praised for the work I’ve done with the guys, the managing bit is being taken away from me. Frankly, with five hats to wear – course administator (as I only get half their time and oh you can guarantee the difficult ‘chap’ aforementoned ensures there’s a major software drop just as the apprentices are off site training), teacher, trainer, process writer (and I write them, but never get feedback until I’m told they’re wrong despite lots of chasing) and then expected to apply my own experience to projects the managementy bit is being taken away from me.

    They were pleasant about it – you’ve done great work, but it’s not fair to ask so much of you/getting best from you.. yadda yadda but it’s basically ‘you’re crap, we’re putting ‘chap’ in charge. At the moment it’s sort of OK but I’ve put a huge amount of work in and just get kicked for it at every step. Every effort is failure.

    I left a better job hoping I could develop this team. That was BS. I’ve no voice at this place, no say, QA is not valued and not accounted for because it’s always been the ‘nursery: can’t be bothered, shove the apprentices in to do it on the cheap’ side. I’ve really tried to make it work and instead of helping me with proper support their solution is to cut off my head.

    Of course, it F’s the career over. If you’re excluded from things you need to be doing to progress you’re trapped. Moving the four hats off me isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either. Maybe the combination of exhaustion, medication and pain has been the final nail but it just feels like I’ve failed when I had no ability to succeed. I don’t really know how to process it, either.

    I have two other side companies but they’re hobby ones. Combined we turn over about 20,000 between the 4 of us because we all work full time at other things.

    Bah. Sorry. Not political, just a very selfish first world wail.

    1. Nothing to be sorry for, old chum. It’s happened to us all.

      The one thing I picked up on, is the process/procedure writing – I know how time-consuming that can be, and how difficult to get people to accept what you’re asking them to do, as I used to get whole businesses to change their way of life and start using ERP systems correctly. That involved getting them to understand the new procedures, ways of working, call it what you will.

      I found the best (and most accurate) way to do it involves what I call ‘AS IS/TO BE’ First you must at least flow-chart every process as they do it today (AS IS). Let them ramble on but strictly one process at a time and shew links to others. Do this WITH the person involved, get them to sign off the flow diagram as true. Take it away, tidy it up, write the words that go with it and take it back to the user for their agreeing signature.

      Now you should have agreement for the format. If this is going to be operated using systems different to their own, then you have to write the TO BE. Taking their processes, the objectives thereof and the desired result, and lay it onto the new system, writing the process for the lowest possible intelligence and ensuring that the system will produce the desired result (including side and sub-processes). Taking it to the future user, explain how it works and get them to use the process on the new system and sign as agreeing that this process achieves the objective, that they will ‘own’ it and allow no modification without their say-so.

      Now you have agreement. Good luck old chap.

      1. The problem with the NHS and systems is each health trust wants a system to match their current papers systems and with an ERP system that’s a recipe for a disaster. These systems are highly complex but can be configured quite a lot. The last thing you want to do is to apply customisations to them. The health trusts should modernise their systems to base them around how an ERP system works. IT should not be the ERP system being changed to suit a 101 different manual systems

      2. That sounds a great plan – would have loved to bring people along with it.

        I remember when asked to write test processes I did a document, only about 20 or so pages and asked for feedback. months later got a different instruction, so adapted and changed, putting more tables and flow chart/process diagrams (as for some reason reading is difficult) and haven’t heard since. I point people toward our wiki and beg for feedback. I don’t generally get anything back.

        1. Glad to know you understand, Wibbles, I spent a long time getting that to work but it has with
          SJ – Swedish Railways
          Columbus IT Partners
          Brookes & Gatehouse
          Carmarthen Enterprise
          Vinten Broadcast
          Kelvin Hughes
          Sky Television
          Kleerex
          LGC
          Linamar
          Doosan Babcock
          La Technip
          Whitford UK
          Wilhelmsen
          Pemco Bruges
          So I’m happy with the process.

          Bluddy good luck with your future old chap and, if you want further help, get my e-mail from Hertslass.

      1. Would love to, but if I drink I fall asleep – literally, the codeine reacts funny and I zonk and need to go get the wife from train station.

      1. Nope, same pay – but no rise last year, doubt there will be one this year so two years of no rise, not even inflationary is effectively two years of a cut.

    5. I worked in sales for a software testing company for three years. As jackthelad says, testing is rarely the most popular of jobs and often seen as being a necessary evil alongside the development process. But companies that “get it” really do value their team and will ensure they have top-end people in it. But it sounds like this company doesn’t understand the importance of the
      testing function if they just push people through on their way to being
      developers (sorry, software engineers).

      As sos and Meredith say, if you can get out, then do so. If software testing is your bag, then have a look at some of the consultancies and resellers, to see if they have any vacancies or contract partnership opportunities.

      Good luck

      1. I’ve thought about contracting – no engagement with the business you’re placed with, no faffing about over performance reviews. 6 months there, then out. if no software, you’re paid to sit idle!

        Prob is it’s unreliable, and we’ve a mortgage and what not. We’re roping down our spending and we’re not idiots, but at the moment, until no one can take my home from me I need/want? the security of a full time job.

    6. As someone who spent a good number of years in the software/systems business, I can confirm that testing and QA are never popular – or valued. Developers hate you because you find their faults. Senior management hates you because you get in the way of “their” delivery dates since they never allow enough time to make sure the software is “right” before they push to go to market. And even when you are in on the whole product scheduling, test and integration time is the first thing that gets cut when artificial deadlines loom. And under those circumstances the developers cut corners which means QA gets a POC to test in the first place. We always accused them of the “If it compiles, ship it” mentality.

      Best to get out of that function altogether – sad to say it’s a bit of a dead end.

      1. I did software testing as part of my job, and saw it as being not just to prove it worked the way they thought it did, but how to find the bugs and the faults.
        We’d have regular meetings, and some would set a deadline…and we just said between us “that’ll never happened.”
        We’d been promised a new lab requesting system to go out onto the wards, where we were already ten years behind most other labs, it was being written in-house (bad, bad, bad idea), and I said that I’d be retired before it ever got rolled out to the wards. They thought that was silly, as they didn’t think I was old enough to retire. I wasn’t, but I did anyway, and the lab request system never went live…

        1. When I was a bank auditor I used to take apart accounting/research/trading spreadsheets.

          Not as complex a task as software testing, obviously.

          Apart from the most basic, and there were even faults in a lot of those, I never found a spreadsheet that did not contain errors. Some of them very significant.

      2. You’re right on being first to go, and product does have to get to market and yes, we’re always last to be thought of. You’d think things would change, especially with some of the outrageous tripe released these days.

    7. As sosraboc mentions above – leave if you are in a position to do so. In the last of my positions before I went back fully into IT, I was regional operations manager for a company covering everything from the M25 up beyond Oxford. I had worked my way up from the ground and had good relationships with all of our clients. Then changes started happening in Central Office in London, and they were not good. New people were brought in who did not know their axe from their elbow.

      One of our multi-site clients invited me to her office after I was promoted, and we had a brief coffee. We had met before so she just said: “You know the size of this place and all I have to deal with. I have no interest in making extra work for either of us. If you do your job as well as your predecessor then we will never need to meet again, and you will get a 5-star recommendation from me when it comes to contract renewal. The only time that we should ever see each other is if something goes wrong.”

      My new superior came in a year later and wanted full reports on all client relations. When he heard about this agreement above he said: “That’s not acceptable. Go back and arrange weekly meetings to go over current events and to find out new requirements.” I pointed out quite clearly that I knew the site manager and what she wanted, he ignored it. I pointed out that I would not be doing what he was telling me to do. He said “In that case you must consider your position.”

      So I said “Bye then.”

      How they fell over themselves to try to keep me there when they realised I could not be threatened and was not bluffing. I had been considering going into IT full time again, and the attitude of these “new boys” just made it easy. They brought in a team of two men with 30 more years of experience between them, but they had no flexibility to approaching their tasks. They lost every contract but one over the next six months after I left.

      So if you can get free of this suffocating situation that you find yourself in, it might be the best thing that you can do. Not being surrounded by such a toxic atmosphere will be very good for your physical and mental health. Good luck. 🙂

      1. Thank you – it’s good to know it isn’t just me.

        My employers are good guys – the really, honestly mean well they just can’t see the utility. Maybe I am over sensitive? This is why I want out, so if something like this comes up I can say ‘OK, I don’t need this, I came on to do this not this’ and walk.

    1. Cleary the irony is completely lost on her. In the extremely unlikely event she became PM within a few years the writ of her government would only extend as far as the EU will allow!

      1. Sadly I can’t see this in the UK, because … This video contains content from BBC Studios, who has blocked it in your country on copyright grounds.

      1. “He hath sounded forth his trumpet that shall never call retreat.”

        I was hoping that this was not just a history of the song, and when it began at 1:53 it brought back some memories. Some of those traditional American singers have a… resonance, or depth to their voices that is very distinctive. Simpler values for times when morality was not being changed every 10 minutes to keep people off-guard and confused about what is reality.

    3. Does that include all those who commit suicide, because their underlying mental issues haven’t been solved by having a sx change?

      Do they know all the transgender people who have been killed “because of transphobia” ? There aren’t that many, so the list should be relatively short…

      1. Candle.
        It gives them the choice, nice and greasy, slips in easy, a candle is a trans’ best friend

  61. Cobtyn keeps going on about the Conservative selling off the NHS. It is pure fiction. It seems be based on some preliminary trade discussion with the EU and of course the US would wish to bid for NHS supply contracts. What Cobyn does not mention is that under EU legislation the US can bid for NHS contracts now in fact when it comes to drugs and medical equipment a fair bit may only be available from the US so all the US are asking for is the status quo when we leave the EU

    Interestingly Cobyn does not mention that Labour actually in effect sold hospitals to the private sector under PFI where my understanding is the hospitals are owned by a private consortium. The contracts typically run 25 to 40 years at the end of the Contract the building become NHS property. It is not clear if any final payment has to be made

    3. Oh Bill, the Labour mp/candidate for Hammersmith persists in claiming that he and his party saved Charing Cross Hospital from certain closure but I checked out this claim when he made it at the last election and Imperial College Healthcare insist that there were never any plans to close Charing Cross. Truth becomes immaterial. Large numbers will still vote for him on the basis of his claims, spurious or not.

      1. AM is not exactly a go to brand in the US. And the overpriced SUV brigade already have the Range Rover (complete with JLR’s reputation as the most unreliable brand on US roads). Those that don’t have Rovers have Porsche Cayennes of course.

        Anyway the nearest AM dealer is about 100 miles away, so I don’t think I’ll bother.

    7. Cars are actually getting uglier! The “teardrop” requirement is a killer for design!

    9. I’m not that into cars. To me they are a piece of metal on 4 bits of rubber that get you from A to B. I’m happy to drive a Landrover or a lawnmower as well as anything else. But even I don’t like the “jelly mould” shape that so many cars have now. It does look ugly.

      If you are going to throw money at a car, then pick something with a few angles and character. Known for causing wealthy drivers to wrap them around trees in their first week as they experience some very unexpected acceleration:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3ff535a1f166a802351d505a69ad96c3af5eb8c8e0747bf2a4d7272174796c04.jpg

      Or, even better, its big brother:

      https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/5b0ee142db514207d8336773d4a03b2d1e312ecfea8bf3e741fa67db902263f1.jpg

    2. My son graduated from Plymouth 13 years ago, I wonder if they’ve registered him and his 4 housemates.

          3. It’s to warn the unwary that this is the Munsters’ holiday home and they are in residence.

          4. That’s a quality control kitemark, showing that it meets the standards for an NHS old people’s ward.

          2. You might be an architect, but I wouldn’t want to live in many of your “Wonderful buildings such as Eaton Hall built by the Duke of Westminster, designed by Alfred Waterhouse (Architect of Manchester Town Hall and the Geological Museum)”. Nice to visit, but that’s it for me.

          6. I have never seen the appeal of gambling. Almost by definition you will lose more than you win, especially in casinos where they need to make money to pay the bills. The longer you do it the more likely you are to be worse off.

            It may be that certain people are jaded and need to do something to add some excitement to their lives. This is a particular malady of the wealthy of course, as the poor have enough entertainment trying to avoid starvation by fist-fighting rats for left-overs.

          12. To me it looks like a beach hut on steroids.

            Each to their own.

            My place might well appear twee to some viewers, almost archetypical of a certain type of Perigordian home, but I like it.

          13. “a beach hut on steroids”, I like that. Looks to me like it’s in the eastern US or somewhere like that. It’s missing a jetty or a boathouse though. Bet the local fishing is great.

          14. Assuming the green is seaweed, that place might well wish it was on stilts as well as steroids.

            At a guess it’s owned by one of those snakeoil salesmen who are telling us to change our ways because sea levels are going to rise 10 feet..

          15. Some coastal areas are rising, some are stable and some are falling. I think it is coastal, although it’s possibly a lacustrine location, and perhaps in a sheltered bay. With the time I’ve got left I’d love it, as long as there’s a decent pub or bar within a few miles.

          16. I was indirectly referring to the way that people like Al Gore and other greenscammers own beachside properties…

            Having been “picked up” on several comments by many other posters this evening I think my sense of humour is out of kilter…

            I’ll retreat to my cave.

            };-((

      4. When I look at the great houses built by the wealthy in our past I think of buildings now lost. Wonderful buildings such as Eaton Hall built by the Duke of Westminster, designed by Alfred Waterhouse (Architect of Manchester Town Hall and the Geological Museum) yet demolished and replaced by flat roofed crap as figures in your image.

        Jesus wept and so do I.

        1. I suspect P-T’s irony meter may be running.

          These buildings were years ahead of their time, think how many solar panels could be fixed on them!

          };-((

          1. I know. I was making a genuine point about the complete absence of taste with our present monied classes. Wirral abounds with the most hideous footballer’s creations. Mere heaps of bricks run up in quick time with no artistry but just attempting to convey prestige and failing. The feeble mild steel gated access tells you all you need to know about the occupants: tasteless and stupid.

      3. Evening K,
        First things first & Christmas is near upon us so he will put the
        pizza parlour board game on the market,plenty of snakes, and ladders to parlours.

    2. “Stepping back from public duties …”

      Maud would say that he’s been sacked, sweetie ! … x

      1. Yup. Brenda has sacked him. He had been a total embarrassment ever since he hooked up with Sarah Ferguson. As a supposed trade ambassador his sojourns always coincided with golf tournaments. When he opened his mouth he spoke nonsense and was universally judged to be a loose cannon.

        His sacking is last ditch damage limitation. The Governorship or some other Commissioner of The Bahamas beckons. Good riddance.

          2. Gawd. Not another effing Royal wedding in the offing surely. What is wrong with the local Registry Office? Poor old Charles had to succumb so what is so different to his wretched relations.

          1. In the Falklands the Royal Navy were hampered by having to keep the Andrew idiot safe and at some inconvenient distance from the enemy and action.

            The man was an impediment to a successful action. He should have stayed at home with his mother and his girlfriends.

  66. Breathalysers must be able to be fitted into all new cars from 2022 following a landmark decision by the European Council.

    The technology,that could prevent drink-drivers from starting their engines, was
    approved in March but has only just been rubber-stamped by European
    officials last week.

    The UK’s position is yet to be confirmed, but the current Government has previously
    said it will mirror European road safety rules post-Brexit.

    Cars made before 2022 will have tocomply with the new rules by 2024
    . Road safety charity Brake has labelled the move the “biggest leap forward for road safety this
    century”.

    You lot had better watch out…………..

    1. I wonder how long it will be before some inventor comes up with a way of bypassing the breathalyser (if it hasn’t already been done).

      2. After the Islamic take-over and the introduction of Sharia Law, the breathalyser will no longer be needed.

    2. Drink driving is less of a problem than drug driving. As usual the EU has missed the point.

      I dislike every people control measure suggested by the EU and it’s apparatchiks. This policy might not affect Druncker and his wine consuming colleagues who are chauffeured around from one seven course lunch to the next at our expense. The sooner we leave this EU replicating Nazi concept the better.

      1. It’s not th Nazi thing, its the Soviet and Eastern Europe communist thing. Strange coming from Merkel who was raised in East Germany. Or maybe it isn’t strange.

        1. It is all about control of the people by whatever measure. This is so alien to the British that it has caused the rift and Brexit. We can talk about immigration and the rest but the real rift is the underlying vision of the EU to control our every idea and movement.

        2. The USSR was certainly the model for the EU’s structure. Commissioners (=politburo members) unelected, but with all the power, and a rubbercstamp parliament.

    3. A problem, how do you ‘control’ the breathyliser to detect only emmissions from the driver.

      Just think of a taxi full of law abiding drinkers, on the way home after a night out

      Will the car not start, cus the fumes overcome the start button

      or

      One person ‘drunk’ in car, passenger blows into bag.

      Driver wears face mask

      Must have been brought on by the Bliar Witch Inc

    4. Easily got around using a partly inflated ballon or a hippy crack canister. I don’t think the EU wonks have thought this through. Probably the same idiots who have forced me to jump through numerous hoops just to look at my bank balance on-line.

      1. Ah, yes. Ten separate entries, three passwords and a phone call code. That makes everything more secure. Unless the bankers mess things up, but how likely is that?

  67. Anna Soubry’s Brexiteer opponent told to stay out of constituency after being found guilty of harassment

    Dalla Mura, who refused to give her name and address when asked in court, was ordered to stay away from the Broxtowe constituency as a condition of her bail and told she must conduct her election campaign from elsewhere and over the internet.

    A Brexiteer standing against leading Remainer Anna Soubry in the general election has been banned from campaigning in her constituency after she was found guilty of harassing her.
    Driven by anger, Amy Dalla Mura, 56, targeted Ms Soubry between January and March this year, turning up at events and calling her a traitor on live television, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.

    Ms Soubry and Dalla Mura are standing in Broxtowe in Nottinghamshire, Ms Soubry for the Independent Group for Change and Dalla Mura for the English Democrats.

    2. That’s interesting. If we’d all known that Nigel Farage was going to stand his candidates down in so many constituencies at the very last minute, I’m fairly sure there would have been plenty of Brexiteer independent candidates who would have been willing to give it a go. It was too close to the deadline though, or was it actually after the deadline?

      1. Evening M,
        Orchestrated from the anti UKIP membership rant IMO.
        If many knew the future actions
        there would have been some serious rethinking this is not an anti brexit group or sour grape
        post, but fact,

    3. That sanction by the Westminster magistrates is a travesty and needs challenged in a higher court ASAP.

      If Ms Dalla Mura has committed any offence, then let her be punished accordingly but since she’s a registered candidate in the Broxtowe constituency, then banning her from canvassing in that constituency must surely be unlawful.

      Why is the Electoral Commission not getting involved?

  69. Under new EU Legislation Lie Detectors must be able to be fitted into all new politicians from 2022 following a landmark decision by the European Council.
    The Legislation was approved in March but has only just been rubber-stamped by European officials last week.

    The UK’s position is yet to be confirmed,

    2. The easiest way to tell if a politician is to watch his/her mouth. If it is moving, the politician is lying.

      1. Not if it’s in a trough, moving rapidly.
        Gobbling up expenses and swallowing sinecures is as honest as they get.

  71. Still no sign of a Manifesto from the Brexit Party and little sign of any real activity. They have in my view been a big disapointment

  72. Our Laura looking bleary-eyed in a North London night club where the Libdums are having a shindy.

    Has our girl had one cocktail too many?

        1. Evening B,
          At least mass uncontrolled invasion of geese
          would be an all round benefit to the nation as in you can eat them.
          I am pretty certain the PC / Appeasement unwritten rulings would object to us eating illegals , wouldn’t they ?

        2. Introduced though, “The geese were first introduced in Britain in the late 17th century as an addition to King James II’s waterfowl collection in St. James’s Park.”.
          These royals eh, always getting into trouble with birds.

          1. All or almost all of the invasive species were introduced artificially, either on purpose like these geese, ruddy ducks and grey squirrels, or accidentally, like those mitten crabs that came in on the bottoms of ships from the far east as larvae. If they arrive under their own steam by natural range expansion or as natural vagrants, they aren’t classed as ‘invasive’.

      1. Nobody but a fool would not have drawn a connection between the son of Joe Biden and a Ukrainian State controlled Gas Company. Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden is known for his drug addiction and nothing much else. Yeah, George W Bush had a similar history.

        Trump appears whiter than white when such details of the Democrat conspiracy against Trump is finally exposed.

  76. BREXIT

    Boris’s strategy with Brexit is first class. Lets hope he means what he says though

    We have about a 52% to 48% split between Leavers and Remainer’s the approach Boris’s is using is to win over some of the Remainer’s

    Like it or not the so called No Deal was never going to fly. You could see the intense opposition to that in the Commons. What Boris has come up with is in effect a Hard Deal. This should keep most of the Leavers happy whilst winning over a lot of the Remainers

    The Hard Deal is pretty much leaving the EU. The WA pretty much only has in it the essential agreements we need to leave ie the arrangements for UK nationals in the EU and for EU nationals in the UK. It also covers things like travel arrangements to and from EU for business , tourism and study as well as Medicines agency , Euro atom etc. The second part which has not really started yet is the trade deal with the EU. WE have just over 12 months to get at least a provisional deal. The reality is that unless the EU wants to play difficult this should be easy as we already trade with the EU and all current goods meet EU standards . I suspect the horse trade will be over things like access to our fishing ground

    The other key deal is with the US and if Boris has any sense he will involve Nigel. Nigel is a friend of Trump and the is trust there this could considerably smooth the path of a deal and sped things up

          2. I think his responses, full of sound and fury as they may be, are rather limp. I wonder if Carrie Symonds would confirm or deny this?

      2. It is just wishful thinking from a Tory supporter.
        Despite all the betrayal carried out for the past 3 years, some people still believe Johnson and his party will deliver a meaningful Brexit.

        1. I know Peddy will criticise me for constantly saying the same thing over and over again but why, in God’s name, isn’t Boris’s deal being put under the microscope by the MSM so that we can clearly see just how much it turns Britain into a vassal state.

          We are being completely hoodwinked and far too many people seem to be completely unaware that they are being hoodwinked.

          1. When those people realise they have been hoodwinked, I shall give them the same amount of sympathetic attention as they gave Johnson’s t^rd of a deal, absolutely zero, zilch, SFA.
            I will only regret that their stupidity drags the rest of us down with them.

          2. Evening VVOF,
            It was nigh on to late when I heard the cry go up on the 24/6/2016,
            “Victory is ours, done & dusted, leave it to the tories” the rhetorical cry of the all believing
            rear exit brigade.

          3. R,
            This “hoodwinking” has been going on for decades it is the opium
            of much of the electorate.

          1. I have seen that excellent moment many times and it is his voice, it has not been dubbed. Basil had won some money on a horse but had to hide it from Sybil and make sure she didn’t find out that he had been gambling again. So Basil coached Manuel to say “I know nothing” if he was asked about the money.

            Then, of course, the lady in the clip thinks that money had been stolen from her room (I think) and when she saw Basil with it, she thought it had been recovered. Basil then tells Manuel to say that he had won it on the horses. Manuel then takes a pose as he delivers his rehearsed line to the wrong woman. Which is why Basil is going mad with frustration.

            That was an excellently written series. 🙂

    4. If the composition of the Commons is supposedly going to be more pro-Brexit, why has Boris ruled out ‘no deal’ in the Tory Manifesto? He’s fallen – or deliberately walked – into the same trap as his predecessor in dropping his best cards on the floor and weakening his negotiating position irretrievably. The only logical answer is he’s going screw us over.

    5. BJ,
      Are you a victim of financial neglect
      regarding mental health in the UK if so my sympathies.
      AKA the turkish delight & amnesties R me, straight as a corkscrew johnson.
      Top eu asset using peoples of your ilk to assist him in obtaining a permanent eu / brussels post.
      The main aim of his campaign is running the good ship ersatz tory onto the rocks and claiming personal insurances in brussels, sod the UK investors, every politico for himself.

      Total severance as was required when leaving the UKIP design office.

  78. Labours latest crazy scheme

    Labour are threatening to de list companies from the London stock exchange if they are deemed not to be green enough

    A few problems with that the London Stock Exchange has nothing at all to do with Labour. Are they planning to Nationalize it ?

  79. I’ve just found out that UKIP are standing in my area – hoorah! They wouldn’t have been my first choice, but at least I have a real Leave party to vote for, so won’t need to spoil my ballot.

      1. “Her facts were lies.”

        Well that doesn’t make sense.
        Do you mean
        “Her statements were lies”?

          1. Yes I can, because I am intelligent, however it is the misuse of language that leads to confusion and dispute among the great unwashed.

  84. “Wednesday 20 November: Politicians should be honest about who foots the bill for ‘free’ services”
    Politicians ? Honest ? Is that a typo

    1. They should have just gone to a large Bierkeller, then they could have used the litre steins to whack those Antifa thugs.

          1. Well I finally lost Rita and Greta went home
            I guess that leaves just me and you…♬

            Chapman/Whitney

      1. Old swedish joke

        There was a Norwegian submarine on lookout for enemy ships south of Norway. The Swedes thought it would be fun to mess with them.
        So a Swedish diver swims to the submarine and knocks on the hatch. Naturally the Norwegian opens the hatch and boom the submarine sinks.

        The Norwegian submarine crew gets another submarine as replacement and does the same mission. So of course the Swede swims down to the sub and knocks on the hatch.
        To the Swedes suprise the same Norwegian opens the hatch so that the submarine sinks once again.

        The Norwegian crew gets one more submarine so that they can keep going with the mission.
        The Swede couldn’t retain himself so he went down to the sub and knocks on the hatch one more time.
        The Norwegian opens the hatch and says:
        -Haha I’m not falling for that again!

        2. To the Brits an Irish joke. To the Americans a Polish joke. And to the Dutch a Belgian joke.

          Walking through Amsterdam, a colleague sees a pile of frites in the gutter. Oh, says he, someone must have asked a Belgian the time.

          True story.

    3. From Wikipedia:
      Today, most candles are made from paraffin wax, a product of petroleum refining. Candles can also be made from microcrystalline wax, beeswax (a byproduct of honey collection), gel (a mixture of polymer and mineral oil), or some plant waxes (generally palm, carnauba, bayberry, or soybean wax).

      So, even the green ones will have the veggie benders in apoplexy…

  90. HAPPY HOUR – Telling Porkies…..

    Being up for anything new and meat free I tried Plant Chef Cumberland sausages from Tesco.
    They were reduced to £1.30 from £2.50 for six. So worth a punt…
    100% plant based – Packed with roasted mushrooms, pea protein and classic seasonings.
    High in protein and Suitable for vegans it stated on the packet.

    They were tasteless and the recipe included palm oil. No idea what the casings were made from …looks and feels like plastic!
    However Maud enjoyed them……

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a85c7cf3365b015e556119704fe6d81487cb174e4bbd882b3b19a67c3cfbb2d8.gif

  91. From Ross Clark in the Speccie Coffee House – I larfed

    “I have already decided how I am going to vote in the general election: for whichever party produces a manifesto with the fewest uses of the phrase ‘green jobs’. Was there ever such a numb-skulled phrase? It has become the fallback for any politician who hasn’t the faintest idea of how we are going to meet these self-imposed targets to eliminate all carbon emissions by 2050, 2030, 2025, next Tuesday or whatever. Are you worried that we might end up with no heavy industry, that you won’t be able to fly or drive anywhere, that the gas grid will be turned off and your house left freezing? Never mind, we’re going to have lots of ‘green jobs’ – which sounds like what Martians do when they crouch down for a crap in some dusty crater.”

    The rest of the article isn’t up to much.
    https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/11/whatever-happened-to-the-lib-dems-smart-approach-to-tax/

    1. What OSEPI wants…… OSEPI gets…………..

      ”OSEPI is the EU policy arm of the Open Society Foundations, a private foundation that has worked for three decades to promote vibrant and tolerant democracies.
      OSEPI works to influence EU policies based on our vision that open society values are at the heart of what the EU does, as a policy maker and as a funder, both inside and outside the European Union.
      The Brussels team provides evidence, argument, and recommendations to policy makers in EU institutions and member states”

      ”Ursula von der Leyen, the new European Commission president, has promised a “European Green Deal” with a new law within her first 100 days. This deal will need to be comprehensive, covering not only rapid decarbonization of the economy but also protection of biodiversity and other planetary limits. It will also need to cover the interaction between climate-related measures and the massive societal disruptions that will come from digital transformation of the economy and aging populations.”

      https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org/voices/confronting-the-eus-three-biggest-challenges?playvideo=1

      1. …vibrant and tolerant democracies.

        Translation:
        Crime ridden shitholes where the only tolerance shown is by the powers of law and order towards the criminals.

  92. Rather a pleasant evening. Walk up the hill to the Nelson, 1st time for a few weeks I’ve gone up the hill, for the music session.
    Two songs, two pints & a soft drink, then back down the hill.
    Excellent!

  93. Well, I have a busy day and tomorrow. I’m getting the spade* out of the garage and popping along to the local cemetery. It has been pretty wet the last few days so the ground should be soft. We’ll do a bit of digging and see what turns up. I’ve been inspired by the new programme on BBC4, “Digging for Britain”.
    I didn’t waste time watching it but the blurb said that they would be digging in an Anglo-Saxon cemetery and finding surprising stuff. So I might be lucky, although the graves are more recent, none over 100 years old. Still.

    *Well, I am not going to do the hard graft myself, am I?

    2. When the brood were still in Bonsall School there was some work done in the churchyard up the village, putting in some cabling or water pipes, and the workmen left a thighbone beside where they’d been working!

    2. Is this real?

      I very much doubt that his advisors would be so stupid as to allow him,

      to split an infinitive, “to unequivocally regret”

      but more seriously to agree to help any appropriate law enforcement agency.

      If they have, and it’s real, he’s toast.

        1. Hi John.

          Have you heard his nephews speaking English?

          It’s enough to make one’s ears bleed.

      2. After Star Trek and its “To boldly go”, does anyone bother about split infinitives any more? After all, “To go boldly” doesn’t have a good ring to it.

          2. Well, my comment was not meant to be a serious criticism at all but us pendants have to keep up the pressure.

  95. Powys female councillor ‘treated like farm animal’

    A female councillor who had her bottom slapped by a male colleague said she felt “treated like a farm animal”.
    Emily Durrant, 34, was at a Brecon Beacons National Park Authority meeting in December 2017 when fellow councillor Edwin Roderick hit her bottom.
    He went on to make threats to try and stop her pursuing a complaint. She said it was part of a wider problem with sexism in local government.
    Powys council said all councillors must attend equality and diversity training.
    On Tuesday, Mr Roderick was suspended as a Powys councillor for four months after a panel found he had been in breach of the code of conduct.
    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/170fd518ff88a5d61115d3279f85febdb78ae1743cb14a4bacd45d0a43e5682c.jpg

    1. “Mr Roderick was suspended as a Powys councillor for four months after a panel found he had been in breach of the code of conduct.”
      In a business, rather than a quango, such action would be followed by instant dismissal. And rightly so. I do hope that Ms Durrant has a significant other who can give Mr Roderick the”taking to” which he so patently deserves.

        1. I had thought that before rushing to judgment, we should have been given the opportunity to see a photo of her arse, rather than one of the errant farmer.
          ;¬)

  96. My wife is watching Hitler ranting on the TV and has remarked on the comparison with the delivery of Jo Swinson. Identical.

    Edit: All actions and poses rehearsed beforehand. A veritable puppet just like Hitler himself.

    1. I particularly liked the line:

      Interestingly today also marked the point at which there will be fewer than 30 UKIP leaders for the rest of 2018. This event is believed to be being celebrated with a punch up in Wtherspoons.

    3. It looks more like: “4 more Prime Ministers until Brexit” but it won’t be that long.

      Events will have come to a head before then, and we will have either voted for a party that really will let us leave the EU, which are none of the big 3. Or we will have been overrun by “new voters” who will take us fully in to the EU anyway, just in time to throw ourselves on the pyre. So let us hope that we get a hung Parliament this time and a real choice of Leave MP’s the next time. 🙂

      As for this one, the Christmas we get we deserve.

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkweTyrRTKw

  100. Labour’s Dawn Butler apologises after getting figures hopelessly wrong

    Politicians have a habit of just making figures up

    A Labour candidate has been forced to issue an apology after claiming there are 3,000 people sleeping rough in her constituency – when the real number is just 248.

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