1,180 thoughts on “Wednesday 7 August: The EU must understand that its bullying tactics won’t work anymore”

  2. Morning everyone. First things first. Many many thanks to Geoff. All hail to the chief!

  3. Giant cannibal parrot once strode the Earth, scientists discover. 7 AUGUST 2019 • 12:01AM.

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/338547384c77ba34e6a2f045448bce3313950468c334876984f24e1b00594139.jpg

    A giant “cannibal” parrot which roamed the Earth 19 million years ago has been discovered by scientists.
    Dubbed Hercules, the one-metre-high bird is the largest parrot ever found, and twice the size of the largest species alive today.

    This would be one of Polly’s ancestors one assumes!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2019/08/06/giant-cannibal-parrot-strode-earth-scientists-discover/

    2. How have they worked out that it was a ‘cannibal’?

      I find a problem with modern journalists is that few of them know what ‘cannibal’ means, especially when referring to non-human animals.

  4. Haven’t seen a picture of Theresa May in the media for a week or more now – bliss!

  5. Good mordy.

    Having experiencit manifole plusty problems last eveny obtailing entrage to the new Nottlish blogloder, I’ve found that with usit deviold means, all sneakly and dodgit round the backgrove with uttery plentifold curseloppers there, my effage has not been in vail.

    Deep joy with hail nolly-nose and folderole there but the vexish questloder remails “Am I really here or am I just a figmold of my own imaginage?” Ah, that is indeel one for the ageloppers.

    Oh yes.

  7. Good morning from Saxon Queen with polished longbow and Axe

    A cloudy start in East Anglia but the sun is breaking through.

    One of our newspapers have reported that the SNP and Labour are planning a spot
    of skullduggery to stop Boris Johnson. Vile leftist undemocratic cretins .

    2. National Socialists plotting and making a pact with Marxist Socialists. Seems familiar.
      What possibly can go wrong??

  8. Kashmir: Pakistan will ‘go to any extent’ to protect Kashmiris. Tue 6 Aug 2019 19.37 BST.

    The announcement prompted anger from Pakistan, which also claims Kashmir and has fought two wars with India over the territory. “Pakistan army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end,” the country’s army chief, Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa, said. “We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations in this regard.

    Lots of coded language there! India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Kashmir. They aren’t going to stop now. The number of flashpoints in the world are multiplying. One spark and the whole lot will go off!

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/aug/06/india-kashmir-pakistan-will-go-to-any-extent-to-protect-kashmiris-special-status

    2. Puts the Irish hard border into perspective. Both India and Pakistan are armed with nuclear weapons so what does Gen Bajwa really mean when he states, “We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfil our obligations in this regard.”

  10. John McDonnel reported as saying [DT] that Labour would not block another Scottish Referendum. The Scottish Labour Party are against another such referendum.

    1. That’s about par for the course, Clyde. Liebour barely seems to know even what day of the week it is. Long may it continue!

  12. Thanks to Geoff I was able to come on here today without needing to log in. Geoff has done a great job in the background.

  13. Being nervous, and embarrassed about my upcoming colonoscopy, on a recommendation I elected to have it done while visiting friends in Brighton, where the beautiful nurses are allegedly gentler and much more accommodating.

    As I lay naked on my side on the table, the gorgeous nurse began my procedure.

    “Don’t worry, at this stage of the procedure it’s quite normal to get an erection,” the nurse told me.

    “I haven’t got an erection,” I replied.

    “No, but I have,” replied the nurse.

    Don’t get a colonoscopy in Brighton

    1. That reminds me of the Digital Rectal Examination I was given by a six-foot-seven Chinaman!

      He was gentle, though! :•)

    2. Excellent, but having had three such procedures in recent years, I am now distinctly nervous about any more!

      Last year a friend of mine experienced his first rectal examination following a slightly raised PSA. He tried to make light of the pain when he said to his (male) GP “Are you sure that’s your finger?” The doctor was not amused.

      ‘Morning, Nanners (manners!)

        1. My private one wasn’t, but he used anaesthetic gel first! I found the large colour video screen fascinating, but apparently they don’t keep recordings ( I did ask). It would have been a nice souvenir.

          1. I supposedly had a local gel, but it didn’t do much good. Then later I was wheeled out to my car, where, when I stood up, & having no feeling ”down there’, I pi$$ed myself.

          2. That’s because they stretch the bladder by pumping saline in. At some point, it has to leave again!

    5. Excellent, but having had three such procedures in recent years, I am now distinctly nervous about any more!

      Last year a friend of mine experienced his first rectal examination following a slightly raised PSA. He tried to make light of the pain when he said to his (male) GP “Are you sure that’s your finger?” The doctor was not amused.

      ‘Morning, Nanners (manners!)

    6. Many years ago, one of my colleagues was having his annual company physical. A sigmoidoscopy was part of the test. He dutifully rolled onto his side and the doctor warned him he would feel the instrument moving around. The doctor asked if he was OK with that. He replied, “As long as I don’t hear heavy breathing it will be fine”.

    1. Wenn Du uns damit mitteilen willst, daß Du heute Geburtstag hast, na gut: Herzlichen Glückwunsch.

      1. I went to skool and we said the Lord’s Prayer in the Morning and sang ” The Only Good German is a Dead German ” in the afternoon.
        Very prescient, because Angela Merkel wasn’t even born then.

        1. “Angela Merkel wasn’t even born then.”

          Proof, indeed, that she is not your Mutti.

    5. Happy birthday Tony, and well done . Hope you have a special day .

      Intrigued to know what your boxes contain, just being nosey , that’s all

      1. At least he has shelves, Bill. Until I retired I made do with my ‘open plan filing system’ until I finally had to submit to Mrs HJ’s instruction to have a major tidy up.

        1. Ooh, I do the filing every weekend.

          Bit sad but it’s the only way to keep on top of the constant deluge of bills, pension information, investment returns, car maintenance, MOTs….

      1. Geoff, I see you have conquered the conundrum of getting a disqus based discussion forum up and running. I’ve tried a few options but none work properly.

        Do you have a set of simple instructions on how you did it?

        1. Yo, TR. Not being into html, web design and the like, I did a bit of research and decided that a WordPress blog would be the easiest way to host the site. There’s a site called wpbeginner.com which is full of useful information. I followed their recommendation, and chose Bluehost to host the site. There’s an offer on at present where three years’ hosting costs around £90 (it sounds better if you call it ‘less than three quid a month’).
          The process was fairly straightforward, the hardest part being choosing a theme from the hundreds on offer. I used a plugin called Disable Comments to deactivate the native WordPress comments facility (with hindsight, this may not have been necessary), and installed the plugin Disqus for WordPress. I chose Disqus’ Basic service, which is free, and everything just works. Good luck…

          2. Geoff,

            Thanks for getting back to me

            The problem I have is that I created a Wix website which sort of worked but needs more formatting work which is like trying to fix a watch with a blindfold.

            I used Disqus HTML copied from one of their help pages, it installed but simply has one page for Disqus comments on every article i posted and it comes back untitled.

            So all I would have is one long comment board.

            I got some help which said that the problem was that the web address for the comments was the editor page and not the actual published page, but as I can only install in an editor that’s clearly not a solution.

            Setting up a site isn’t the problem, its the HTML instructions that are loaded or its the fact it can only be installed in editor mode.

            Do you have a copy of your HTML code you used that I can try? With instructions on what to edit for a new channel?

            What is straight forward to you is likely way past me. My coding days ended with BBC Basic and Fortran 77!

          3. Fortunately, for me, setting up this site hasn’t involved any code at all. It’s a simple blog site, and each day is a new post. I don’t think I have the ability to extract any code, understand what it’s doing, nor do I think it would be of any use to you. Sorry.

          4. Thanks Geoff.

            As i see it, and correct me if i’m wrong, any blog with Disqus requires Disqus to be installed.

            There are “instructions” from Disqus on installation but it doesn’t work like a channel and the instructions bear no relation to the Wix editor. As there are no blogs with Disqus automatically installed it means I’d have to install it.

            If i can’t install it on Wix, then I doubt choosing another blog option would not suffer from the same installation problems because ultimately disqus is HTML and therefore you need to understand the code to understand what its doing or you need some form of “front editor” which asks you questions on what you are trying to do and then edits the code for you.

            So i don’t see how using the same blog option as you would work. What i need is an explanation of how you installed disqus on your blog.

            Was there an auto install option from a help section or something?

            What i can’t find is some youtube video that properly explains what the HTML does in plain English so i can understand it, edit it and make it work.

          8. I think I’m running out of ideas. I suspect WordPress on Bluehost may be somewhat more user (for which read numpty)-friendly than WordPress as hosted by wordpress.com…

          9. I give up. I set up wordpress but on the video it fails to show you the disqus web page you go to because the title of the video is over it and then when I got into a similar looking page I put the details in for the website and category and just got

            There was internal server error while processing your request

            So it looks like its fcuked.

          12. I’m really at the outer limits of my knowledge here, but as I understand it, I’m paying Bluehost partly to host a domain, which in this case is https://nttl.blog . I may be wrong, but it doesn’t look as though you’re using a domain?

          13. And there you go, there’s no point in video instructions unless it assumes you know nothing, nor does it tell you what it assumes you know.

            I don’t know what a domain is, all i know is a website address.

          14. I fear you are assuming I know more about the subject than I actually do. I found the website wpbeginner.com very helpful, and learned just enough to do what had to be done. Although I’m using WordPress, the version I’m using is the one hosted by Bluehost, and I’m accessing it through their site, which looks rather different from that shown on your video above. Google will explain what a domain is far better than I can. I think you probably need one; the link you posted took me to your log in screen, which presumably isn’t what you expected.

          15. Thanks Geoff, i think i’ll give up. There’s no point in going through this further unless the steps and help functions actually match what you see.

            As i said, this is like trying to fix a watch blindfold. There are no help functions that assume no knowledge. There’s nothing on wordpress that says i need to do anything with bluehost or anything else external.

            the video clearly says WORDPRESS editor, which to any sane person would mean an editor in WORDPRESS. As site owner all I have is

            My Site – which looks nothing like the video editor
            Reader – which is nothing to do with my site
            Write – to put up blogs
            an account symbol for Photo/password change
            A bell symbol – for notifications

            https://thebrexittelegraph.home.blog/

          16. If only life were so simple. It’s a shame to give up, though. WordPress has a native comments feature – perhaps that would be easier to configure than Disqus? BTW, I seem to remember reading that Disqus integration is possible with with wordpress.org sites, but less so with wordpress.com sites. EDIT: In fact, here it is: https://help.disqus.com/en/articles/1780359-can-disqus-be-used-on-wordpress-com-sites. I think that’s where your problem lies. And WordPress.com’s Business Plan costs £20 per month. My deal with Bluehost is looking like good value…

          17. I think mine came out with .blog at the end if I remember correctly.

            The simple fact is I’m not paying for it unless i know its going to work and i have zero confidence it would work because there’s no help facility that bears any reality to what i see.

          18. The problem i now have is that the video is showing me a wordpress editor page but I’ve no clue how to get into the editor page and nothing i can see looks anything like the editor in the video.

          20. How do i get into wordpress admin, I hate these video’s that don’t do it step by step. It assumes I know how to get into admin when there’s no buttons I can see that says “admin” or “edit”

          21. Hey TR………….

            How are you ? Very well I hope.

            Obviously now’s the time to close down Not Not and do NTTL again..

            Look forward to seeing you around !

          22. Morning Polly – It might be my only option although i think my blogging is a bit to serious for Nottlers humour based approach!

          23. If you don’t laugh, you end up screaming.

            Or Polly Toynbee. Andy Crosland. The useless director of the Tate Modern, Vince Cable, Shami Chakrabati, Lady Scone, serial trougher. That humourless gay bugger Alan Bennett – in fact, a legion of wasters, troughers, sewage, effluent public sector pigs getting fat off our money for the sole purpose of utterly clucking up society, economy, culture and values.

          25. Thank you so much, Geoff. So how can we contribute towards the £90? I am happy to pass on cheques made out to you, to those who don’t have your email.

            Edit: ooops – americanism slipped in and taken out now…

    11. Happy birthday.
      But unless you yell ‘Ally’s Snackbar’, you’ll have some stiff competition amongst this motley bunch.

    18. Very many happy returns, and have a wonderful day! You look remarkably young for your age.

  15. Japanese chain FamilyMart apologises as video of rats in shop goes viral. 7 AUGUST 2019 • 6:30AM.

    Video clips posted on YouTube and Twitter appeared to show at least six of the long-tailed rodents, with some descending from refrigerated display racks stocked with “onigiri” rice balls and bento meals before scampering down an aisle.

    The rats in this video seem singularly well fed and more playful than hungry!

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/08/07/japanese-chain-familymart-apologises-video-rats-shop-goes-viral/

  17. More madness from the Common Purpose idiots of the Metropolitan Police:-

    British Muslims should not feel forced to assimilate, says top counter terrorism officer
    by Martin Evans, crime correspondent
    6 AUGUST 2019 • 9:16PM

    British Muslims should not be forced to “assimilate”, the country’s most senior counter terrorism officer has said, as he called for greater understanding of marginalised communities.

    Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu, who is the country’s highest ranking Asian officer, said that in a successful, integrated society, people should be free to practise their religion and culture openly rather than having to hide away.

    He also said more needed to be done to eradicate poverty, improve education and increase social mobility if community cohesion was to be improved.

    But he admitted Prevent, the Government’s flagship counter terrorism strategy, had been “badly handled” and warned it needed to be more community led if it was to be successful.

    Mr Basu said it was no longer enough to rely on just the police and security services to win the fight against extremism and terrorism, explaining that wider society also had a role.

    He said the majority of those who were seeking to carry out attacks were British born or raised and therefore more needed to be done to explore social problems they were experiencing.

    Rejecting the idea that British Muslims needed to assimilate, Mr Basu, who is of Indian heritage, said: “Assimilation implies that I have to hide myself in order to get on. We should not be a society that accepts that.

    “You should be able to practise your culture or religion openly and still be accepting of others, and others be accepting of you. That is a socially inclusive society.”

    His comments come amid the ongoing debate around the best way to integrate Britain’s diverse population.

    Boris Johnson recently said it was vital that immigrants who came to Britain learned to speak English if they were to enjoy the benefits this country had to offer.

    Speaking during the Conservative Party leadership campaign, Mr Johnson praised the “waves” of migrants who had come to the UK and “bought into our national culture”, but said too many could not speak English.

    He said: “I want everybody who comes here and makes their lives here to be and to feel British, that is the most important thing. And to learn English.

    “Too often there are parts of our country, parts of London still and other cities as well where English is not spoken by some people as their first language. And that needs to be changed.”

    In 2016, Dame Louise Casey, the Government’s integration tsar, said a “common language” would help to “heal rifts across Britain” and called for a target to be set by which everyone in the country could speak English.

    There has also been a fierce debate over the rights of Muslim women to wear the full face veil in public.

    Mr Johnson came in for criticism when he compared women who wear burqas and niqabs to letter boxes, but he also stressed he believed in the right of people to wear what they wanted.

    In 2011 France became the first country in Europe to pass a law banning the full face veil.

    Since 2014 teachers in Britain have been required by law to teach British values in schools, but there have been fears that Muslim schools have failed to encourage greater integration with other communities.

    Among the British values that are now required by law to be taught in schools is the tolerance of those of different faiths and beliefs.

    In an interview with The Guardian, Mr Basu said the UK needed to look closer to home to understand what drove people to terrorism.

    He explained that the majority of those who were seeking to carry out attacks were British born or raised and therefore more needed to be done to explore social problems they were experiencing.

    He said people who experienced poverty and deprivation whatever their backgrounds and culture, were more “malleable” to terrorist recruitment.

    Mr Basu said: “Policies that go towards more social inclusion, more social mobility and more education are much more likely to drive down violence … than all the policing and state security apparatus put together. It is much more likely to have a positive effect on society.

    “The prescription for me is around social inclusion – it’s social mobility, it’s education, it’s opportunity.”

        1. ‘Morning, BoB, “Surprisingly, the man is not a Muslim but a Hindu!” and that explains his seeming tolerance to Muslims.

          I can only think that he doesn’t know of that bit in the Quran that tells all Muslims to convert all or kill those who refuse to convert.

        3. Obviously hasn’t studied his homeland’s history c. 1947.
          Maybe Mummy and Daddy could bring him up to scratch.

          1. Many years ago (1979) I was away on a series of Engineering and Management courses from work, residential, each a week long attended by about 30 engineers from all over the country. There were two engineers there of obviously Indian Sub-continent origin, maybe arriving here as children, they still retained an accent, but other than that their English was perfect. One was from Yorkshire, the other from the West Midlands. One had a square face, the other a narrow, oval head. Their features were quite different, but we thought nothing of it.

            The thirty or so people (one female) from England, Wales and Scotland looked on them as ‘Indian’ and we thought they were both fine friendly people and good socially in the evenings. To us they were just engineers.

            On the second of the four courses, a couple of months after the first, one of the more observant of our group noticed that although everyone got on with them and they with us, there was a distance between the two. He asked the one from Yorkshire if there was a history between them, had they met before?

            ‘No’, was the reply. ‘I am a Sikh and he is from Pakistan’. ‘We don’t like each other’.

            They’d never met before attending that course.

      2. The same Neil Basu who thought it was a good idea to threaten our free press with prosecution if it dared to print government leaks…

        ‘Morning, BoB.

      1. All of them (not that islam is a nation) – their loyalty is to the caliphate (the ummah/islam) rather than the country in which they have citizenship.

    4. Last night, comments were clicking up like a domesday clock. Today they have been vaporised and disallowed.

  19. It’s still here, it wasn’t a dream.

    That’s one impossible thing before breakfast.

    Thank you.

  20. Morning all. Glad to be here.

    SIR – The behaviour of Michel Barnier, who demanded control over every aspect of the Withdrawal Agreement during the Brexit negotiations, has come back to bite the EU (“Brussels expects no deal”, report, August 6).

    Britain’s sovereign Parliament rejected such railroading tactics three times and now, with the arrival of our new Prime Minister, the EU should be showing far more pragmatism. With Theresa May’s version of the Withdrawal Agreement dead in the water, the EU must accept that some change is necessary in order to get an acceptable deal through Parliament.

    Boris Johnson has articulated the benefits of such a deal, and most people would support him on this. But he is right to recognise that a no-deal Brexit may be required.

    B J Colby
    Bristol

    1. SIR – Britain is the fifth-largest economy in the world, and right on the doorstep of the EU. If EU leaders are saying that they do not want a trade deal with us, the people of Europe have a serious problem – and they need to find representatives with a more realistic outlook.

      Why should Europe suffer because unelected EU commissioners simply want their own way?

      Mick Ferrie
      Mawnan Smith, Cornwall

      1. They want to punish us, Mick, and don’t care about collateral damage on their own “side”.

  21. The whole Brexit enterprise to leave the EU is now starting to resemble a drugs mule trying to escape from a street gang, or as someone posted on GP a white girl trying to escape from a Pakistani grooming gang, the EU are mustering their gang members over here especially now the Left and the SNP to try and bully us into remaining, while the MSM is hiding the truth and using project fear to keep us in line.

  22. Morning again

    SIR – While there has been serious erosion of the modern concrete raceway at the Toddbrook Reservoir near Whaley Bridge, the dam and design of the reservoir have proved remarkably sound (Letters, August 6).

    Reservoirs are essential because they limit summer flooding and provide a supply of water. Any suggestion that they should not be uphill from settlements rather defies the laws of physics and geography, and calls for inquiries into decisions made in the 19th century are unnecessary.

    I would agree, however, that there is a need for a better understanding of the effects of climate change, including a review of the impact of higher-intensity rainfall.

    Roger Smith
    Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire

    1. Spoiled by the last line implying that climate change no matter how remote might usefully be included in the text.

    2. ” a review of the impact of higher-intensity rainfall.”
      More rainfall means means more rain. Less rainfall means reservoirs can run dry, which is not good. Simples.

    3. “I would agree, however, that there is a need for a better understanding of the effects of climate change, including a review of the impact of higher-intensity rainfall. a lack of maintenance.
      Fixed it.

  23. SIR – One of the reasons over-65s don’t downsize is the need – or desire – to be able to accommodate children and their families when they visit from the distant places in which they have chosen to live and work.

    Even my under-occupied three-bedroom house will not be large enough when my family of a mere six people arrives at Christmas. With four of those coming from America, I do not want to tell them to find a hotel.

    Tony Royle
    Penrith, Cumbria

    1. Err…one of the reasons why over-65s downsize is that they have stopped working and can’t afford to keep a big house going any more ….
      (NTTL people may have difficulty getting their heads round that one)

      1. Small wonder some over 65s can’t afford to keep their large houses going. Have you any idea of the cost of staff these days?

      2. I’d say it’s more to do with the cleaning. There’s more to clean in a big house…assuming one can actually see the dirt and dust…

        1. I have an excellent cleaner – she is a treasure. I would struggle without her as neither MOH nor I are able to do much these days. MOH because of the stroke and I because of the arthritis in my hands.

          1. I’m sorry to hear that.
            I’m ok and mobile most days, but I do also suffer from sciatica caused by a misaligned vertebrae which stops me wanting to do much.
            If I really was able to do any cleaning any more, I’d have to get someone else in to do it for me.
            I also find not putting reading glasses on so I can’t see the dust and dirt helps. 😂

          2. That’s life – it’s better than the alternative 🙂 I shall know my time’s up when I can’t cope with the garden any more 🙁

          3. I replied. My reply disappeared. Hmm. 😕

            I find not putting reading glasses on helps.
            I can’t see all the dust without them….

  24. BBC Breakfast 7:45.

    “12 year old children should not be taught how to use make-up”.
    But it’s ok to teach them about LGBT issues, or dress up in a niqab for the day.

  25. Why do I have to keep logging in after I have refreshed the page? This is quite tedious.

    2. Morning, Grizz. I assume you’re using some kind of ad-blocker? Set it to trust this site, and the problem should go away. It has worked for me and a few others…

      1. Morning, M.

        I bet you can’t name them! [I can, because I’m a smug bügger!] :•)

          1. Nooooo ….. that’s Toots.
            Plug, Danny, Smiffy, Herbert (?), Fatty (?) ….. um … er ….

          2. Minnie was a stand alone character, like Dennis the Menace. The Bash Street Kids are:

            Toots, Plug, Sydney (Toots’s brother), Fatty
            Wilfrid, Danny, Smiffy, Spotty, ‘Erbert.

          5. I got the Beezer and the Dandy, but my mate got the Beano and the Topper, so I read his every week.

  27. A frightening prospect, perhaps worse than a Corbyn Government?

    If the people’s Boris can’t beat Parliament, prepare for Prime Minister Ken Clarke
    PHILIP JOHNSTON
    6 AUGUST 2019 • 9:30PM

    Among the many unlikely aspects of Boris Johnson’s elevation to the premiership, beyond the fact that it happened at all, is that he is the first occupant of No 10 for 140 years to come from the Commons’ backbenches. Ever since William Gladstone became prime minister for the second time in 1880, all the others on taking office have either been in the government or were leaders of the opposition.

    To be pedantic, Mr Johnson became leader of the opposition the day before entering No 10 because Theresa May stayed on for a final flourish in the House. But you get the point. Gladstone stepped down as leader of the Liberal Party after its defeat in 1874 by Disraeli, but its victory in 1880 was attributed to his relentless attack on Tory foreign policy during a successful campaign to win a seat in Midlothian.

    When Disraeli resigned, Queen Victoria invited the Liberal leader Spencer Cavendish, Lord Hartington, to become her new prime minister. But he declined, saying the majority in the Commons was a “Gladstone-created one” and she should send for him instead.

    The Queen, however, disliked Gladstone, and told her private secretary Henry Ponsonby “she will sooner abdicate than send for or have any communication with that half-mad firebrand who would soon ruin everything and be a dictator. Others but herself may submit to his democratic rule but not the Queen.”

    In the end submit she did, though under sufferance, thereby averting a constitutional crisis. Her antipathy to the Grand Old Man was well known among voters but that only served to boost his popularity. He was affectionately dubbed “the People’s William”, just as Mr Johnson now wants to be “the People’s Boris”.

    His aides have let it be known that he proposes to set himself up as the champion of the people, who voted by a majority to leave the EU, against a parliament that has refused to honour their wishes. However, unlike Oliver Cromwell, the last leader to dismiss parliament, he hasn’t got an army to ensure he gets his way. He must rely upon parliamentary procedure, the law and constitutional convention, none of which are easy to manage without a majority.

    There are many uncertainties in the weeks ahead but one thing we think we know is that there is a majority in the Commons against leaving the EU without a deal. When this specific point was voted on in March, the Government lost. No 10 was quick to say that it changed nothing, was not binding and “we will still be leaving on March 29”. We know now that was rubbish. So what are we to make of all the talk about Boris brazening it out by staying on as Prime Minister even if he lost a motion of no confidence?

    First of all Labour must table such a motion. Jeremy Corbyn said this week that he would do so at “the appropriate very early time”, whatever that means. He has reason to be cautious. Defeating a Government on a no confidence motion is not easy. Since the Second World War it has happened just once, in April 1979 when James Callaghan lost and then only by a single vote. He resigned and called an election.

    Matters are complicated now by the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act (FTPA) introduced by the Coalition in 2011. To my mind, fixed terms of four years are a good idea but this legislation is a mess. There are only two ways under the legislation that a general election can happen outside of the five year term. Either two thirds of all MPs vote for one or the Commons passes a motion of no confidence in the Government by a simple majority.

    The measure was supposed to prevent prime ministers going to the country when it suited their partisan purposes; but it was put to the test in 2017 when Theresa May secured the necessary backing to hold a general election (though in view of the outcome she probably wishes she hadn’t). Alternatively, if the Commons passes a motion of no confidence in the Government there is then a 14-day interregnum during which another government can be formed that can command the confidence of the House.

    The difficulty is that the legislation sets out no provisions as to how this might happen and no-one rectified this flaw when it was going through parliament. Let us imagine that Mr Corbyn tables a no confidence motion when MPs return on September 3 for debate the next day. If it passes what happens then? Mr Johnson remains as Prime Minister but talks will then take place among other parties to see if they can agree on an alternative.

    It is inconceivable that this could be Mr Corbyn since most of his own MPs do not want him as their leader, let alone Prime Minister. It cannot be anyone from the current Cabinet, all of whom are pledged to see Brexit through on October 31 deal or no deal. Similarly a Remainer Labour MP like Yvette Cooper or Sir Keir Starmer would be unacceptable to most Tories.

    There is one Conservative with the reputation, experience and pedigree who might command agreement and that is Ken Clarke. As an implacable Remainer – indeed the only Conservative to vote against triggering Article 50 – he nonetheless reconciled himself to leaving and voted three times for Mrs May’s abortive deal.

    He also occupies a quasi-constitutional role as Father of the House. Could he be the next Prime Minister plucked from the backbenches? It sounds fanciful but stranger things have happened. Boris Johnson, after all, is in No 10. However, there is nothing in the FTPA to explain how any of this might happen. At the end of the 14 days, a motion that this House has confidence in “any government of Her Majesty” needs to be passed; but if Mr Johnson has not resigned he still leads the Government. No-one has yet explained how a defeated incumbent can be made to leave other than by exhortation. Will the Queen have to intervene?

    If no new administration is in place after 14 days it falls to Mr Johnson to decree the election date, which he could set for after October 31. There would then be no Parliament sitting in the run up to Brexit. Legally, there is nothing to stop this. Constitutionally, it would be an outrage against convention. Politically? The People’s Boris may win the day and the ensuing election. But there will be blood.

    1. “As an implacable Remainer – indeed the only Conservative to vote against triggering Article 50 – he [Clarke] nonetheless reconciled himself to leaving
      and voted three times for Mrs May’s abortive deal.” As May’s WA was not leaving in any practical sense of the word, I suspect Clarke had not “reconciled himself to leaving” at all. He might even have read this document, unlike Maastricht.

    2. The general public are the ones being harrassed , not the spoilt over protected MP’s

      Law and order has virtually broken down , the public are being victimised by the police, traffic wardens , criminals and nutcases at large .

      We are fearful as to when the next outrageous terrorist attack might take place , we worry about abysmal lateness of public transport, overcrowded infrastructure, long waiting lists to see specialists , suspicious looking knapsacked foreigners, possibly illegal immigrants , beggars , our freedom of speech, our outrage at the inefficient elected members of parliament .. and the biased BBC promoting diversity .

      The list is endless, and so is our uncertainty.

      1. Ah, public transport. You pushed a button there.
        The Sultana made a trip up to Elgin from the Borders a couple of days ago. She decided to go by bus for two reasons. It is free. There is very awkward limited parking where we stay in Elgin so did not want to take vehicle.. Bus from Borders to Edinburgh encountered no problems.
        The bus from Edinburgh to Inverness left on time and stuck to the timetable until Perth. The driver received a phone call from HO to say there had been a crash on the A9 at Dunkeld and he should find another route. He drove out of Perth and was well on the way to Alyth until a passenger, hiking type, informed him he was on the wrong road and should have turned off 10 miles previously. The driver found a place to turn round and went back to the turn off. the road was a typically Scottish back road, six feet wide and composed entirely of bends. Eventually the driver got back to the A9 North of Dunkeld and continued, pressing on to make up time.
        The normal stopping place in Pitlochry was coned off so there was no one to pick up. After a miles or so a couple of passengers, approached the driver and told him that when they got on in Edinburgh they had asked to be let off in Pitlochry. So the driver stopped and let them off.
        On reaching Aviemore the driver said that he had been caught by the bus behind and could they transfer to that bus. This happened in the pouring rain. The drivers transferred and the bus duly arrived in Inverness. The Sultana was now two hours behind the planned journey and had missed the connecting bus to Elgin. The bus station was closed. The nearby railway station was closed and there was no information about trains. The rain continued to deluge from the darkening skies. So the Sultana took a taxi the 60 or so miles to Elgin.
        Total journey time 10 hours compared to the average five hours by car in comfort. A nightmare, but nothing unusual in Scotland or as regards public transport.
        On our daughters last trip back from London, the two previous trains had been cancelled and her train was crowded with three times the number of passengers it was equipped to carry. And it arrived late at Waverley.
        Forty years ago I commuted from Edinburgh to London fairly regularly by train and plane and in the space of about four years never encountered anything quite as awful as my wife and daughter have in the last six months.

      1. Apparently his wife is white.

        I wonder what it is like for the poor woman having had children with and having to live with this oaf who loathes, despises and constantly slags off white people?

        1. Well, she could watch commercial television. The adverts are replete with miscegenation; black/white couples and half-breed kids all living happily together. She might get some pointers.

          1. You shouldn’t believe everything you see on TV, Horace, particularly in adverts – they aren’t real, you know 🙂

  29. Yo All

    It is ‘strange’ that the MSM use the word Fall to cover the story of the young boy who was thrown off a building and the girl who jumped from a plane

    2. Theoretically Islamic law requires the cutting off of hands as punishment for theft but of course everything is allowed against the infidels in the service of Allah.

  31. I was rather hoping that this new forum might be troll- and irritant-free. A site where the more reasonable, intelligent and genuinely humorous posters would be able to operate in an environment free of the twàts and cretins who only exist to destroy rational debate and whose only remit is to annoy.

    Sadly I then woke up!

      1. Morning, Minty.

        We need a herpetologist then. [Personally, I find snakes to be a much nicer and far more intelligent life form than trolls.]

        2. I’m waiting for his off-sider to turn up and start haranguing us on the price of manure!

      2. Firstborn has forest trolls and mountain trolls at his farm.
        Never come across data trolls.

  32. Look at this .. and what do you think?

    99 overseas nurses set to join Poole Hospital after £2.5m is spent on agency staff

    For several years the hospital’s board has been running campaigns to recruit permanent staff from abroad.

    Last year 42 nurses, mainly from Italy, India and the United Arab Emirates, joined.

    However, efforts have been increased with recent new recruits coming from countries including Ghana and Trinidad and Tobago.

    https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/17820605.99-overseas-nurses-set-join-poole-hospital-2-5m-spent-agency-staff/

      1. I would prefer a European like a Pole or even a Dutch nurse attending me than someone in a Burka or similar ..

        We should be training our own nurses .. instead of putting them through university with huge debts to pay off eventually..

        1. Couldn’t agree more. A colleague of mine went through the nursing degree process, only to find that she didn’t like nursing. What a waste! And how many young people well-suited to the profession are put off by the thought of years of academic study.

          1. In the old apprenticeship, days you learn within a few weeks whether working on the wards was your cup of tea.
            Incidentally, student nurses were not recognised as students by the NUS, thereby losing out on many useful perks.

          2. We also underwent academic study in the 1960’s and we also worked on the wards as students, it was hard work , but we were a different generation to the present .

    2. None from NZ, Oz, Canada?
      And how about spending the money on training our own nurses instead of asset-stripping the developing world?? Just a thought.

    5. My BTL Comment:-

      Bob_of_Bonsall1 min ago
      0Why are we denuding poor countries of their much needed medical staff?
      I’ve no problem with accepting overseas staff for training posts who then return home to use their new skills for the benefit of their own people, but this appears to be taking nurses etc from countries that can least afford to lose them.

    6. 99 nurses at £35,000 per annum, all in, that is including employment costs, pension etc works out at over £3.5m per annum.
      So, some financial savings of up to £200,000 per month? However, there are other considerations such as language skills and ethical stuff, as BoB points out?

  33. Hmm – can’t post an image unless I’m logged in – the snag there is that I am logged in!

      1. Morning – it does seem that minor issues with the new site are browser (or ad-blocker) related.

        1. Ironically, I’m fine on the BBC laptop, which uses Chrome. I can’t see a way to remove the add blocker on Safari when using my iPhone but it’s not a big deal. A row of symbols appears and if I click on the D, I’m in. It’s not as if I have to enter my password every time.

  34. I like our new home. I eagerly bookmarked it and adjusted the name to NoTTL and hit return. The autocorrect changed the name to Nottingham. The question comes to mind are we the Sheriff and his men or Robin Hood and his outlaws?

    3. Well we are the Merrie Men Uncle but we do have a couple of tax collectors on site!

  36. Is it just me being higgerant, or is R4 making something of a meal of the recent death of an American authoress who happened to be black?

    1. Just had to look at the BBC News site (something I rarely do) to find out who’s died. Generally only find out about these things on here or when a producer needs some archive footage for the obit. I’d never heard of Toni Morrison and don’t suppose I’ve missed much?

    2. I have to confess Joseph in the face of all the encomiums about her that I had never heard of her until the other day!

      1. Talking of “people I have never heard of” I came on to this (new) site today and read a post by Tony, at which point I thought “Must be a new addition to the NoTTLer gang”. Then, when Tony told us it was his birthday, a whole host of NoTTLers wished “Tony” a happy one as if they were all his old friends. Can anyone tell me who this Tony is, i.e. what he used to post as? I am totally confused (but also I am Elsie Bloodaxe).

        1. He’s been around for quite a while Elsie though I think he took a break earlier this year!

          1. Very true, Conway. It’s just that (to me) it seemed as all the birthday greetings came from old friends.

    3. Not only of colour but she wrote for people of colour and denigrated (is that word allowed?) white folk.

      Ideal beeboid material, I’d say.

    4. As soon as I saw the announcement, I knew the MSM would be over it like a rash.
      This will last until at least the funeral.

  37. Can someone who is a “Techie” give me some advice. On the old site, there was a “Notifications” button which, when pressed, told you who had upvoted you and who had replied (along with their reply). I can no longer see a “Notifications” button on this new site.

        3. On the right hand side, near the top – your name should be there – at the start of the comments.

    2. Where’s the privy?

      According to the Urban Dictionary cottaging is the act of men having anonymous sexual encounters with other men in public toilets.

      1. Some of us only have the dictionary we pinched from school and are unfamiliar with modern terminology. There was a chap round the back collecting eggs so I assume he was the ‘en counter, but don’t know. He certainly didn’t know where you’d all decamped to.

        (Morning Rastus).

      2. Morning M,
        It must bring into question welfare payments
        “are these food rustlers getting enough” ? along with food banks maybe we are neglecting our guest’s needs, and should really double up on their welfare payments.
        This warrants a cross party lab/lib/con debate
        no need of supporter / voter input as they have always voted for the intake ongoing.
        Odd though, if she is an islamic ideology follower then in her place of family origin, her remains would be on public show outside the supermarket as an anti thieving warning.

  42. ‘Morning All

    “Donald Trump is right – however tempting it may be, we can’t abandon Isil fighters to rot in hell”

    Con Coughlin

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/06/donald-trump-right-however-tempting-may-cant-abandon-isil/
    The warmonger in chief is obeying his Saudi paymasters again,doubtless he wants them tried in the UK,given a slap on the wrist and released to their adoring “communities” with free housing and a life on bennies
    Screw that,hand them over to the Yahzidi women let natural justice prevail

  43. Met police examine Vladimir Putin’s role in Salisbury attack. ed 7 Aug 2019 06.00 BST.

    Putin is assessed by UK intelligence agencies as having been “likely” to have approved of the attack in March 2018 on Sergei Skripal, a former Russian military officer, and his daughter, both of whom were left seriously ill but survived.

    Dawn Sturgess later died after coming across a discarded perfume bottle used by two Russian intelligence agents to carry the military grade nerve agent.

    The Affair at the Vicarage. by Agatha Christoff.

    “It was the Grushkov brothers Hercule. Everyone knows that. ”

    “Really mon ami?”

    “Yes of course. They got off the train in St Mary Meade, knocked the snow off their boots and walked up to the Vicarage; prised the cap off one of the milk bottles on the step and then poured the cyanide in from the Lucozade bottle before resealing it and dropping it off in a litter bin in town thinking that no one would ever find it!”

    Poirot fixed Hastings with a thoughtful glance.

    “Perhaps mon ami but how to explain the Vicar and Mam’selle Julia swallowing the cyanide with their Corn Flakes then driving into town to feed the ducks at the river, followed by several drinks at the Inn and afterwards a meal at the Horse and Cart before sitting down in the park and both succumbing, at precisely the same time, to its effects, three and one half hours later.

    “I don’t see anything wrong with that Poirot.”

    Of course not mon ami that is why I, Hercule Poirot, am the world’s greatest detective and you are an English moron.”

    “Great heavens Poirot. Are you saying that the Russians didn’t do it?

    “Ah it is a pretty problem n’est-ce pas mon ami?”

    “Well if it wasn’t the Grushkovs who the devil was it?”

    “We shall put the little grey cells to work mon cher Hastings and then very soon we shall know all!”

    https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/07/salisbury-attack-metropolitan-police-examine-role-vladimir-putin-russia

    2. I suppose that thinking this saga would disappear along with May’s malign reign was a mistake.

      1. This is from a Police Force that cannot track down Government leaks in its own backyard and its going to figure out if a foreign leader was involved in a Fake News attack?

        1. …and also from a Police Farce which regarded the fantasies of an obvious nutjob as “credible and true” and then went on to destroy the reputations of those he named.

          ‘Morning, Minty.

        2. I think the answer will be found if they can discover who supplied the false flags.

    3. Are they going to raid the Kremlin and bully Putin’s white haired old babushka?

    1. Thanks so much for that P-T. The only ‘Rock Concert’ I ever ever attended was with my unlamented wife2, an open air event in midsummer on the Jersey shore (=NJ, USA). To my great surprise, I loved every second of it, the culmination being when Tina , microphone in hand, danced the wiggling Mick Jagger off the stage. He was terrified and vividly humiliated by her greater talent.

      1. Me piaceri….

        Those were the days…rock concerts Quo, Led Zep and Dire Straits…..great stuff.

  47. Morning everyone. And well done again to Geoff for our new site. It’s brilliant and so much clearer than the old one.

    I see that AC Neil Basu, the highest ranking counter terrorism officer, has said “British Muslims “should not feel forced to assimilate”. Since when have they attempted to assimilate, let alone been forced to ? And guess what, he’s Asian.

    2. Worth noting the heroic defender of a free press,the DT,has promptly erased the hundreds of comments below that article as if they had never been
      Can’t have the plebs disagreeing with our masters can we?

    3. I won’t assimilate into a country where men in military style uniforms make political speeches telling me what to think.

    4. Cressida Dick Head and Neil Busu-Turd should both be loudly saying that ‘incomers’ MUST not demand that we WASPs assimilate their way of life

      Also, that the incomers MUST obey our laws and respect our way of life

      1. ‘Cressida Dick Head and Neil Busu-Turd should both be loudly saying …‘

        They are paid to uphold the law without fear or favour. They are not paid to make blatantly political speeches. Basu in this instance should reprimanded and warned as to his future public conduct.

    5. Yes, British Muslims should. Firstly, there are no British Christians, there are just Britons. They’ve got to drop the prejudice and stop trying to stand out and accept that they came here for something. if that something was to overturn our culture, they need to be reminded otherwise – or deported.

      They’ve got to stop sticking out and being treated specially.

  49. Only a few hours old and I clicked onto the avatar of a returning troll (one in yet a new guise) and discovered that earlier today he trawled through old NoTTL pages to specifically locate a serial downvoter and then invited her onto this new forum.

    Such a shame that a virgin site will be despoiled so soon after its Genesis.

      1. I was just welcoming TR to the new NTTL site, Ped.

        A warm welcome to you too of course, as it appears you feel left out..

        2. Always resisted that. It seems something done by the shifty, those with something to hide.

          However one forgets that it isn’t only friends who look at the thing. The wife does as well.

          1. I made mine private a few years ago at Rik’s suggestion when I was being trolled. It’s not that there is anything to hide but it does stop anyone trawling through my old posts. I saw no reason to open it again.

      2. It does look as though it’s about to go up in flames any minute……… bit surprised it’s not rainbow coloured.

        1. I would have thought you’d be delighted. After all, it does look like a hedgehog.

      3. Afternoon, Rik.

        Yesterday I copied 48 comments from former police colleagues on a closed FaceAche forum (on this very topic) and sent copies to my old inspector for comment. Surprisingly there was a 50/50 split on support for her.

        Those criticising her were of the opinion that a senior officer (second in command of her force area and the rank that is specifically in charge of discipline) ought to set a high standard in uniform and presentation. Especially when she will be called upon to impose disciplinary sanctions on an errant officer, who will no doubt look at her and think “How can someone dressed like that admonish me for my lack of standards?” and “How do officers appearing before her keep a straight face?”

        Other, more forgiving, ex comrades were of the opinion that if is a choice between having an excellent boss with shìt hair, or having a shìt boss with excellent hair, then they know which they would choose.

        One put matters into perspective when she was interviewed on local BBC telly sitting alongside the county’s chief fire officer, who was wearing his dress uniform replete with white collar and black tie. He put his profession in a good light whilst she did not do the same for her profession.

        It is also interesting to know that many old coppers, in my time, were ex-forces (including Royal Navy) who were obliged, by standing orders, to wear their sleeves down, even in an oppressive heat wave, lest they showed a glimpse of a tattoo on their forearms! I wonder if those standing orders have been “modernised” so that clowns, like Swann, can dress up like Adam Ant and still pretend to be a policewoman?

          1. Standards have slipped right throughout society since my day, Jules.

            The human species is now in retrograde development and has set a course back towards the primordial soup from whence it first emerged. The conclusive evidence is all around us.

        3. Doesn’t she need to wear a hat? The only hat she could stick on that bouff would be a fascinator.

  51. ‘Morning, Peeps.

    Away for a few days, so time here is a bit limited. However, a big ‘thank you’ to Geoff and others for NOTTL Mk2. Well done!

  52. MPs might call on Ken Clarke, the Father of the House, in a last-ditch plot to stop a no-deal Brexit.

    Philip Johnston, DT.

    Or they might call on the Queen to sack Boris Johnson if he defies the vote of confidence.

    Such desperation measures by the clueless remainiacs. Do they really think they could get Her Majesty to “sack” her prime minister and thereby assist their warped ambitions of diluting her sovereign influence even further? These sad and dangerous clowns need consigning to history, and fast!

    1. Brexit day approaches..the clarke is ticking………
      These Remainers who have thrown the referendum result out of the window, make our country look sick.

    2. Not wishing to blow my own trumpet or anything, here are comments to an article in the Spectator by James Kirkuk:

      https://disqus.com/home/discussion/spectator-new-blogs/brexiteers_should_be_careful_about_burning_the_british_constitution/#comment-4568294139
      ” Brexiteers Should Be Careful About Burning The British Constitution.”

      I’m not going to inflict the actual article on anyone, as it’s just more Remainer projection, you can read it by clicking on the headline link in the article, but the comments btl are priceless.

      1. Blimey, lms2,reading down you’re leading a fair old pack of baying hounds after his b lood.

    3. I was reading yesterday evening that Grieve was saying about the Queen in support of his desire for her to intervene “she’s not there just to be decorative” – dear God, they are getting so desperate now. How I detest that man with his lizard, tortoisey mean-looking face. I wonder what he really stands to lose if we exit.

      1. He thinks he’ll lose his mansion in France, his development land in France, his property in Portugal and the money he gets from the EU (ie our money redistributed).

    5. The endless outpourings of desperation on the BBC all trying to publicly broadcast ways and methods of getting rid of Boris, stopping Brexit is absurd. It’s like having a terrified group ringing their chums up to come up with a plan to overthrow the government.

      I slapped the sleep button when the oaf Miller came on. Why can’t she say ‘My husband and my benefactor make a lot of money from the EU. If the UK leaves that money stops and we really want to keep getting rich off your taxes. We don’t care what you want, we’re greedy. It’s our plaything, you don’t get a say. Dammit, that’s why we support it, so frankly, all you thick people had better shut up because we’re not taking our grubby hands out of your pockets’.

      Oh, because that’d be honest.

      1. That’s it, isn’t it? It’s not love of the eu, it is not any guiding moral principle or conviction, it is all about greed and the love of money and from whatever that source may be.

    1. I do not want to see another war between India and Pakistan.
      However, a small part of me wonders if a war did break out and went nuclear but did not escalate beyond their borders, might it not have the salutary effect of concentrating minds on preventing nuclear proliferation?

  59. The old place as already been abandoned, cobwebs are forming .
    Much prefer the design of this new place.

  60. RAF jets scramble to intercept five Russian aircraft as Putin flexes military muscles. Express. KUMAIL JAFFER. 09:42, Wed, Aug 7, 2019.

    The interceptions were the fifteenth and sixteenth scrambled by British planes on duty since May.

    Though they were successful, NATO leaders are likely to be concerned over what they see as Putin’s belligerence in the region.
    Russian forces are reportedly carrying out a vast naval drill in the Baltic Sea.

    Moscow blocked off five vast zones of the waters to carry out exercises involving over 4,000 personnel and 20 deadly warships.

    This is either idiocy of the first order or they hired Jaffer when he came ashore at Dover last week. The exercise is being carried out in the Black not the Baltic Sea and the planes they are intercepting are going about their lawful business operating from the Kaliningrad enclave where any exit is required to fly close to Estonian airspace! Perhaps we should just stop harassing them when they are minding their own business!

    https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1162701/russia-news-raf-jets-scramble-russian-aircraft-vladimir-putin-world-war-3-nato-spt

      1. Yes Mr Jaffer seems to be unaware that the Baltic and Black seas are a couple of thousand miles apart!

        1. And Kaliningrad is situated between Poland and Lithuania, quite a distance from Estonia. To get into Estonian airspace from Kaliningrad they would first have to fly through Lithuanian and Latvian airspace to get there.

    3. Fifteenth and Sixteenth since May? 3 months.

      It was daily routine for the Phantoms and Tornado F3s from Leuchars.

      2. ‘Afternoon, Basset, also daily routine when I served on 85 Squadron at RAF West Raynham in Norfolk in the early 1960s. They are always probing our defences.

    1. Apologies but the founding prinicple of the EU was NOT free trade. it was the control and domination of the nations of Europe with the sole, singular aim of centralising power away from the public and into the hands of the establishment.

  63. Morning all, and deep respect to those who facilitated this smooth transition.

  64. Phew. Finally found it.
    Having book marked the site, this non-tekkie person wants to know it it will always show this date or will automatically update itself.
    p.s. And huge thank yous to the geniuses who managed to do this.

    1. Seems to automatically update. I clicked on the shortcut I created last night in my Favourites and it brought me to the header page.

    2. My experience of bookmarking the old site is that it shows the same date, but you can use that as a base to spring up to date.

      Good morning, Anne.

    5. Yo anne

      I just ‘pin’ it to my row of ‘tabs’.

      All I do is click on the new page when Sir posts it and to replace the old one

    6. Morning Anne. The ‘front door’ is https://nttl.blog – as each new day’s post is added, it will appear at the top of the list, so bookmarking that address should be all that is needed. Various other addresses were bandied about yesterday, and should be ignored…

      1. Thank you, Mr. Computer Genius, sir.
        If I get problems I will consult you or my 13 year old grandson!

    1. I’ve never bothered looking at Sopel’s Twitter feed – but certainly his pieces to camera for the Beeb news at Ten have been anti-Trump right from the start. He’s certainly selective when quoting Trump’s words.

  66. Senior anti-Brexit politicians could try to drag the Queen into politics by telling her to sack Boris Johnson if he refuses to resign after losing a no-confidence vote.

    I think he is getting desperate now , The Queen has no powers to sack him. If Boris were to loss a vote of no confidence he has 14 days to try to form a new government. If that fails then a General election has to e called but he has up to 3 month to do so and October the 31st would have passed by then

    1. As TM refused to resign and then clung on for months after she said she was going, there is no reason for Boris to resign or the Queen to step in.

    1. “We just saw a gull totally eat a sparrow.”

      That is what passes for English in modern journalism.

      All gull species are higher up the food chain than house sparrows. Where is the sensation in that? I once saw a great black-backed gull (even bigger than the herring gull in the clip) take a slavonian grebe on Rutland Water. So what? It is nature. Move on!

      1. Do keep up Grizz,nature is no longer red in tooth and claw,it’s all fluffy bunnies now
        Meat isn’t from animals,it’s from the supermarket
        (cue crying children)

        1. It’s the lionising of scumbag rabbits that is a symptom of what is wrong with the modern world. Children should be taught that rabbits are not cute, fluffy, ‘bunnies’; but despicable, ugly, foul-tasting long-eared rats that destroy crops.

        2. When our grandson was young, he proudly told us that his father’s new car was an ALDI.

  68. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
    Can I send you a ‘Welcome to your new home’ card?

        1. It’s an awful shame that you been so very busy and couldn’t have sent a post
          to the good people here who are always welcoming and polite to you but maybe if you
          are now spending more time online you can rectify that .
          You are always welcomed My Lord, I myself haven’t been much online for a few days, it’s
          nice to see you around as always, sir .

  69. BBC News at One

    Danish bacon supplier threatens UK will starve without their pig meat.

    So why was Liz Truss promoting pork in Beijing? – perhaps we have more than we can eat.

    https://youtu.be/bRhlRM6rYck

    I didn’t really understand the joke.

    1. Danish bacon supplier threatens?
      I thought the Danes were supposed to be our friends – I can well understand this sort of attitude from the French, but the Danes? Something has obviously happened in the last 75 years.

      3. What that Danish twit didn’t say was that a lot of Danish bacon is sent over here to be processed. Once they have to do their own curing, wrapping and slicing they may not have quite so much bacon to sell.

        Edited: pressed send too soon.

      1. What bugs me after seeing this BBC news item is the fact the British are sending food abroad to meet the tastes of foreigners whilst foreigners are shipping products to the UK to meet the tastes of the British.

        And in the meantime holidaymakers are complaining about not being able to fly out of Heathrow to go and eat the ever more expensive foreign food.

        1. Which is another reason why we know the “climate catastrophe” is a load of old pig-manure…

    3. There may well be Danish suppliers of pork for bacon-making but the brand ‘Danish Bacon’ went out of existence decades ago. Whenever I broach the subject in Denmark I am invariably greeted by a sea of puzzled looks.

      1. Yo Grizz

        The ‘sizzle’ was the water in the bacon cooking off.

        Less sizzle more pig

        1. Yo, Tryers.

          That’s why I dry-cure my own bacon. No water: no ‘sizzle’.

          I don’t use saltpetre either; I simply slice it and freeze it until needed.

      2. They used to print the word Danish in such a way that the dye was very visible.

          1. Adultera was helicoptered into you part of the country when, after her much publicised very carnal affair with a fellow Conservative (Mark Field) who was divorced by his outraged wife, she became MP for Swaffham. I am not an accurate judge of common sounding voices but her extremely common tones do not come from Norfolk or the West of England.

            Mark Field got into trouble again recently for manhandling a woman out of a meeting.

    6. Rubbish.
      We have plenty of piggies here. We pass great field-pens of them here in yer Narfulk.

    7. If the easily offended non-pork eaters continue to multiply unchecked at their current rate, we won’t have pork on sale anyway.

  70. Hello all my friends

    Glad to be with you again and many, many thanks to Geoff.

    DT Story

    German recession fears grow after ‘devastating’ manufacturing drop

    As soon as Britain has left the EU on WTO terms the Germans, led by their motor manufacturers, must start to negotiate a free trade deal with Britain which benefits both sides.

    After all – didn’t Heath tell us that the EEC was just an economic club? And wasn’t that what we voted for on 1975? We certainly did not think we were voting for the political and tyrannical EU

    When we have left the EU why don’t we just form an EEC which really is an economic club and not the monstrous and clumsy political edifice the EU has become?

    1. I agree in principle but would you trust the MPs to leave it at that.
      I think not.

    2. EEC – European Economic Community.

      …………and read the small print this time…..!

  73. Organ recital prom that BT was so enthused about from Sunday being repeated on Radio 3 now (for those of us who had to be at church Sunday).

    1. Douglas Murray can see the dangers – why can’t prominent politicians of any political party see them – or are they too terrified to speak?

  75. The Guardian has issued a mealy-mouthed apology for accusing Russian

    news agency Sputnik of doctoring images in the immediate aftermath of

    the Notre Dame fire to perpetuate an anti-Muslim narrative online – four

    months later.

    “In an episode of Fake or for real? published on 19

    April, we suggested that a photo that went viral during the Notre Dame

    fire had been doctored,” the Guardian wrote in an Instagram story

    Monday. Instagram stories only have a shelf-life of 24 hours, but

    thankfully screenshots of the story exist.

    “We have been contacted

    by the copyright owner of the photo, Sputnik France, and accept that it

    had not been doctored; we apologise for suggesting otherwise.”

    The

    four-months late apology refers to the Guardian’s coverage of a photo

    from Sputnik France’s Facebook live coverage of the April 15 Notre Dame

    fire.

    https://cdni-rt.secure2.footprint.net/files/2019.08/article/5d497e88fc7e933a488b45b2.png
    Awkward

  77. SORRY : I seem to have double-posted this

    DT Letters

    German recession fears grow after ‘devastating’ manufacturing drop

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2019/08/07/markets-live-latest-news-pound-euro-ftse-100-german-recession/

    As soon as Britain has left the EU on WTO terms the Germans, led by their motor manufacturers, must start to negotiate a free trade deal with Britain which benefits both sides.

    After all – didn’t Heath tell us that the EEC was just an economic club?

    When we have left the EU why don’t we just form an EEC which really is an economic club and not the monstrous and clumsy political edifice the EU has become?

  78. I’d like to say thanks to Geoff for setting this up. I have spent many hours wrestling with computer related stuff. It has all got beyond me. Not least because the geeks speak a different language and think differently to humans. Earlier in life I had job which involved being the interface between geeks and humans. It was stressful and frustrating and if anything went right it was a bonus. So I have some inkling of what is involved. I am currently wrestling with Ninox.
    To persevere, to grasp the essentials in a morass of techno-bobbinery, to find ones way through to a satisfactory outcome is a “proper job”.
    To get this going in such a short time is a real triumph. Hats off!

    (This is a considered comment. Usually I just shoot from the hip.)

    1. I have great hopes for my younger son, Henry. He is one of the few people who can communicate with both geeks and humans.

      When he was studying for his BA in Philosophy and Politics he worked in a call centre to make his funds go further. He now has a job explaining how to use a detailed piece of software to barristers, solicitors and lecturers and students on university law departments He is also currently working on an MSc in computer science.

    2. “Usually I just shoot from the hip” You obviously need a horse to help with your Ninox database. An Equininox.

    3. Ditto – however the attitude to take is to ask them to explain the issues in a simpler manner.

      Sadly, you might still get techno babble but what that shows is a lack of understanding.

      A dear chum can explain IPv6 to me backwards. He can do this because he understands it, completely, entirely. When the language is thrown up what’s being imposed is a fear of being caught out.

  79. UK pushed out of Interrail scheme

    The UK’s decades-long membership of the Interrail scheme, which allows people to travel around Europe on a single train ticket, is to end.
    From January 2020, UK rail journeys will no longer be covered by either the Interrail or Eurail passes, said Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents UK train operators.
    It means ticketholders will have to buy separate tickets to get around Britain.
    RDG blamed a dispute with Eurail Group which manages the Interrail scheme.

    3. When I had an interrail card which I used to travel around Europe for one month, it didn’t cover the UK, as I had bought it in the UK. Am I way out of date?

  80. On this brilliant new site, any chance that there will be less leaping on typos and the rare grammatical infelicity?

    Just asking – and hoping…..

    2. “Spe enim salvi facti sumus spes autem quae videtur non est spes nam quod videt quis quid sperat”
      — Rom. 8:24

    5. Good morning Bill

      B-b-b-but you have already jumped on me for a repeat posting made in error and for which I had apologised.

        1. An excellent picture which I shall borrow to use on the many occasions when I am wrong.

      1. Had problem first thing has a very good lunch of fresh tuna with Mrs Ns tomato & red pepper sauce. two fino sheries and a bottle of Italian red. so no problems.

          1. We can drink a little for hoursr on end and still walk. Its hase no efffecte on use whatesooever.

    2. Where are you, Johnny? It’s all so ruddy confusing. I’m not sure if I’m on the old page or the new page. The appalling cockroach Cochrane showed up and I greeted him with appropriate felicitations which I see have now been scrubbed by them wot know better so we must be thankful for all the mercies that God provideth. I trust that you and your good lady are in rude good health and that neither of you are too troubled by Global Warming in your new abode,

    3. ‘Afternoon, Johnny, in Microsoft parlance it’s called being intuitive. In other words, “You’re on your own, work it out.”

  82. Right, I mentioned earlier that, using Chrome, the page flickers & jumps up & down a lot and that switching to Edge stopped the New Post flags from appearing.
    It seems that Chrome only goes unstable after a couple of hundred posts have been displayed.
    Anyone else having similar problems?

    4. Was going to say that I was using Chrome with no problems, but – having clicked on ‘Show more comments’ several times, not only do I get flashing and jumping on the page in question, but opening the site in a second tab is v e r y s l o w… I think it’s just another manifestation of the problems Disqus has always had. Ironically, the hated ‘collapsing comments’ feature, which is conspicuous by its absence here, rather helped with Disqus’ management of resources. It seems we can’t win…

      1. Probably one of the reasons they brought it in. Though it seems to have been absent the last few days anyway.

      3. It seems to fall over once the number of comments open reaches a given size.

    5. Chrome has long been like that for me. Try Epic or Opera, both of which are stable.

      1. Using Chrome and no particular problems at all; having said that, it’s bound to go tits up now!

    7. Chrome was jumping so much I couldn’t read the posts. I have changed to Firefox which seems OK.

    8. Only curious thing on mine,via Firefox, is that the appalling enormous image of Barnier fades to black and white when I mouse over it. I assume this is some effect applied to the original image, though I don’t know why..

      3. I have changed to Firefox but now I can’t see images which are posted from Twitter. I could on Chrome.

  83. For a while there, I could not access the new site. Typed in the URL and nada. Seems to be OK now.

      1. Oh Dolly…..

        That’s so sweet…

        We haven’t spoken for ages.

        Hope all is well, even though it doesn’t really look like it which is a shame .

      1. If she would only concentrate on her potty training – and then doing joined up writing…..

      2. Thank you, Sir.

        Sorry for the delay in accepting your challenge but I was driving and I do find changing my IP and doing makeup and chatting on the phone all at the same time a tricky task.

        Just kidding !

  86. I am not seeing the little markers to the right of a posters name that I can click on to block a user. I hope that has not been lost, or I will have to put up with the avian troll.

  88. Yay! Sorted my phone login problem. Found Safari in the Settings app on my phone and figured out which bit I needed to unblock. For us non-techie souls, these things are not obvious.

  89. The Texas legislature has passed new legislation allowing guns in schools and churches.

    The Senate has passed legislation revoking the Obama era rule that stopped gun sales to people who had undergone mental health treatment. The President is expected to sign it.

    Any minute now, I expect to see Dorothy and Toto.

      1. What gets me about the majority of Yanks is the fact that they all seem to have the very same extremely limited (and very stilted) vocabulary, which comprises, mainly, of the same tedious and repetitious slang words and expressions. That, and the fact that they have bastärdised proper English to suit their own agenda.

  90. Afternoon, all. Good to be here. Just a question – does the writing have to be red?

    1. Greetings, Conway. I was thinking that I was the only one whose eyes are irritated by the red. It is like a red rag to a bull bear!

      I wonder if it can be changed to green (which is much more relaxing and soothing on the eyes)?

      1. I just find red writing on white more difficult to read and irritating on the eye after a while.

          1. Perhaps it’s the default setting. It just glares at me – must be my eyesight (although, in my defence, I should point out that red letters on white backgrounds are discouraged at the Post Office on the grounds of poor legibility).

          4. My French diary seems to show every day as a Saint’s day.
            Today is St Gaétan.
            No?
            Me neither!

          6. When I was a lot younger we had a picture of a Saint Bruno and I had seen advertisements for “his” tobacco.

            I was amused to discover there actually was a Saint Bruno. More than one, in fact.

            The eponymous pipe tobacco can still be found.

          7. It has its own aroma. Unmistakable. I had an uncle who smoked it. You could tell he was there when still out of sight!

          10. Monday was St Oswald, King and Martyr. I’m not sure if Oswestry was en fête or not.

          11. Here it was St Abel.
            I wonder if they also have canonical years, where each Saint/e gets a day on rotation.

        2. Is all the writing red?

          Here it’s just people’s names and ‘reply’. The rest is black as normal.

          2. Edit I have just noticed that when you click on reply it turns red – presumably all the links are red.

          4. It does for me when it’s open (ie before you hit post as …) and when I posted a link to a story in the local rag, the writing of the link was red.

  92. Boardmasters Festival Cancelled due to bad weather

    Strange how these event always try to get out of giving refunds. The law is very clear though they have to refund you including any booking fees and you may be able to claim for any consequential loses as long as you incurred them and have proof of payment

  93. Why do we have such dreadfully low standards amongst our politicians

    Should politician be held to account for key items in their manifesto’s?

    Should MP’s who switch parties or get expelled from the party or become an independent be required to stand down and face a bye election

    An exception could be made if a General election is less than 12 months away (This is to save costs)

    1. There should be a by-election, as the voters do not necessarily vote for a specific candidate MP but for a party.

      1. Legally speaking, the party affiliation of the candidate has no standing whatsoever, voters in the UK elect the person, not the party.

        1. And we are indebted to one Gordon Brown for establishing that manifesto pledges are not worth the paper they are printed on.

      2. Yes if they stand on a party ticket they should have to stand down in my view

        MP’s that defy the parties manifesto should have to stand down as well in my view

        1. That 2nd sentence would mean that 400+ MP’s from the Labour and Conservative parties would need to stand for re-election. Which sounds like a good place to begin the process of removing these pro-eu cuckoos from the nest.

        2. If all the MPs who don’t carry out their manifesto had to resign, we’d have none left…

    2. Why do we have such dreadfully low standards amongst our politicians Answer: because those that apply to become politicians are of a dreadfully low standard.

      Should politician be held to account for key items in their manifesto’s? Answer: they are! They can be voted out at the next General election. In any case, manifestos are not binding.

      Should MP’s who switch parties or get expelled from the party or become an independent be required to stand down and face a bye election Answer: No – they are elected (in theory) on the basis of their willingness and ability to serve their constituents and it may be that they can best do this by switching parties. On the issue of expulsion from their party, expulsion could be because they were keen to serve their constituents in ways contrary to party policy.

      An exception could be made if a General election is less than 12 months away (This is to save costs)

        1. If you think the MPs are poor I suggest you have a look at Holyrood’s MSPs.

          The Finance Minister was chucked out of Glasgow University after the 1st year.

          1. Yes, and the man who is a pretender to be PM of the UK was chucked out of North London Polytechnic…

      1. Which is a great pity, but the temptation was too great to change “the facts” to suit the agenda.

      2. I remember some years ago changing an entry on the BBC page saying it was a left wing organisation. I was threatened with expulsion from wiki if I ever tried anything like that again. Its leftie biased all over.i

    2. The bloke was a great music manager for the Beetles, but he should have stayed out of politics.

        1. There’s a wonderful family called Stein:

          There’s Gert and there’s Ep and there’s Ein.

          Gert’s poems are bunk,

          Ep’s statues are junk,

          And no one can understand Ein.

  96. The Great Brexit WE Will have No food Scam

    If the EU wants to play silly buggers and delay food exports then it will have some impact but will lose them exports and if the items perish due to their delays they pick up the cost of that. In practice as well we would produce more and import more from outside of the EU.

    It would be more a nuisance than anything in the short term

    Where does our food come from

    UK 53%
    EU 28%
    South America 4%
    North America 4%
    Asia 4%
    Africa 4%
    Rest of Europe 2%
    Australasia 1%

    1. A working border depends on both sides wanting it to work. The toys out of pram attitudes that are apparently being taken by many of the players in the Brexit fiasco do not give me confidence that the necessary efforts will be made to keep the border functioning..

      Judging by newspaper reports, traffic delays after accidents are just getting worse, the UK infrastructure is atretched to the limit and cannot handle the stress of even a breakdown on the M25. All that it will take is some pretty out of depth official to refuse passage of goods (not that a disgruntled remainer would direct such actions) and the whole thing falls down.

      1. One of the reasons the UK infrastructure is stretched to the limit is the sheer volume of demand. The population is far too great and no investment has been made to attempt to catch up.

        1. That is the main reason but we can add in the lack of maintenance as well. The dam at Whaley Bridge is a good example of that.

          So overcrowded, prone to breakdown and very easy to force beyond the point of failure. That can do attitude is going to be needed.

          1. I have been saying for a while (apropos of food security) that it only needs a glitch in the system and there will be empty supermarket shelves and riots on the streets.

          2. Delaying French produce, Butter, cheeses & wine would not last long – the French farmers would be out with yellow vests blocking motorways & airports until their needs are met.
            Macron may be the President but the French farmers & unions determine what happens on the ground.

        2. Conway, it is horrendous now but over twenty years ago I was returning to Colchester on the A14. There had been a bad crash on the M25 and that incident caused traffic problems on the A14 as the trucks that would have used the M1 and the A1/A1(M) down to the M25 all changed course and headed for the M11 and A12. The UK has never built the motorways that were promised and needed from 40+ years ago. France has the most wonderful Autoroute system that opens up the country.

          1. They have longer distances to cover and péage. I discovered on Monday that the M6 Toll contributes to the West Midlands Air Ambulance. Maybe I shan’t feel so grudging about paying my money to avoid the gridlocked M6 in future.

  98. Laff Time

    A shepherd was herding a large flock in a remote pasture when a
    brand-new BMW drove up. The driver was a young man all dressed up in an
    expensive suit. He leaned out the window and said to the shepherd, “If I
    tell you exactly how many sheep you have in your flock, will you give
    me one?”

    The shepherd looked at the man, then looked at his large
    flock and calmly sure, “Sure, Why not?” The young man parked his car and
    whipped a small computer and connected it to his cell phone. He surfed
    the internet and called up a GPS satellite navigation system and got an
    exact fix on his location. Then the satellite scanned the area and
    produced an ultra-high-resolution photo which he fed to a processing
    facility in Hamburg, Germany. Within seconds, he received an email and
    he turned to the shepherd and said, “You have exactly 1,586 sheep.”

    The
    shepherd say, “Wow, that’s right. Well, I guess you can take one of my
    sheep.” He watches as the young man selects one of his animals and
    stuffs it in the trunk of his car.

    Then the shepherd said, “Hey,
    if I can tell you exactly what you do for a living, will you give me
    back my sheep?” The young man thought about it for a second and said,
    “Okay, Why not?” And the shepherd says, “You’re a consultant.” And the
    young guy said, “Wow! That’s correct, but how did you guess that?” “No
    guessing required.” answered the shepherd, “You showed up even though
    nobody called you; you wanted to be paid for something I already knew
    and you don’t know anything about my business…….now give me back my
    dog!”

    2. Boris has said very warm words about CP..

      I wonder if he’s a CP graduate like, apparently, Dave.

  101. Where are you all ?
    Just a ” good morning ” below, then lots of stuff about colonoscopies.
    That it for the day ?

      1. Ouch ! I’m always sorting by newest. But someone has hacked in and changed it to ” Best “.
        Thanks. Didn’t notice. Must be getting old ..:-)

    1. Depressingly that is their philosophy.

      They honestly think that borrowing money and having the state spend it returns value.

      It certainly creates jobs, but the builder hired to repair the school roof is just taking money from the tax payer and giving it to the state. There’s no new wealth. The £1 spent returns 50p of value.

    1. I’ve trained myself to wake-up at four o’clock in the morning because Mrs. Mac told me she’d read somewhere that more people die at that hour than at any other.

      Well, I wouldn’t want to miss it ….. it’s a once in a lifetime experience.

        1. Had a Czech lad come to my grammar school at the end of ’68 with almost no English. The bugger was top in all subjects the following year. Taught at Harvard or some such.

      2. The outcome was too logical. Even before you studied modern Russian history, there were the examples of China and Cambodia appearing on the news.

  106. The BBC are at it again. Most overused words;”could”, “may”, “might”. Additionally there is whopping straw man in the middle of this propaganda.
    No one ever considers what actually happened when we voted to leave the EU. We voted OUT. We did not vote to leave the EU provided that the price of chicken did not go up as a result.
    All the possibilities in every instance are that things will get worse. Chicken will be scarce, expensive and poisoned…

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-49269155/how-would-a-no-deal-brexit-affect-your-chicken-dinner

  107. Garry Webber to Close Down all its UK stores

    Never heard of them myself they appear to have a branch in Colchester

          2. Its not on the Central, Northern or Piccadilly lines & anywhere north of Edgware & Stanmore is for me foreign territory although I did once venture as far as Watford

          5. Anywhere out side of London is Independent England inside the M35 it is Socialist Labour country

          13. So you know Edgware, Stanmore and I wouldn’t mind betting Bushey Heath as well? My old stamping ground, another NoTTLer’s as well.

          14. Hi Harry, I have a boyhood friend whose parents lived for 30+ years in Edgware after they left SE London at the beginning of the Afro-Caribbean invasion. A few years later my own family made the great trek to the wilds of Essex when White Flight began in earnest out of SE London

          17. Leeds? The proportion of Muslims in Leeds is slightly above average for the country (5.4% as of 2011). Mosques can be found throughout the city, serving Muslim communities in Chapeltown, Harehills, Hyde Park and parts of Beeston. The largest mosque is Leeds Grand Mosque in Hyde Park. (20+ Mosques )

        1. It is – I knew the family who had the distribution rights in the UK 20 years ago – they used to sell via department stores and independent fashion shops – their own stores must be a more recent thing.

          1. In England it is Gerry Webber but the German Weber in its origins. It sells expensive stuff compared with the likes of Primark.

            You could find it in Angela’s in Long Melford, another Shop now gone. Local farmers’ wives could be seen in Angela’s paying with two cheques drawn from different accounts to conceal the real cost of their garments from their husbands.

          3. My wife tells me that the owner Angela W… and her husband (cannot remember her surname) retired.

            The shop was run on the basis of ‘think of a price and double it’.

            Edit 1: Might have been Wyvern or similar.

            Edit 2: Whybrow. I am so glad I remembered that name otherwise I would be awake all night trying to recall.

  108. That’s me gone – until Monday. Rouen tomorrow night; Martel on Friday – Laure Sat afternoon.

    Have a pleasant fin de semaine. A bientôt.

    2. Jerry – the German Shepard – clears a 5 ft fence in his obedience trials. Mongo, the Newf, is a wiser head and went around it.

  110. Improved social mobility in the UK could do more to stop extremism than “policing and state security” combined, Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism chief has said. Up to 80 per cent of terrorists who target country were born or raised in Britain, Assistant Commissioner Neil Basu explained.

    Yes up to 80% may be , Norte as well it is an up to figure which implies its is more of a guess but terrorist do tend to recruit in the UK

    Why Basu is asking why they do it tends to show he is out of touch or does not want to admit the real reason as for his nonsense about Education and health it is just that, They have the same access to Education and health as anyone else

    The common thing in these attacks is a certain religion. Usually these people are young and can be easily influenced by religious indoctrination, Our government in my view seems to almost encourage extreme interpretations of this religion. It is a religion as well that appears not to sit comfortably with European religions and cultures

    He said homegrown terrorists were being recruited as a result of a lack of social mobility and inclusion, and that policing deals with the symptoms of extremism but not the root cause.

    He insisted better access to education and healthcare, as well as improved equality in the criminal justice system, would do more to stop terrorism than “the policing and state security apparatus put together”.

    2. The root cause is the indoctrination these young Muslims get from the Madrassa and Mosques funded by Saudi Arabia and the Muslim Brotherhood.

      1. Not all Muslims are terrorists but nearly all terrorist acts in the UK have been carried out by people claiming to be acting for Islam

    3. “…improved equality in the criminal justice system…” he is having a larf! They get preferential treatment. Ask Tommy Robinson. Or any other person who is convicted of an offence and imprisoned while a slammer is let go because his wife can’t speak English (well tough that is their fault), or didn’t understand that rape was against the law. It might not be in the cesspit that their belief comes from, but it is here. And they are HERE.

      1. Islam is stuck in a time warp and tries to apply value that were in place hundred of years ago to modern life and it simply does not work

        It would be like Christianity trying to apply literally the words as written in the bible originally

    1. Odd that.
      Socialists tend to believe that the ends justify the means and act accordingly.
      I wonder if Lammy and his Democrat Party fellow travellers in the USA believe that racism and inequalities would miraculously cease if all white people could be removed from the planet.

      1. Psychopaths and sociopaths also hold the principle that the ends justify the means. Every time. Just saying.

      2. It was a Democrat president that gave the order to drop the bombs. The same party that went to war to retain its slaves and instigated the Jim Crow laws.

        1. My view has always been that dropping the first bomb was justifiable.

          I’m not so certain that Nagasaki was essential.

      1. As the majority of the five millions would not have been of colour, Lammy would be delighted.

      4. “It was a Democrat president that gave the order to drop the bombs. The same party that went to war to retain its slaves and instigated the Jim Crow laws.”

        Can you send Lammy this as well, courtesy of Grizzly??

    4. Although he is mad, Double Lammy has no understanding of MAD*

      It kept the world comparively safe for a long time

      *https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_assured_destruction

    5. He should speak to the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Allied nations who were delighted that they would not be sent to the Far East to continue the war against Japan. My father was RN, serving in Landing Craft, and would have been shipped out to take part in the invasion of Japan. Both my parents (married June 1945) were very grateful he did not have to go, especially after having taken part in the Sicily landings (wounded, missed Salerno and Anzio), D-Day (Omaha Beach), and the Walcheren landings.

  112. What s with all the deletions has the new site been invaded by children akready.

    Edited.. might I also ask if any of you know of tapatalk .com
    as a hosting site. A couple of free sites I know have gone there
    according to a online friend of mine but I don’t know about
    It’s security compared to Disqus in terms of emails of which
    They require with passwords . I no nothing of them but Disqus
    regardless of all its faults are very reliable in that area.

      2. Call me an old innocent – but I simply don’t know why people rise to the bait.

        Life is too short.

        1. Because sometimes it can be fun. Like fly-swatting.
          If it gets tedious, block and ignore.

    1. Still rather beautiful. I went there in 1976, courtesy of Bromley council. A trip to Italy was part of the fashion course at Ravensbourne College and it included visiting a small textile business in Como, as well as catwalk shows in Milan and Florence. No student loans then.

      1. Didn’t realise there was a college at Ravensbourne.
        I used to use Ravenbourne Station when on a travel shift to the Bromley Court Hotel when I used to stop there with work.
        Used to enjoy a walk round Bechenham Place Park in my off duty hours and the pub beside Shortlands Station was good too.

        1. It was Bromley School of Art which had just moved to Chislehurst and become Ravensbourne College of Art & Design in 1975. It’s now in Greenwich and calls itself Ravensbourne University London, which is a total nonsense. https://www.ravensbourne.ac.uk/

          1. That was only over the past couple of years before I retired.
            I used to make a point of an early travel shift down the day before a shift and an extra night after a night shift.
            All perfectly permissible because of the 12h between shifts rule!

    2. You are the second dude to have said that. I beat you by a day! :•)

      [I quoted the Groucho Marx line]

  115. Not sure if this is real or some kind of wind up

    Tardigrades: ‘Water bears’ stuck on the moon after crash

    The moon might now be home to thousands of planet Earth’s most indestructible animals.
    Tardigrades – often called water bears – are creatures under a millimetre long that can survive being heated to 150C and frozen to almost absolute zero.
    They were travelling on an Israeli spacecraft that crash-landed on the moon in April.
    And the co-founder of the organisation that put them there thinks they’re almost definitely still alive.
    The water bears had been dehydrated to place them in suspended animation and then encased in artificial amber.

    1. We could easily test out the moon’s habitability by sending all the members of the RoP there!

        1. I thought Mo’s magic camel would be more apposite.

          [Camel’s are much more versatile: you can ride them, milk them, burn their droppings, eat their meat, and cuddle up as close as you like on a chilly evening (in the desert or on the moon).] :•)

      2. We could even tempt them with the offer of 72 virgins per man all dressed in those brown and black bin bags. Leather beaks an optional extra. The virgins could be inflatable dummies, those beggars would not know the difference.

        Back on earth you could drill a hole in an English Oak tree and they would go for it.

    2. Your blooming spelling is wrong it should
      be water “bearers”, they are AKA
      Gunga rackets.

  116. Michael Gove: EU is refusing to negotiate new Brexit deal

    The starting point in my view is to link the Withdrawal deal & trade deal, Having them separate leaves us with both arms tied behind our back and if we sign the withdrawal bill the EU dos not have to give us a trade deal.

    The only obstacle is the EU being obstructive in fact they may be breaking their own rules and those of the WTO

    WE are happy to have a free trade deal with the EU and happy to meet EUI standards that apply directly to goods that are exported to the EU

    WE are not happy to be forced to apply EU standards for goods going to Non EU countries. Large companies may do so as they probably export to both EU and Non EU countries

    We do not want to be forced to apply EU tariffs to trade with non EU countries. WE would apply EU tariff to them if we reexported them to the EU and they would also meet EU standard

    1. Don’t have anything to do with the withdrawal agreement. We don’t need a withdrawal agreement; we have given notice we will withdraw. It is now up to the EU to come to an agreement about our trade relations in future, bearing in mind they are bound by treaty to have amicable relations with neighbouring countries.

      1. WE still need a withdrawal agreement to cover things like citizens rights, Europol. EHIC, Civil Aviation driving licence, Health arrangement for UK pensioners living in the EU, Driving licenses etc

          1. They want to punish us, ignoring that they are the ones who will suffer most. At least the EU citizens will; the apparatchiks will be sheltered from the storm.

          2. Tough titty to them, then. We will be punished far less than they will, by the world at large. The world at large is far bigger than the EU.

          3. Well May begged and begged, and achieved nothing but the scorn of the EU and the rest of the world. They won’t starve us out. And we will NOT BEG.

        2. Those things can be decided by bi-lateral agreements.

          We don’t need the WA which was a capitulation to being a permanent colony.

        3. Most of that is already in place. The planes will continue to fly. We drove on the continent before 1973 and we had Interpol and the E111.

          1. I tried to find out when the E111 was introduced but the interweb is silent on he subject.

          2. I went to France, then Italy in 1963 and 64. I am pretty sure I had an E111 or equivalent then.

        5. We do not need to cover Europol, Civil Aviation (which is covered separately), driving license is surmountable (and we may have fewer EU lorries wrecking our roads), health arrangements can again be separately covered. We do not need a withdrawal agreement for any of these things. Separate agreements, yes – but we should leave first.

      2. Will we have to change the law .. because the WA is a do or die situation , unless Boris goes to the Queen and we all have to start from scratch again.. I don’t understand anything any more . It is all horribly nasty .

          1. N,
            Some of us have already left, and found there IS
            life sustaining OXYGEN
            outside the pro eu
            lab/lib/con/ brussels coalition bubble, & other goodies that were lost long ago, honesty, integrity, self respect etc,etc.

        2. Sit tight. There will be a few bumps in the road but we will reach the sun blessed uplands in due course.

          The WA was always flighty and is now a dead duck.

          The EU is a shot Rhinoceros, very heavy and slow to drop.

        3. I agree it is all horribly nasty. Attempts to overthrow democracy always are. The default is that if we can get to 31st October without doing anything, we leave and use WTO rules. That’s the law as it stands. The danger is that if Boris gets a tweak to the backstop and then says the WA is okay without it, we have got problems and won’t be leaving at all. The good thing is that Boris isn’t crawling to Brussels like May and Parliament is in recess until September. I don’t know about you, but every Sunday I’m on my knees praying that we get out at Halloween!

      3. Yes, and then we take them to Court for breach of the treaty, and it ends up in the ECJ. Fat lot of good that will do us.

        1. The EU only obeys the rules when it suits them. It’s yet another reason why we need to leave asap.

      4. Yep, It should just be a case of; ‘make us an offer too good to refuse or just lump it’, but the traiTories aren’t likely to do that to their puppetmasters.

          1. I’m fairly sure it isn’t TCS, he was The Central Scrutinizer, or Scrutiniser, last seen doing a lot of restoration work on a house, possibly his sister’s

    3. In my business (Architecture) most of the so called EU standards are derived from our own superior British Standards. The EU simply add EN to the original BS Number.

      Where those standards have been tampered with and otherwise adapted to suit the advantage of European industry a number of disasters have occurred. The EU system of Agremont certificates is a case in point. This has permitted entirely inappropriate materials to be used in the wrong locations with results such as that at Grenfell Tower.

      1. Most standards originate from the ISO and the EU turns them into directives and we in turn give them a BSI number

          2. I’ve sat on BSI, CEN and ISO boards in the area of Geographic Information. 90% of the work is done on the BSI board, with the other 10% concerned with marrying up to other national standards – oh, and translation.

          3. I sat on the ANSI SQL board for a few years. Our work moved up to ISO for approval and adoption.

          4. Yup. I know simply because I have worked for 45 years and more in my profession as an Architect and continue in semi-retirement to keep abreast of everything in accordance with my obligations as a professional Architect.

            When the Codes were drawn up for, say, steel reinforcement, my engineer at that time, Stan Feneron of Lowe & Rodin, was UK representative. He explained that by German standards (for shear reinforcement at the point of connection of column and slab) the steel reinforcement was so dense that there was no space for the concrete aggregate to be placed, thus weakening the frame.

            I have watched and heard it all from supporters of the EU, blinded by a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the superiority of our standards, of our engineers and of our architects and designers to theirs.

          5. Yup. I know simply because I have worked for 45 years and more in my profession as an Architect and continue in semi-retirement to keep abreast of everything in accordance with my obligations as a professional Architect.

            When the Codes were drawn up for, say, steel reinforcement, my engineer at that time, Stan Feneron of Lowe & Rodin, was UK representative. He explained that by German standards (for shear reinforcement at the point of connection of column and slab) the steel reinforcement was so dense that there was no space for the concrete aggregate to be placed, thus weakening the frame.

            I have watched and heard it all from supporters of the EU, blinded by a complete lack of knowledge and understanding of the superiority of our standards, of our engineers and of our architects and designers to theirs.

        2. You’re joking! BSI has been in existence since the start of the 20th century although under different titles earlier on. It has a presence in nearly 200 countries worldwide and is THE foremost standards body in the world. BSI leads, the jumped up ISO is about 50 years younger than BSI. As for the EU……..

  117. Hooray,rumblings of thunder,we might finally get the promised thunderstorms
    Edit
    Bah still waiting,thunder fades away, weak sunshine emerges,means I have to go watering again

    1. Don’t like thunderstorms. I had to replace the burgulear alarum on a house I rent out after one lightning strike near it.

      1. IMO so is deadheading and weeding. In fact, I’m not cut out to be a gardener. If I had the money I’d pay someone to do it all…

        1. I’m ok with weeding, as long as it’s rained recently, and the ground is soft. I find it therapeutic. While I’m weeding, I can relax and think of other things, like planning world domination, for example.
          It’s the weeds that I’ve previously missed, the awkward ones with deep roots, that have insinuated themselves in amongst the plant roots. There was one really deeply rooted bu66er the other day that took some serious pulling to get out. When it finally gave way, I fell straight backwards, onto one of the euonymus shrubs, which I half broke when I landed on it. Luckily I also landed on the lawn, so no damage done, except to the shrub.
          😸

  118. Ryanair pilots vote for strike action

    Not very sensible as Ryanair I laying off 600 staff and there is also excess capacity in the industry with plenty of other carriers keen to pick up the business

    UK-based Ryanair pilots have voted to strike in a row over pay and conditions.
    In July, the budget airline reported a sharp fall in quarterly profits to 21%, due to higher costs for fuel and staff, and reduced ticket prices.
    The British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa) has announced two walkouts.
    The first strike will be for 48 hours from 22-23 August, while the second strike will be for 60 hours from 2-4 September.

    2. Let’s hear it for Monica .

      ♫ “For she’s a jolly good fellatrix ……… ” ♫

          7. Arrived with the original settlers, I assume. Lots of other “old” words in common use – like commode.

          9. No, here a commode is a toilet. I remember commodes in England as big wooden pieces of furniture with a removable “chamber pot” that was emptied in the morning. One lot of grandparents had one, inherited I believe.

          10. That is the original meaning of commode over here, too. The French commode is a chest of drawers. I thought Lafayette might have had some influence 🙂

  120. Common Purpose love their Pikeys

    First the good news the Police Officer was cleared of “Racially aggravated wounding”

    Bad news the disciplinary mob are still after him

    https://uk.news.yahoo.com/police-constable-cleared-of-racist-attack-after-his-dog-attacked-a-traveller-145638356.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly9kaXNxLnVzLw&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAAPbVAdCXPyY_hhnbeTkV1QmGdJHJAvtzSecgiLGYp6-Dim4CTR9JemkEevUHvklEAzJkKhb0KEBYU4EV7cfAc4q2IdZbgSIjdA5VEQREJCBzCPvIwnQlWEKxvT5gPnhVTBiuD7x48InuyHW0TUrExW-En921f9DrYF8o9gqRq65

        1. As the proud owner of eight signed Adams cartoons from the cartoon caption competition, including the very first, I’m inclined to agree.

          Says he, immodestly

  123. Make no mistake. The real purpose of Diversity, Inclusivity and Equity is an all-out war on even the concept of excellence:

    (Jorden Peterson.)

      1. Reminds me of a comment made in a Equal Opportunities training course: Do you really want to be operated by someone who made it through med school because they belonged to a designated minority group??

          3. Too tight? I find that the laces can be adjusted. Useful if you’ve had a big meal.

      1. I don’t think you can generalise as sweepingly as that, corim. Some WW2 veterans have been awarded the Légion d’Honneur. They were on our side and helped liberate la Belle France.

        1. I agree. of course the same applies to recent recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize. I am thinking of Obama and that ghastly ‘shot In the head’ girl who has used the proceeds to buy up half of a district of Birmingham.

          2. That Obama thing was a joke. And if he had had any honour, he would have refused it on the grounds he had not done anything yet, let alone done anything for peace.

          3. Obama, honour?

            Ha ha.

            And if the NPP committee had had any guts they would have rescinded the honour at the end of his second term, given his track-record after getting the award.

          4. Just because he whacked more people with Hellfire missiles than any previous president? Details, details.

  125. A surprisingly non-woke fact check from the Channel 4 fact checkers
    has found that the Government’s claim that plastic bag sales have
    fallen 90% since they introduced the 5p bag charge is, in fact, rubbish.
    There was one glaring omission from the figures – they don’t include ‘bags for life’…

    Most supermarkets have simply replaced ‘single-use’ plastic bags with
    so-called ‘bags for life’, forcing long-suffering shoppers trying to
    buy just a few items to either perform a juggling act trying to get
    their meal deals back to the office or take a full-size thicker plastic
    ‘bag for life’ instead that is only a quarter full. Many refuse to
    provide figures of ‘bag for life’ sales to avoid negative publicity but
    for the three that did, sales were down less than 2% on the previous
    year. Almost one billion bags for life were sold in just one year in 2017/2018, the average household uses 44 a year…

    As the fact checkers point out, bags for life are much thicker and
    made of higher-grade plastic, using far more plastic than the old
    ‘single-use’ bags – which many consumers happily used multiple times
    anyway. Iceland’s managing director last year admitted that they were now using more plastic overall since switching to bags for life. The fact checkers conclude:

    “There is no evidence of a dramatic decrease in the
    sale of bags for life. And the limited evidence available suggests the
    introduction of bags for life might have actually increased the overall
    amount of plastic being used.”

    Yet another example of poorly conceived woke policy-making that ends up achieving exactly the opposite effect…

    (G FAWKES)

    1. I see quite a few “bags for life” adorning the hedgerows round here (and containing rubbish to be put out for collection). The concept doesn’t quite seem to have got through, somehow.

      1. The difference is that when a supermarket ‘bag for life’ is past its best, you can take it back and get a new one!

        1. But often people don’t – see my post earlier. One of the local charity shops will often hand out a second-hand bag if you don’t have your own and mostly they are “bags for life” that people have donated.

  126. First full day at the office and well over 1,000 comments, even after deletions.
    The baby looks as if it will grow and be healthy.
    Well done the midwife, Geoff Graham.

    2. An extraordinary day – massive migration, old names out of the woodwork and some new ones as well! I suspect that targeted publicity will be unnecessary if the two sites run in parallel until the end of the month. Once again, well done Geoff. Have an OBE!

      Edit:sp

      1. I think that should be an MBE, Harry. After all, an OBE is Other Beggars’ Efforts 🙂

        1. Or a BEM, the one that suggests fighting at the borders of the empire to defend what’s good and honest.

    1. She should be careful that the sporran doesn’t turn around and bite her.

      If it can gobble an Abbott it will swallow a Sturgeon (w)hole.

  128. Using Chrome, I find random bits of the page are whited-out and I need to hove over them to display the text. Anyone else so afflicted?

    1. Apparently the woman in question is both a lesbian and survived her partner trying to kill her.

      What it screams is a diversity hire. OK, she’s walked a beat for a while, but after that was obviously promoted on the basis of being a woman, a lesbian and tick box culture.

      2. How could anybody in the police force look up to her as a leader and role-model? No wonder there are problems (and wrong’uns) in the ranks.

      1. I misread a headline.
        Thought of changing it to DCC but comment sounded better as it was and didn’t identify any individual.

      2. It shows who would side-swipe Corbyn to oblivion if Labour ever came to power.

    2. Am I daft (please do not answer)

      Nicola Kankie-Merkel wants to Scotland to leave the UK but stay in the EU

      Hard border, between Ingerland and and the Jocks.

      No ‘free’ trade.

      No income from Mr Barnett

      No Oil income, she luurves a Sweedich tall girl (well she looks up to everyone)

      She is peed off Salmond having molestested every one but her

      Bring it ON

    1. Good night, Peddy. I went to bed long before you at 10 pm on Wednesday, but awoke at midnight and have just finished watching IN COLD BROOK written and directed by Richard Brooks. Now I’m off to bed again and, hopefully, this time I shall be able to sleep.

    2. “James Callaghan lost his confidence vote on 28 March 1979 but stayed on at No 10 until 4 May…”

      Five weeks and two days, most of which was occupied by the general election campaign.

  134. When I click on the red spot next to my name, it doesn’t bring up notifications. The heading is Disqus comments, but then the page doesn’t load. I can get notifications if I go to the original site, though. Will there be no way of accessing notifications after the first of September?

    1. Conway, when I first go to the page I see a message “log in” I click the arrow to the right of my name and get presented by a box with options. I just click Disqus and I am in.
      This is pertinent to me on an iPad and Safari.
      Quite how the magic works is beyond me, the only difference is now I have to log in on a more regular occurrence, but notifications etc all seem to be there. Does this help you with your difficulties?

      1. Thank you. I can get them from there. I think that’s probably how I got to them in the first place. I have since bookmarked the notifications page, just in case!

    3. It works when I click on it – but maybe VVOF below has a point, and that you are not logged in to Disqus?

  135. When the moment comes, Boris Johnson should enlist the Queen’s help in foiling the Remainers’ undemocratic plot

    ANDREW ROBERTS

    Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s comparisons with Charles I simply do not stand up

    Sir Malcolm Rifkind, the former foreign secretary, has stated that if Boris Johnson refused to resign as prime minister immediately after losing a no-confidence vote in the House of Commons next month, “he would create the gravest constitutional crisis since the actions of Charles I led to the Civil War”. Dominic Grieve has further suggested that the Queen might have to demand Mr Johnson’s resignation.

    If there is one thing that we can take for granted as we enter the new constitutional ground laid down by the (staggeringly ill-advised) Fixed-Term Parliaments Act 2011, it is that the Queen will act with perfect propriety. She is not about, in the sixty-seventh year of her reign, to play fast and loose with the constitution after having adhered to it with such punctilious respect for so long. Under the Act, the prime minister may call a general election on a date of his choosing after losing a confidence vote, and all that Dominic Cummings was saying in his press briefing was that Mr Johnson will do that, which takes us out of the European Union before a general election takes place.

    Assuming that no government can be formed in the 14 day period after the vote of no confidence – an easy assumption to make, as who would be the prime minister who could command the confidence of a majority of this House of Commons? – then the general election would be held in early November, with Britain safely independent once again. All the fury and resentment of the bitter Remainers – Gina Miller, Tony Blair, Mr Grieve, The Times, John Major and so on – will have achieved absolutely nothing, although they could always start a campaign to try to rejoin the EU if they wanted. (Good luck with that!)

    Of course Mr Johnson does not need to resign the premiership immediately on losing the confidence vote in the event that no-one else can form a government, any more than James Callaghan did when he lost his confidence vote on 28 March 1979 but stayed on at No 10 until 4 May, in the only postwar example of a government losing a no-confidence vote.

    Further, as prime minister, it would be up to Mr Johnson to advise the Queen on whether to give Royal Assent to a bill passed by the Commons and Lords blocking a no-deal Brexit. It would be well within his rights to advise the Queen not to sign such a bill into law, for reasons that go back to the Civil War that Sir Malcolm mentioned. For since the mid-seventeenth century, it has been the People whose will has been sovereign in this country, as almost every political philosopher has agreed since the days of John Locke and David Hume.

    The Civil War was fought to establish that very principle, overturning Charles I’s Divine Right of Kings concept in the process. In the Civil War, the sovereignty of the People was championed by the Parliamentary forces of Oliver Cromwell and the New Model Army, the victors in that struggle. Today the People’s will when clearly expressed comprehensively trumps that of the Crown, both Houses of Parliament, and even that of the BBC.

    When the will of the People was expressed on 23 June 2016 in the referendum vote to leave the EU, the Remainer Parliament lost its moral right to subvert it. Remainers argue that no deal was not on the ballot and therefore has no democratic legitimacy, but that is specious. The only thing that was on the ballot was to leave or remain, and no fewer than three attempts were made to leave with a deal, each of which failed. The sole way now, therefore, to honour the referendum result – at least in the face of Brussels’s refusal to do a trade deal that permits a meaningful Brexit – is to leave without one.

    The EU is a glorified customs union; that’s its raison d’être, that defines it. Were we to stay in the customs union it would not be Brexit, but a denial of the referendum result. So even were Brussels to back down over the Irish backstop in their attempt to retain Britain’s huge annual trade deficit with the EU, it would not be acceptable if it were essentially Theresa May’s Withdrawal Agreement. Fortunately the new driving forces in No 10 and the Cabinet Office – Michael Gove, Mr Cummings, Pamela Dow, Munira Mirza, Professor John Bew and others – understand this and are completely committed to securing British independence, come what may. Future historians will commend them.

    For the Liberal Democrats still to call themselves “Democrats” is a shocking twisting of the meaning of the word. The sole reason Jo Swinson is MP for East Dunbartonshire is because she got more votes than her SNP rival John Nicolson. That’s the way democracy works. Yet the moment that Leave won more votes than Remain in the EU referendum, she pledged herself to work ceaselessly to subvert the democratic result. Numbers of votes mattered nothing whatever to her and her party, although of course they would have if Remain had won. The refusal to abide by the democratic result on the behalf of politicians calling themselves democrats has been one of the most outrageous and troubling aspects of British politics over the past three years.

    So when the moment comes – probably in mid-September – that the Queen is presented by the Commons and Lords with a bill that bans a no-deal Brexit, Mr Johnson should emulate the ministers who advised Queen Anne not to sign the Scottish Militia Bill on 11 March 1708. On that occasion, her veto was recorded in the statute book with the words “La Reine se avisera” (The Queen will consider it). It is highly unlikely that Elizabeth II will depart from the most important of the provisions in our unwritten constitution, that the monarch acts upon the advice of her ministers. Every member of today’s Cabinet is now committed to a no-deal Brexit if necessary.

    The way that the bitter Remainers could really now serve the country they profess to love – despite not wanting it to be independent – would be to persuade Brussels to dump the Withdrawal Agreement as any kind of template for Britain’s future relationship with the EU, and to negotiate a comprehensive free-trade agreement in good faith. In the eyes of history, it might even mitigate their three-year campaign against democracy.

    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2019/08/07/moment-comes-boris-should-not-afraid-enlist-queens-help-foiling/

    1. The EU has waged a campaign against democracy for far longer than three years; it is inherently anti-democratic.

    4. We must not forget that two former foreign secretaries – Jack Straw and Malcolm Rifkind – both prostituted themselves by selling their ‘influence’ for cash for their own sordid personal gain.

      Such people are the grubbiest of the grubby.

    5. The queen has no powers really. She just performs a ceremonial function and has no powers to dismiss a government other than on the advice of the government

  139. I wonder how we are suddenly receiving so many posts from NoTTLers we haven’t heard from for a while? Is it Geoff’s message, or are people being told? Several of us think it would be a shame if some of the posters miss the change, and were thinking of utilising an off-line facility we have, to be able to contact people who might not otherwise find out about the change.

    But if Geoff’s note on the old NoTTL page can stay up, then our list can revert back to simply contacting people privately (whether to send them seeds, DVDs, go to meetings together or whatever).

    If anyone is interested in this aspect further, please reply to this post or contact me, and I shall elaborate. If any of the people who are already in our Listers want to put their names to be contracted, then please do so. The more the merrier!

    I’m going out now, so enjoy yourselves!

    1. Hi HL,

      I’ve published the site address earlier than planned, since it (and variations of the same) escaped into the public domain.

      The note on the old site will remain in place until Disqus closes it down…

      1. Did your setting up of the new site automatically send out notifications to everyone who had ever visited the old Nottle?
        I’m seeing “upticks” from people who I cannot recall ever posting on nottle, eg cheshirelad and iceannie yet who have followed us here.
        If any regular visitor reads this but does not post, please join in, you would be welcomed..

        1. Cheshire Lad and Iceannie read but don’t post……. don’t know why!

          Come in and say ‘hallo’ – we don’t bite!

          1. Judging by my “inbox” there are several out there who are regular readers, who don’t post. A great pity.

          2. I get upticks from people who have not posted, according to Notifications. Nice to know they read and approve.

          3. I agree, but i’s a shame that we can’t encourage them to jump in, even at the shallow end.
            Bill Thomas, lotl, sosraboc, Duncan Mac, anneallan etc

          2. “Did your setting up of the new site automatically send out notifications to everyone who had ever visited the old Nottle?”

            No.

          3. Ah, as that was addressed to Geoff, I didn’t realise you had answered that for him.

        3. Don’t think so, sos. I suspect it merely proves that there are more readers than posters. Also, bear in mind that we have over 7,500 followers, and nowhere near that number of active posters..

      2. I have a question Geoff. At present I can log in to this new site using Disqus. When Disqus closes am I supposed to log-in by some other method?

        Being a relative incompetent in IT, yeah I do much of my architectural stuff on computer nowadays, I would appreciate clarification.

        Congrats on the new site. It looks and feels great.

        1. I don’t think Disqus per se is closing, corim, only the forum sites. Disqus attached to webpages will continue.

          1. Professional Disqus paid for by online publishers, such as newspapers, or sales sites.

        2. Related question: Why am I now required to do a Disqus login every time I access this site?

          1. Possibly because you shut down between sessions and your security settings delete cookies etc.

          2. It happens if I just refresh the page, never mind anything else. Besides, I don’t use “private” browsing on this site and rarely shut down the computer – as in I can’t even remember the last time I did that.

          3. Pass on the earlier bits.

            I am told that shutting down your computor regularly is good for preventing malware problems, keeping programmes up to date and eliminating software conflicts that even automatic maintenance misses.

          4. Using a Mac. The software is much more bomb proof than anything from Microsoft. No blue screens of death, no need for frequent reboots. A much more professional piece of software than Win anything.

            Just for grins, I went in and wiped out Disqus’s cookies and cache entries, then re-logged in. Did a page refresh and I was back to the login box.

        3. #metoo. When I put in the nttl.blog address in the google safari bar thingy (this is the absolute extent of my technical vocabulary) I get a page which advertises itself as Not The Telegraph Letters, a view of a sunset and something about November 2018. This page would appear to be a cul-de-sac. So I get to this site via the old web site, which puts in exactly the same, identical address in the google safari bar thingy. What am I doing wrong? Will the day come when I am lost in the wilderness for an eternity?

  140. Please would somebody put me straight.

    I thought that if Scotland left the UK then there would no longer be any Scottish MPs in Westminster.

    Without Scottish Labour MPs and the support of the SNP then there would be virtually no chance of Labour ever winning a general election again.

    So isn’t John McDonnell effectively trying to sign Labour’s death warrant?

    3. It would certainly swing things massively in the Conservatives favour as you correctly say there would be no Scottish MP’s in Westminster nor Scottish Lords

  141. Thursdays letters (I’m getting ahead of mysrlf):

    SIR – Why the fuss about the green credentials of McDonald’s straws?
    Why not just ditch the straws and drink your shake like a grown-up?
    Georgina Johnson

    I agree wholeheartedly with the point you’re making GJ, but feel it would have been more forceful to have used the word ‘adult’ instead of the rather childish ‘grown up’.

  142. I do not recommend TV programmes. but if you have ‘catch up’ please watch James May and getting Action Man supersonic.

    I saw it on BBC4 just now.

    Not top grear, just fantastic

    4. Wasn’t he the one who built a life-size Airfix Spitfire? Now in the RAF Museum Cosford.

      2. Yes, and a house sized house made of L’ego and a plasticine garden in RHS Chelsea etc.

        1. That Lego house had a red wall and May was furious when he discovered that one of his team of builders secreted one pink brick right in the middle of it. His fury was hilarious.

    5. I watched it. V good. I think JamesMay is the best presenter on tv. No fuss or showing off.
      The programmes where he took apart and rebuilt a lawn mower, a food mixer, a phone etc were pure gold.

    1. Morning Geoff. Looks to be going well but ‘Notifications’ still opens in a new window every time and I can’t find a way round it!

  144. There is very little parliamentary time left between now and October the 31st

    The commons is in recess until September . It is in recess now until the 5th of September and then returns for a few days before going into recess from September 14th until 9th October. They then sit for a few weeks before going into recess again from 7th November until 13th November. They then manage to get in about a months work before their Christmas recess from 21st December until January the 8th

    ( I could not find the exact recess date for the Autumn sessions so have used last years, They should be similar)

Comments are closed.