The Coffee House Wall – 20th/26th January

Posted on January 20, 2014

This is the Coffee House Wall for this week. I won’t say that it is your chance to communicate with us, as we are all in this together. It is, nevertheless, the Conservative Blog post that has no particular theme, and where everything is on topic. Let’s just remember that we want to avoid ad hominem attacks on others. We don’t want to engage with trolls. We want to moderate our language ourselves as responsible and mature adults, choosing to use fruity language only where it is necessary. This is our opportunity to show what the Spectator Coffee House Wall could have been like.

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110 thoughts on “The Coffee House Wall – 20th/26th January”

  2. I posted this, as the last post on last weeks wall.

    Anne Wotana Kaye 1 January 20th, 2014 – 10:15

    “Just two things to say about the Lord Rennard affair. I loathe the Liberals, but that creep Lord Carlisle is correct. If one is innocent how can one apologise? Secondly, looking at the horrible, misshapen ugly females in that Party, the Lord must have very bad taste. No wonder there are so many poofters in the Lib Dem Party!”

    Anne this chap has form for inappropriate touching as opposed to ‘full on groping’, from what I have read young women in the party have been complaining for years and “The Party” have cast these aside.

    You make the point “If one is innocent how can one apologise?” I would turn that on its head, if he is guilty an apology would be an admission of that guilt, I suspect that he has been counselled by his legal bods not to apologise.

    I hope that this runs and runs he is a slime ball and the longer that this goes on, the more bad press the LibDems will get.

    When I worked I would have to attend business meetings and conferences that involved staying away from home one two or even on occasion more nights, we men were well aware of any in our number who after a few drinks were a menace and great care was taken to make sure that these were kept under control.

  3. There was a very interesting article in yesterdays Sunday Telegraph concerning the sainted Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Luftur Rahman, who is fighting for re-election. This corrupt individual, in any rational society would be imprisoned then deported as a consequence of his activities, but we do not live in rational society. The Telegraph states that his activities are well known to the relevant authorities but they are unwilling to do anything about it for fear of being accused of racism. I was once accused of racism by someone who could not get his way by any other means, I called him a stupid black bastard and chucked him out, never had any other problems after that.
    P.S.
    Anne, I am totally with you on these bleeding louts cycling on the pavement. I have lost count of the times I have almost been mown down. Unfortunately I am now the parish cripple and can not chase after them and throttle the bastards.

  4. Today I found out that we have another Tsar, a sugar Tsar. Apparently sugar is the new target for demonization, along with practically everything else in normal life. Why is it that these metropolitan farts think that any activity which they disapprove should be banned and that they have a moral imperative to carry out the banning? Well they do not, much of this determination to ban things comes from specious research, which provides these people with a living and which we pay for, in more ways than one. To the busy bodies of England, I send this message. Bugger off and shut up.

  5. Herbert Thornton
    January 20th, 2014 – 00:36

    Noa
    January 19th, 2014 – 20:01

    “…For example, are Gays quietly given preference when it comes to promotion within the ranks of the Police?
    Is it now better to be lightfooted than flatfooted?”

    Yes, I think you are correct, homosexuals have traditionally predominated in certain fields, in particular journalism and the media-witness the BBC, which has resulted in undue and partial pro-homoseual publicity.
    They really have let the catamite out of the bag.

  7. What a wonderful word is schadenfreude. Fits perfectly my attitude to Clegg and the LibDems’ latest tribulations.

  8. When I am sending an email (I use Outlook in Windows 8) the Send tab and the TO and CC and BCC tabs are back grounded in deep blue and the Send, To, CC and BCC script print is in faint black , resulting in my not being able to read them.

    Is there a simple way of changing these to a more readable format?

  9. stephen maybery
    January 20th, 2014 – 13:48
    “Today I found out that we have another Tsar, a sugar Tsar. Apparently sugar is the new target for demonization, along with practically everything else in normal life”.

    Stephen, I totally agree with you about the sugar fascists and health police etc who drive most sensible people insane with their constant busybodying. But at the same time, I have to say that since being forced to reduce the salt content of their foods, processed food manufacturers have sneakily increased the sugar content instead to give flavour; surprise, surprise, sugar is cheap compared with herbs, spices, garlic etc which would alternatively give a much better and healthier flavour. I sometimes buy readymade egg mayonnaise sandwich filling, and the one sold in Morrisons is quite disgustingly sweet, bought it once but never again. For diabetics like my husband, avoiding sweet foods is becoming quite difficult.

  10. David Ossitt
    January 20th, 2014 – 12:40
    Yes, David
    Saw and agreed with your comment, which I responded to on the odl Wall.

  11. Noa
    January 20th, 2014 – 13:51
    I am no longer as young as I was, and being retired am not conversant with modern language usage. Therefore, I sent this email to the Law Society as I wish to avoid imprisonment. Copy as below:
    Please advise me.

    I am an Honours Graduate of English Literature and studied Linguistics. Now I am entering my eighth decade and am at a loss in the way English is used today.

    I like to speak in a direct, exact and precise manner, so am I correct in not using the commonly used term ‘gay’ and substituting the dictionary adjective ‘homosexual’ or perhaps’ Sodomite’?

    This is a serious enquiry as I want to keep upto date and be within the law.

    Your professional opinion would be gratefully appreciated.

    Anne Wotana Kaye (Mrs)

    If and when I receive a reply, I will let you all know. If I am jailed, please send books and emails so I may write a Ballad of XXXX (fill in as appropriate) Gaol.

  12. stephen maybery
    January 20th, 2014 – 13:48
    Tsars? ASSHOLES! Now the whole ruddy Global Warming cottage industry is faffing about a new Ice Age on the way very, very soon. And all those medical experts saying at least 2 million people need their stomachs shortened to prevent obesity, well they just want to make a quick buck. My solution is cheaper and better – just sew the mouths of those Fatsos up!!!!! Ha! Ha! Ha!

  14. David Ossitt @ 12:40

    You right, David, the two parties to the quarrel were just made for each other, Baron also hopes it runs for as long as possible, but it may not for the damage it may cause the confused party must be obvious even to someone like the deluded Cleggy.

  15. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 @ 17:23

    Baron has an even better diet offer. One eats as much as one wants, but avoids swallowing. Works wonders, this.

    And while we are at it, the barbarian also knows of the best contraceptive, one that never fails. A distance of a couple of meters between a man and a woman.

  16. Baron January 20th, 2014 – 18:20

    “A distance of a couple of meters between a man and a woman.”

    By my reckoning that is 6ft 6 ¾ inches well it would be for want of 1/100 of an inch.

    We men do like to think well of our own manhood but that’s going a bit to far. 😉

  17. Baron
    January 20th, 2014 – 18:20
    Hi, Baron, I have an excellent diet. Yeas ago, I use do go in my lunch hour (they had them then) to Selfridges Food Hall. I would wander around gazing at all the wonderful foods on offer, and mentally chew which ever took my fancy. I did this because I was too poor to afford such luxury goods, and I certainly didn’t need to diet as I was very slim. I would then return to work feeling quite full up, and I can still do that ‘diet’.

  18. Perhaps that was gas meters, which would be about half a metre. Should be OK then. :o;

  19. AWK1 20th, – 17:30

    “My solution is cheaper and better – just sew the mouths of those Fatsos up!”

    You’re such a gentle person, Anne. But your solution takes such a long time…

  20. Ostrich (occasionally)
    January 20th, 2014 – 21:22
    What swifter solution would you suggest? Stapling, soldering? Hardly gentle

  22. I’m being serious for a change. I’ve been mocking and cynical about Lord Rennard, but now I’m thinking how typical of a Party which calls itself Liberal, to judge a man guilty and suspend him from the Party without an official inquest. Talk about finding a person guilty without trial. The oh so humanitarian NatLibs would be up in arms if this was happening in a country they term ‘right wing’. Watching objectively as various talking heads appear on the TV, I see a lot of very unfeminine women, who term themselves as feminists, and which resemble a cabal of witches. Democracy and common decency appear to be vanishing in contemporary Britain, and I for one find it very worrying.

  25. Stephen maybery, Lesley C., et al. –

    I too am generally irritated by the constant demonisation of things and the conferral of power on new Tsars to lord it over us. However, I am not at all bothered by the fact that sugar is the latest target for demonisation.

    I chanced upon some articles on obesity on October 1st last year. They were written by a Dr. Lustig. When I read them I was intrigued at how strongly he condemns the consumption of Fructose and Sucrose (Sucrose because it is 50% Fructose).

    On October 1st was a very portly 158lbs – but I was so impressed – not to mention alarmed – that I immediately put into effect his recommendation to completely avoid avoid those two sugars and anything that contains them.

    This morning (January 20th) my weight was 140lbs.

    I recommend anybody interested to Google “Dr Robert Lustig”. (Dr. Lustig is also a Professor and is respected in the field of Endocrinology.)

  26. Herbert Thornton @ 04:01

    You reckon then the complete avoidance of both sugars, and Baron means complete, is wise? You may have pushed your weight down, but what if somewhere in your body a change occurred, one that’s undetectable now, will be felt later, due to a lack of a particular sugar molecule?

    That’s not to scare you, Herbert, that’s to point out our bodies could take in, deal with anything in moderation. Baron appreciates it’s a cliche, but a well proven one. If we were to consume protein, carbohydrates, fats or whatever in modest quantities, move around to keep the muscles trimmed, we would be fine. It’s overindulgence and sedentary lifestyle what kills us prematurely.

    BTW, your weight’s 140lbs? That’s 10 stone, you must be as slim as a stripped twig. Baron’s 13 stone, and considers himself lucky.

  27. With regards to all these faux Tsars. They should apportion a basement somewhere in Whitehall and christen it the Yekaterinburg suite, the rest as they say, will be history.

  28. Too often we are receiving reports about people being harassed and even arrested for transgressing the boundaries of political correctness. Now, back in 1689, following the Glorious Revolution of the previous year, Parliament passed a law, the Bill of Rights. This bill guaranteed freedom of speech, and has never been repealed or modified. It is still the law of the land, a fact which these authoritarian ignoramuses should be reminded of on a daily basis.

  29. stephen maybery 11.00

    I know the Left, because of their collective narcissism and ego-mania, don’t do humour or irony, but can’t even they see something peculiar about latter-day Bolsheviks introducing unaccountable Tsars to tell us what to do??
    And as for Yekaterinaburg, considering how the Bolshies love to kill, they didn’t half screw up the murder of the Romanovs – can they get nothing right? They really are, then and now, a breed unable to see goodness in front of their faces and live their lives without ever displaying the remotest compassion.

  30. Irishboy,
    I agree, the left have neither tolerance or humour, which makes their current predicament so enjoyable. Here we have a group of individuals constipated with political correctness, hoist with their own petard. Lord Rennard has been accused of feeling up the females of the party, sorry, engaging in inappropriate contact, must get it right. Clegg and his cohorts are getting their knickers in a right old twist, God knows why, they have known all about these shenanigans for donkeys years, but elected to remain schtum on the subject. As Madam Roland might have said “Lord forgive them, they bloodywell know what they do.”

  33. Baron,

    I don’t know about missing a particular sugar molecule, but the only one that’s now (almost entirely) missing from what I eat is the fructose molecule. However, I’d appreciate reading what you think after you’ve read what Dr. Lustig says, if you haven’t already done so.

    And no, I’m not as thin as a twig – I’m still very well padded. I suspect that the main difference between you and me is that you’re a lot taller. I’m only 5′ 8″.

  34. Anti-terror peer dumps his ‘boring’ wife for a glamorous barrister
    Government anti-terror adviser Lord Carlile of Berriew has left his wife of 37 years for a talented barrister 15 years his junior.
    The Liberal Democrat peer, who is in charge of reviewing anti-terror laws, had a five-month affair with married Alison Levitt before confessing his adultery to loyal wife Frances.
    Lord Carlile, 58, told his shocked wife that he was ‘bored’ with her and revealed that he had had another affair years earlier when their three daughters were very young.
    Lord Carlile, an eminent QC, has now moved Ms Levitt into the flat near his London chambers that he once shared with his wife. Lady Carlile’s name has been removed from the door and Ms Levitt’s put in its place.
    Lady Carlile, 56, told how she had suspected her husband of cheating on her after meeting 43-year-old Ms Levitt at a social function

    NO WONDER LORD CARLILE WANTS AN INJUNCTION!
    Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-431884/Anti-terror-peer-dumps-boring-wife-glamorous-barrister.html#ixzz2r3OXiBkU
    Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

  35. Herbert Thornton @ 16:35

    Not much to disagree with what the good professor says, Herbert, (Baron read two of the articles) except for this: the race’s DNA is not mentioned at all, and it matters, too. The Japanese eat marbled beaf (Kobe beef), it does them no harm partly because they eat little of it (it’s deadly expensive), partly because their DNA can deal with it. On the other hand, they cannot digest milk as well as for inst. the Irish, the Czechs. When they live in the West, drink tea with milk they often get cancer. This snippet comes from a book by Matt Ridley Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters.

  37. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 17:08

    Lord Steel, the one of the abortion on demand fame, has joined the circus, he backs the fatty. Huraah, the more the better.

  38. Andy Car Park @ 17:36

    What would it take to start breeding these friendly creatures here, Andy? Not that much, Baron reckons, but imagine the demand for their services, unlimited.

  39. Baron
    January 21st, 2014 – 20:35
    They try to stride like Colossus, (apologies to Shakespeare), but make us mere mortals appear as pure as angels!

  40. Noa 13:51 – Why, in your post above (13.51), do you capitalise gays? Since when did gay become a proper noun?

  41. AWK Forget Shakespeare, Lord Carlile prefers poetry like this:-

    Grope

    By Amy Ekins

    It was the fact that I could not believe,

    that what happened was so unprecedented

    it made me unable to speak.

    Three of us, in one queue,

    for the X3. To the business park,

    and on to Sunderland. Not a place

    where I anticipated a groping.

    From beneath my headphones

    my ears beat with blood, with shock,

    and my mouth shriveled, as though stuck

    with a half cut lemon. I wanted to stuff him

    in the stomach with my smoothie carton, hard and fast.

    Instead, I sat silent, crawling with his touch,

    quiet tears slipping down my face,

    as encounters of a similar tempo danced

    around me on the navy and yellow seats –

    memories and presents and the worst kinds of touches, together.

  42. “A report which found Liberal Democrat MP Mike Hancock breached a council code of conduct over alleged behaviour towards a “vulnerable” woman, will not be published.”
    Saw this today on BBC web. Is there no end to Lib Dem depravity? What exactly does Lib Dem stand for? Could it be Libido Depravity?

  43. Verity 21st, – 23:56

    “Since when did gay become a proper noun?”

    I’m still objecting to ‘gay’ being considered a noun at all!!!

  44. “Noa 13:51 – Why, in your post above (13.51), do you capitalise gays? Since when did gay become a proper noun?”

    Because it seemed an ideal opportunity to wind you up Herbert.

  46. The panjandrums of what is risibly tagged as the international Community are gathering in Switzerland to do a Munich on the Syrian question which has become the 21st century equivalent of the Schleswig Holstein Question. Everyone attending the event, including our own child prodigy who has never progressed beyond the bounds of adolescence, will studiously ignore the elephant in the room, the fact that this insurgency was stoked up by Saudi Arabia and Qatar to satisfy their medieval theocracy. These countries are not held to account by the West because of their oil wealth, but these people need our financial expertise far more than we need their oil. If only the guts was there, this problem could be resolved very speedily. As for the interminable plea for money from the aid industry, let them send their pleas to Riyadh.

  47. Lesley C.
    Lesley, like your husband, I too am a diabetic, meaning that almost everything which makes life enjoyable is on the shit list, top of the list being occupied by booze and jam doughnuts. Nevertheless there is another of those pseudo scientific findings just launched on the block asserting that red wine and chocolate is an antidote to diabetes. Now this like all these pronouncements is undoubtedly a load of crap, but that won’t stop me from chasing down to the offie for a bottle of red ned and a bar of fruit and nut.

  50. I posted the following on January 20th, at 16:10.

    When I am sending an email (I use Outlook in Windows 8) the Send tab and the TO and CC and BCC tabs are back grounded in deep blue and the Send, To, CC and BCC script print is in faint black , resulting in my not being able to read them.
    Is there a simple way of changing these to a more readable format?

    As I have received no reply I have tried online and have narrowly missed being conned, after a series of questions were I had to type in my answers (I was expecting to be given brief instructions) I was told to go on to http://www.support.me and then once on to this go back and ask for the pass/number, I was just about to, when I saw a ‘what for’ button on pressing this, it revealed that I would be allowing someone onto my computer.

    I politely declined and closed the link.

  51. Alexsandr January 22nd, 2014 – 14:34

    “convicted of perjury so proven dishonest and now back in government.
    how do these people manage it?”

    I have just e-mailed my MP and asked him the same question.

  52. David Ossitt@January 22nd, 2014 – 15:54

    Mine is an expenses thief so I don’t suppose he will be sympathetic.

  53. stephen maybery January 22nd, 2014 – 13:53
    “Lesley, like your husband, I too am a diabetic, meaning that almost everything which makes life enjoyable is on the shit list, top of the list being occupied by booze and jam doughnuts.”

    I too am diabetic, my excellent GP thinks that this is Prednisolone induced, as I have occasion to take this lifesaver steroid in large quantities and over long periods.

    Having achieved my threescore plus ten some time back I have determined to compromise I eat and drink as I have always done (I love drink but I have a very low weekly intake) but I do take all of the medication prescribed for my diabetes namely Gliclazide 80mg 3 per day and Metformin 1000mg twice a day.

    With a wife who loves to bake, bread, pies, cakes, scones and to make homemade jams, curds and marmalade, what else can I do?

    I would rather live and enjoy than live a bit longer and deny life’s pleasures.

  54. Alexsandr
    January 22nd, 2014 – 14:34
    It was reported that this ‘lady’ contracted an STD from her husband. One trusts it was just a nasty one that made her very ill, and not syphilis, which affects the brain. Actually I think the whole lot of them are stark raving mad, and we are madder for allowing them to continue in power/

  56. stephen maybery 20th, – 12:42

    “I have lost count of the times I have almost been mown down. Unfortunately I am now the parish cripple and can not chase after them and throttle the bastards.”

    Can your ‘walking aid’ not accidentally jiggle their handlebars…just enough to see them fall off into the road?

    p.s. An ordinary cyclist can possibly get his foot to the ground in time to prevent his keeling over completely, but those poseurs who affect toe-clips (for an ordinary urban commute, FFS!?!) should make it all the way to the gutter.

  59. Another LidDem sister is complaining about being molested. What is wrong with these bloody women? When I was a lad and you did something a lass did not like you got a smack in the chops. Instant justice.

  61. Rebekah Dawson is to be allowed to wear a full face veil at her trial for witness intimidation. The judge who permitted this travesty must be a bigger clown than Coco. Not only must justice be done but it must be seen to be done. I have served on a jury and the facial expressions on the face of the defendant can be crucial. By the way Dawson does not sound particularly Islamic does it? Her brother is called Matthias and is on the same charge sheet. Is it not a wonderful country we live in.

  62. stephen maybery @ 12:48

    But, my friend, that was the barbaric Britain you are recalling, things have changed considerably since, we live in an enlightened society now.

    Baron’s been retired for almost 20 years, often wonders how the productive world works, one must be on guard 24/7, watching oneself not to say anything too offensive, avoiding touching anyone handing over stuff like files, books, sneaking out like a thief to have a smoke …

  63. stephen maybery @ 13:00

    That’s bad, very bad. It’s one thing for the women to wear the stuff, another to have the face covered when the facial expression is a key part of the testimony. Is there a jury trial, or is the judge sitting alone.

    By doing what he ruled, the judge is essentially endorsing sharia. Pillock, the man, he’s one of those we can do without.

  64. Alexsandr @ 11:23

    This may be all that’s left for us to do, laugh, Alexsandr. Very soon, one may laugh only in private for fear of offending those our friends whose grievances we haven’t yet fully satisfied.

  65. Baron,
    It might have been barbaric but it was bloody loverly. Oh the thrill of a bit of slap and tickle and a couple of pints and fag down the pub. As for enlightenment, as far as I am concerned they can stuff it where the sun don’t shine, not only that, I take great pleasure at being offensive as it is one of the few activities that does not cost an arm and a leg. Offenders of the World unite, you have nothing to lose but your liberty

  66. stephen maybery
    January 23rd, 2014 – 13:00
    Stephen, for once I wished I had one of those phones that also serve as a camera. In Westfield, yesterday, I saw a wonderful sight. Two black clad creatures, faces completely masked, and wearing horrible sunglasses, with cheap white plastic frames. They were queuing up outside a photo booth where you can take passport photos. No idea if they were really women, or men, or perhaps the ‘lady-men’ moslems seem to derive pleasure from when they are not abusing non-moslem girls.

  68. Stephen Maybery
    I would like to give tub of lard Chris Rennard a smack in the chops.
    Or a boot somewhere else.

  69. On whose shoulders could Baron cry but yours.

    A conversation on a DT blog about whether Putin will be a toast if oil dips to $60 per barrel. It branched out to a side issue, his take on homosexuality. In the middle of it, Baron chipped in with

    “Heterosexuality rates as normal because it delivers what sex is there for – reproduction. As the meerkat says: simples”.

    Someone who calls himself jeffersonian replied “I’m sorry for you that the main reason for sex isn’t enjoyment and pleasure with the person you love, but a duty to procreate”.

    To which Baron replied, or rather made an effort to reply more than half a dozen times:

    “If everyone were to follow what you suggest you wouldn’t be here”.

    Can anyone tell Baron what’s objectionable, threatening, abusive or even offending on that sentence? It’s not that Baron’s reply would change the guy’s view, or the view of anyone. For the barbarian, it’s a question of civility, he likes to respond if he can, but somewhere in a room, there sits a tosser who can not only prevent his responding, but make it look as if Baron and civility aren’t on speaking terms.

    Pity the barbarian cancelled the rag about six months ago. If he didn’t do it then, he would do it now. Fugg them.

  71. stephen maybery January 23rd, 2014 – 12:48

    “When I was a lad and you did something a lass did not like you got a smack in the chops.”

    Was this not the playful banter of forplay?

  72. Baron 15:39 – Sounds like you fell foul of the well-known Southern Baptist troll, Cigar Chompin’ John Jefferson Burns.

  73. Baron 22nd 20:37

    Seems that the matter of the bloke who apprehended a pair of tea-leaves raiding his business has been satisfactorily resolved.

    Sometimes, one CAN trust ‘the people’.

  74. Ostrich (occasionally) @ 22:21

    Power to the people, and more of it, says the barbarian. Good news indeed.

    Andy Car Park @ 18:08

    Whoever it was, Andy, needs a mighty kick in that part of his body that houses his little willy, that is if he has one.

  75. Downton Abbey – “Aplomb”

    His Lordship was in the study at Downton Abbey when the butler approached
    and coughed discreetly.

    “May I ask you a question, My Lord?”

    “Go ahead, Carson ,” said His Lordship.

    “I am doing the crossword in The Times and I have found a word I am not too clear on.”

    “What word is that?” asked His Lordship.

    “Aplomb,” My Lord.

    “Now that’s a difficult one to explain. I would say it is self-assurance or complete composure.”

    “Thank you, My Lord, but I’m still a little confused.”

    “Let me give you an example to make it clearer. Do you remember
    a few months ago when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived to spend
    a weekend with us?”

    “I remember the occasion very well, My Lord. It gave the staff and myself much pleasure to look after them.”

    “Also,” continued the Earl of Grantham, “do you remember when Wills plucked a rose for Kate in the rose garden?”

    “I was present on that occasion, My Lord, ministering to their needs.

    “While plucking the rose, a thorn embedded itself in his thumb very deeply.”

    “I witnessed the incident, My Lord, and saw the Duchess herself remove the thorn and bandage his thumb with her own dainty handkerchief.”

    “That evening the prick on his thumb was so sore. Kate had to cut up his venison from our own estate, even though it was extremely tender.”

    “Yes, My Lord, I did see everything that transpired that evening.”

    “The next morning while you were pouring coffee for Her Ladyship, Kate inquired of Wills with a loud voice, ‘Darling, does your prick still throb?’
    And you, Carson, did not spill one drop of coffee! THAT is aplomb.”

  81. If any of you have been in IT, and wondered how the IT illiterate can think they know more about IT than you do, you will find this report about ObamaCare an absolute hoot! Even if you haven’t, it’s past parody!

    When the problems occurred …..

    “The initial focus was on fixing the publicly visible appearance of the website so those pesky and embarrassing drip-by-drip news reports about frozen websites, error messages, crashes, and the dreaded “Error 404” notice would stop.

    Those efforts were typical of the White House. They are all short-term “fixes” whether they are delays on mandates, waivers, decisions to use “executive discretion” not to enforce various provisions of the law. But they did not address basic problems. They failed to envision the long-term and direr threats. They again revealed a basic level of incompetence that is rife within this administration.”

    http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/01/obamacare_d-day_in_march.html

    It must be serious:
    “ObamaCare is in the process of wrecking the solvency of the health care insurance companies. In the wake of the Accenture disclosures, Moody’s Investor Service downgraded its outlook for the US health care insurance sector from stable to negative.”

  82. RobertC – 21:06 ‘ObamaCare’

    But maybe, it’s what ‘they’ wanted! Another industry trashed.

  83. Another ObamaCare article, highlighting hidden taxes:

    When is a fee not a fee? When it is an ObamaCare tax
    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/01/when_is_a_fee_not_a_fee_when_it_is_an_obamacare_tax.html

    Either we are receiving hyped negative propaganda or there is going to be an almighty mess in a month or two. There are posts saying patients are going to hospital and finding that their operation has been cancelled because ObamaCare has cancelled their cover. There are also problems when moving from state to state, which many do for summer/winter vacations.

  84. Now here’s something to interest Frank P, Obama-appointees in the Department of “Homeland Security”, the Drug Emporting Administration “DEA”), and Special Inspectors General for Afghanistan Destruction.

    ‘Alex Jones to give Key Note Speech at Oxford in March 2014 …’

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7jdj6XrfJw

    They will have to put on their scoffers’ and nobblers’ hats again – but did they ever remove them?

  85. Noa, I thought your joke was a good one but it’s not so good as this one.

    Shadow chancellor Ed Balls is promising to balance the nation’s books, run a budget surplus and cut the national debt if Labour win power.

  86. Peter from Maidstone January 24th, 2014 – 18:20

    Good move by Farage. The right of the people to keep and bear arms becomes of increasingly, not less, importance as the old parties transfer sovereignty to the European Union, dismantle the national armed forces in favour of NATO and militarise the police while the short-term future portends great shifts in the balance of power world-wide.

    “…the great jurist, [Sir] William Blackstone, regarded private arms as the means by which a people might vindicate their other rights if these were suppressed…’.

    http://www.constitution.org/mil/maltrad.htm

    And yet there is no debate.

    A year ago, when I was in England, I commented in support of the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution and was consequently attacked as a man who was ready to see children gunned down in the street and was in favour of what my attacker considered as “a standing army” !!

    Why is there no debate on a question which our ancestors considered to be of key constitutional significance?

  87. “…During most of England’s history, maintenance of an armed citizenry was neither merely permissive nor cosmetic but essential. Until late in the seventeenth century England had no standing army, and until the nineteenth century no regular police force. The maintenance of order was everyone’s business and an armed and active citizenry was written into the system. All able-bodied men between the ages of sixteen and sixty were liable to be summoned to serve on the sheriff’s posse to pursue malefactors or to suppress local disorders. For larger scale emergencies, such as invasion or insurrection, a civilian militia was intermittently mustered for military duty.”. (op/ cit.)

    In the USA, the posse comitatus was of course abolished by the so-called Patriot Act. The rationale for this is as specious as it is obscure.

    Of course in England, we have been here before..

    “For the great majority of Englishmen there was a natural tendency during tranquil years or in periods of government indifference to become blase about military duties; complaints of widespread negligence echo through the years. In 1569, a jury presented a grievance “that there is to much bowling and to little shoting,” [52] and fifty years later, in the 1620’s, Charles I had to resort to the closure of alehouses on Sundays to keep men at their shooting practice. [53] In 1621 Sir James Parrett complained of the lamentable decline in the numbers of armed retainers maintained by the wealthy. “Those gentlemen whose grandfathers kept 15 or 17 lusty serveing men and but one or 2 good silver boules to drinke in,” he noted, had been succeeded by “grand-children fallen from Charity to impiety [who] keepe scarce 6 men and greate Cubards of plate to noe purpose.” Worse still, Parrett reported that public complacency had reached the stage where “in two shyres [there was] not a barrell of Gunn-powder to bee seene.” ” (ibid.)

    blasé

  88. John Birch
    “…Shadow chancellor Ed Balls is promising to balance the nation’s books, run a budget surplus and cut the national debt if Labour win power…”
    Thanks for that.
    It would seem that at least Red Ed’s prick still throbs.

  89. “Patients are denied high cost drugs by NHS trusts”
    ….NHS Derby City estimates that it will save £781,000 by “decommissioning” 13 drugs, including Intanza, a flu vaccine which uses a very short needle for those who dislike jabs, and Grazax, a grass allergy tablet”.
    I wanted to comment on this, but the “DT” states all comments are now closed. The article was dated today, so it seems very quick! I wanted to comment on my local GPs surgery where Health Care Assistants are given the task of doing both injections and blood tests. They do this without surgicsl gloves, and the excuse is that they find it hard to work gloved. I wonder if the real reason is to save money?

  90. Peter from Maidstone @ 18:20

    Peter, Farage is spot on, the tosser Vaz should take a running jump, the higher the cliff the better.

    Every problematic issue has a core handle, you turn it, the issue becomes far less problematic. The handle of the gun ownership issue is this. It took some forty years for gun crime to reach level X in 1997, the year the ghastly Blair brought in the new Firearms Act. It then took only five years for gun crime to double to XX.

    The brainless Vaz wouldn’t recognise this to be of any significance, but it’s bleeding obvious to anyone whose prime concern is the safety of the good burghers of this country. Lunacy all around.

  92. Malfleur @ 09:38

    Priceless, that link of yours, Malfleur. Something Baron’s been looking for. Thanks.

  93. Re: Dunblane – if you have the stomach for it, there’s plenty of stuff on the intertubes linking Thomas Hamilton, the Dunblane murderer, and Gordon Brown.
    If none of it is true, it’s a wonder the Gordon and Sarah Brown Foundation don’t use some of their millions to counter it or have it removed.

  95. Each instalment of Pepys’ Diary by the way has interesting notes and annotations. For instance this on ‘wine’ on Wednesday 23 January 1660/61 :

    ” George Robins on 18 Apr 2003

    In those days the wine was decanted into bottles by the “bottler” who became in time the “Butler” “

  96. These “Solutions for Restoring the Unied States” by Jim Willie of the Golden Jackass site might give us some useful ideas for a similar programme for our own country:

    1) Liquidate the big broken insolvent banks, since they are crime centers, then follow through with RICO asset seizures with a team of special prosecutors answering to the states, not the federal government.

    2) Halt all USGovt security agency narcotics business, including DEA drug seizures going into inventory, and Coast Guard escorts of incoming shipments, even usage of the presidential yacht through the Panama Canal, and eliminate the usage of NATO airbases for narcotics distribution, finally investigating Wall Street banks for money laundering of narcotics funds.

    3) End a foreign war after the first six months, after which the cost & benefit is openly analyzed in a public forum, along with defense contractor gains, while giving full debate to the War Powers Act in returning them to the Congress, and instead engaging in peace talks.

    4) Eliminate all former Wall Street bankers from participating in any federal financial regulatory body, using instead regional bankers from the many states and corporate heads.

    5) Eliminate all financial contributions to Congressional members, and all private contributions to legislation, with prosecution and disclosure of all large past donations and their effects, using a portion of IRS tax receipts instead for political campaigns.

    6) Force divestiture of all conglomerate corporations in the news media organizations, including television, newspaper, magazine, radio, and online sites with encouragement by the FCC for small private media businesses alongside regional and village voices.

    7) Limit the advertisement and financial support for financial media by the banking sector and managed fund centers, due to conflict of interest.

    8) Conduct full audits with powerful prosecution on Pentagon procurements and appropriations for the last 30 years, including the $2.2 trillion USArmy Accounting report that was discussed the day before 911. Recall that over 80% of Pentagon victims from the 911 attack were accountants working in or near that office.

    9) Return the majority of off-shore manufacturing to the US, by means of tax credits and regulatory waivers, even industrial parks, with further credits on worker training programs, in order to restore idle plants, rather than to permit China to do the same on US soil.

    10) Eliminate all financial sector computer generated buy programs, the so-called High Frequency Trading, with private sector investigations into insider trading from private state prosecutors.

    11) Force total complete full disclosure of the extensive financial derivatives that support the vaporous financial foundation, including foreign financial subsidiaries, which extend to LIBOR, FOREX, and Gold markets.

    12) Halt all further home foreclosures, rescind all foreclosures in process, conduct full national investigations into the mortgage bond fraud, the mortgage bond fraud by Fannie Mae et al, the mortgage contract fraud by Wall Street banks, the MERS title database fraud, and work a national program to enable dispossessed citizens to win back their homes, during restitution lawsuits of the big banks and financial firms responsible.

    13) Force total complete full disclosure of the USDept Treasury’s Exchange Stabilization Fund, and all its tentacles, including to foreign financial markets.

    14) End taxation on ex-patriots who leave the United States after a three-year period, following a submission of a financial statement, with a suggestion box on how to improve life in our once great nation.

    15) Install tougher math and science requirements for graduation from US high schools, and designate poor high school districts for property tax sharing from some wealthy districts in order to fund the poor ones.

    16) Shut down the COMEX for contract fraud, which has extended to a stack of naked shorts in precious metals, evergreen gold contracts, and lately refusal to deliver on PM contracts, even forced cash settlement.

    17) Enforce the Freedom of Information Act, and shut down the Utah NSA center, otherwise called the Big Brother Fortress, then grant high priority to protection to all whistle blowers at the corporate and national level, followed by elimination of all coordinated projects with Intel, Microsoft, Google, FaceBook, and other processor designers and social media firms.

    18) Rescind the Patriot Act and restore the Constitution with Bill of Rights, while conducting an investigation of all Supreme Court justices for bribery, coercion, and conflict of interest.

    19) Remove illegal aliens from the United States after a 90-day warning, unless they pursue a newly designed fast track citizenship program for integration.

    20) Return to the Gold standard for a new Global Dollar, and encourage barter systems that reduce the payment streams, while encouraging other nations to construct regional currencies backed by their own ample resources, then tying them to the Global Dollar flagship in a tributary development system.”

    http://www.silverdoctors.com/jim-willie-a-failed-state-lies-before-us/#more-37372

  97. Item 2) above, by the way, is something which the worthy Special Inspector General Sopko might especially want to inspect in general before he comes out with another tendentious “press release” on the drug trade in Afghanistan. But as Jim Willie sighs following his 20 points for restoring the United States “Dream on, folks!”

  98. Malfleur – 09:59 ‘Golden Jackass site’

    I would hope these useful ideas are, at most, inspired from the list and not copied. While there is much wrong, this list highlights that errors in superficial analysis can bring:

    1) In Britain, the crime centres that initiated the fall were our mortgage lenders, mainly the ‘northern’ building societies in the Labour heartlands, egged on by Brown and Mandel-slime. Remember Northern Rock, Bradford and Bingley, Halifax and Bank of Scotland and RBS (encouraged in their mega suicidal bid by Alex Salmond and other politicians)? With these falling down like nine pins, no wonder all UK banks were affected.

    It was Brown who encouraged rampant lending to the wanabe middle class, and printing the money for the splurge! There is no crime wanting personal improvement, but part of being middle class is an awareness of risk and taking it into consideration. It wasn’t the London focused banks that initiated the fall. When they did wobble, the Labour Government were too involved with them to do what they should have done: let them fail. Because of this, we are not living in a Capitalist system. It is Socialist, and still run by Socialists!

    And it was Brown who ‘suggested’ that Lloyds take on HBOS! He saved the world, but forgot Britain!

    And why “Liquidate the big broken insolvent banks” when the taxpayer ‘owns’ them?

    2) Halting all security agency narcotics business does appear to be a naive wish. What will happen if drug seizures do not go into inventory? It is not always easy to destroy the drugs on the spot.
    And as for stating “investigating Wall Street banks for money laundering of narcotics funds”, what is going to change? I am sure this statement has been made already, and not much has changed! Instead, there needs to be some detailed plans, made by knowledgeable and Right Thinking people, and the support to carry them out.
    I expect it will fail because we mustn’t target particular groups, especially from countries where these drugs are grown!

    3) I can see it now! Our enemies will know that they only have to hold out six months and then our bureaucrats will take over and fight our Army, Navy and Air Force on their behalf! I have heard that, sometimes, they think that happens already!

    4) The financial troubles occurred because there were too many non-bankers in influential positions, from the British Chancellor of the Exchequer, to bank chairmen and CEO’s, and also within the regulatory bodies. When advertising people can get away with thinking that they can run a bank, like HBOS, no wonder ‘accidents’ happen. Just because they can deliver on continually handing out sweeties to the masses, it is no reason to prop them up with tax payers money. There was no warning to the financial institutions from the Bank of England that too many people were taking too higher risks. It was because Brown wanted it to happen. The people voted in Labour because they liked the gravy train. And they got it!

    I don’t know how “answering to the states, not the federal government” either. Which part does the EU play? And the EU provinces, How do they fit in?

    5) If we want MPs to be honest, then voters have the power to do something about it. I don’t even think the money is the most important factor. It is the misdirection of policy that wastes the most money. You only have to look at the Climate Change Act to see that (over £100 billion!) and how children have been fed the alarmist ‘climate change’ propaganda!

    6) The largest concentration of media power is the BBC, so I would agree that this Left, anti-British, peodophile tolerant, hypocritically tax avoiding, management bloated, EU loving organisation needs to be cut down to size. The licence fee could, as a first step, be reduced from £145.50 to £50, and the BBC would have to reduce its reach, maybe with a little ‘advice’ from the public and other interested parties. There would be many volunteers!

    7) How ‘limiting what the financial media can do’ will improve the situation, when government manipulates us in so many areas is beyond me. Most people do not read the financial press and the rest already know of the pitfalls. What needs to continue is that all interests are declared. There may be insecure Chinese walls, but attacking the media is too limiting. Start on the QUANGOs instead and the EU supported BBC!

    8) The problem is that Arthur Andersen DID conducted audits on Enron, and no problems were found! ::) We already know that the MOD wasted money through incompetence so, unless it is corrected, nothing will have changed.

    9) Why use tax credits? Why not just reduce taxes to return the majority of off-shore manufacturing to were it once was?

    10) Why link High Frequency Trading with insider trading? Let the banks take on the risk of HFT!

    The NHS PFI’s are a rip off for the tax payers, and much of the profit is being channeled abroad, out of reach from the Inland revenue! How has the Labour Government not been held to account? That is a good place to start.

    11) Again, it is the Government that should ensure Risk brings its own rewards, good and bad! What would “complete full disclosure of the extensive financial derivatives” do to help the situation? The risk is still there.

    12) Halting all further home foreclosures will encourage even bigger mortgages and p1ss off those whose home was foreclosed last month! We know about the “mortgage bond fraud” in Britain! Brown encouraged it! How can the dispossessed citizens win back their homes? They will need even bigger mortgages or the depositors will loose out.

    13) Disclosure of any Stabilization Fund is of minor importance. What is required is the running of a sound economic ship, and current governments cannot do this as they need to continually bribe the voters! Look at Argentina!

    14) Sorting out the taxation of foreigners and non-doms will be difficult while we have no simple way of determining who is British, English, who who should have free NHS treatment, child allowances, who can return and should spouses get automatic nationality. It is putting the cart before the horse.

    15) Installing tougher maths and science requirements for graduation from US high schools will only fail more students. What about language students or the Bathroom Studies courses? Are their standards to be relaxed! What is required is improved teaching in schools, a better understanding of what universities are for, and the improved standing (and standard) of technical colleges.

    16) So, what will shutting down the COMEX do? It is like closing all shops so we don’t get any hold-ups in shops, or all Cycling, so we don’t get any drug scandals in Cycling.
    If someone looses out on naked shorts, they need to take the hit! If they cannot, the law needs to ensue that they do! They have already been made illegal for short periods, but it is the abandoning of risk that causes the problems.

    17) It is up to us to ensure that the Freedom of Information Act is used. Look at the FGM legislation! It’s there, but it has hardly been used, if at all. Closing down National Security will result in many more 7/7’s! Is that what we want?

    18) Everyone needs to obey the law, even the law makers and the judicery. Just vote in people who wish the same as you!

    19) Why remove illegal aliens when we have no border control. They just get a free holiday back in their home country, and then return!

    20) Instead of returning to the Gold standard, which is pie in the sky thinking in the immediate future, why not stop printing currency?

  99. Malfleur @ 09:59

    The Willie’s offering sounds fine except there’s no mention of who is going to furnish the carts for travel, the potatoes for sustenance, the hand operated weaving looms for clothing and stuff like that.

  100. RobertC @ 13:26

    On the financial side of things – no major quarrel, the details matter not much. The rest spot on, too, my friend.

    For those still blaming solely the bankers here is what you can do.

    Look at the share price of the four majors up to the 2007, compare that of the Lloyds with the others, RBS in particular. You’ll find the Lloyds share price underperforming massively. The chap who ran it, an American Eric Daniels, resisted to join in the insanity. he was widely criticised by everyone including the FT, other financial pundits, shareholders, ordinary people who were refused ‘cheap money’ from the bank, even to the point of not being invited to Government functions. Then he relented, went for the HBOS just as the nonsense was collapsing (his fault though was he didn’t do even a proper due diligence on the outfit he was buying, it had to be done quick). The deal got the seal approval from the dour Scot, the FSA, the BoE’s King,was applauded in the press, check, Baron doesn’t make it up..

    Today, Daniels’s a toast, King’s in the Lords. Arghhh.

  101. A devout Arab Muslim entered a black cab in London. He curtly asked the cabbie to turn off the radio because as decreed by his religious teaching, he must not listen to music because “in the time of the prophet there was no music, especially Western music which is the music of the infidel.”

    The cab driver politely switched off the radio, stopped the cab and opened the door.

    The Arab Muslim asked him, “What are you doing?”

    The cabbie answered, “In the time of the prophet there were no taxis, so get out and wait for a camel!”

  102. Baron – 15:40

    Thanks! It is difficult to argue when there is so little rationality to start from.

    It’s a bit like trying to mend a very worn out knitted garment: where do you place the first mending thread when there is so little strength in the surrounding material?

    “Then he relented ….” says it all, really! He continued to do all the right things, and then snatched defeat from the jaws of victory! How they said to him, “it had to be done quickly, there wasn’t much time”, with a straight face is known only to the agenda driven politicos!

    What is alarming is that many Guardian posts are even more disconnected from reality!

    This article is just over a year old, but it is even more applicable now than it was then: just let the politicians take over, and let them bribe the voters:
    How to Destroy a Rich Country
    http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/10/how_to_destroy_a_rich_country.html

  103. Keep Britain Bona !!!

    Can not be sure,but tomorrow it should be possible to hear Julian and Sandy singing their campaign song for The Universal Party:”Our Parties flag is deepest puse/With fleur de lyes in pale Charteuse”.

    Either way I will give the full words later:but it’s well worth hearing.

    Radio 4 Extra:Mon 27 at 8am/Noon/7pm.

  105. Baron
    January 26th, 2014 – 15:25

    I think you have got hold of the wrong end of the stick. Willie’s list is not a 21st century Luddites’s manifesto. The potatoes, carts and handlooms will play a role again once the ills identified by Willie have brought the West low – this year?

    Willie’s list is not an ideal programme; it is an itemising of rot that needs scraping out and of course contains a thread of irony spun by the hopelessness of hoping to do so. Unhope and unchange. As I mention at 1:08, Willie follows his list with the words “Dream on, folks!”

    Item 3) for instance points to the artificial wars that the corporate-government partnership creates for its own profit and suggest with some irony that they should be halted after six months for a cost/benefit analysis. Yes, dream on folks!

    Robert C seems half to get the hang of it and adds his well thought out gloss at January 26th @ 13:26.

    But the other half? On 17) for instance, he writes “Closing down National Security will result in many more 7/7′s! ”

    No, not true. If only because Jim Willie is NOT suggesting that the NSA be closed. He is saying that the Americans should “shut down the Utah NSA center” which, if you have been following, is a very different kettle of fish.

    Furthermore, the “Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board – Which Congress Made An Independent Agency in 2007, But Which Just Became Operational – Says NSA Spying Is ILLEGAL AND UNNECESSARY”

    “An independent federal privacy watchdog has concluded that the National Security Agency’s program to collect bulk phone call records has provided only “minimal” benefits in counterterrorism efforts, is illegal and should be shut down. ”

    This can be read about on numerous sites, for instance: http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/01/privacy-and-civil-liberties-oversight-board-says-nsa-spying-is-illegal-and-unnecessary/

    The Chicago gang in the White House quickly announced that they disagreed with the Board’s conclusions. Will the criminal administration adopt the Board’s recommendations? Dream on folks!

  106. ” A non-profit, bipartisan policy group says that NSA mass surveillance has no impact on terrorism

    CNN terrrorism expert Peter Bergen says that mass surveillance is not needed to stop another 9/11

    Former president Clinton (and apparently Carter, as well), agree that mass surveillance is unnecessary

    As do the chairs of the 9/11 Commission which was created by Congress and the White House

    As does the counter-terrorism czar under the Clinton and Bush administrations, Richard Clarke. And see this

    As does a federal judge ”

    op.cit

  108. “Having been through the Crash of 1987, there was an eerie similarity to what developed last week. The Fed rescued the markets once the crash ensued in 1987. In this era, if the Fed acts, it will be to prevent a crash. With the underlying economy in a decline, global unemployment at historically high levels, and a dramatically over-extended monetary system, what comes next should be radical and historic to say the least. KWN readers around the world need to get positioned properly ahead of the coming chaos.”

    http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/1/27_The_Entire_World_Is_Being_Turned_Upside_Down_In_2014.html

    My solution? Buy a piece of land, some seed potatoes, a cart, a handloom – and some wool…

  109. “Some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it, the BBC has learnt. ”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25861717

    h/t Drudge Report

    Large amounts? You mean £100,000 – £200,000?

    “Listeners have told Radio 4’s Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.”

    Hey, Baron! Better buy that handloom before the price goes through the roof and your ATM card is blocked…

    It’s all happening folks…

  110. Malfleur
    January 27th, 2014 – 09:16
    Not only what you draw out, but what you deposit too. The Stasi must have instructed bank tellers to find out all customer’s affairs. Depositing a modest sum, the old bag said to him, “Oh, where did you get that?” It’s no longer a joke what is happening here.

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