The Coffee House Wall – 10th/16th March

Posted on March 10, 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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223 thoughts on “The Coffee House Wall – 10th/16th March”

  2. Mallfleur March 10th, 2014 – 01:09

    Mallfleur it was Much-Binding-in-the-Marsh, not Mars.

  5. Alexsandr 10th, – 19:48

    “much binding in the marsh always make me think of moreton in marsh”

    Of course it did. It p*ssed the RAF off exceedingly!

  6. Even though the crew of this site must have been either silenced by the fear of Putin, and what he may do when he invades Britain, or have gone into prolonged hibernation after the rains have temporarily stopped, they should at least click on on Mr Boot’s site. His latest is a joy, nothing of politics or Russia, just a superb expose of one of the failings of those who back Darwin. A must read.

  7. David Ossitt @ 15:47

    I am afraid that I spend so much time watching Alex Jones these days that even my two-fingered typing skills are going to pieces.

  10. Malfleur @ 21:59

    The Yanks need every ounce of the stuff what with their massive debt, why should they care about the Ukrainians, the EU will fund them.

  13. Thomas Jefferson is alive and well and broadcasting from Austin, Texas.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG-pEF-D71o

    Why get your news from the Barclay Brothers or that other chap who had a Chinese wife, what was his name, or Paul Dacre and his backer?, or from the state-corporatist Financial Times and its globalist agenda – who actually wons the FT, by the way, does anybody know – or the Guardian – who the hell controls Guardian Media Group which is owned by The Scott Trust Limited and who are they?

    Alex Jones, who leaves no doubt as to the source of his news and analysis nor to his position as a classical liberal constitutional Christian, gets attacked on this Wall by people who swallow with their English Breakfast tea the propaganda of the mysterious manipulators of the old media .

    Get your news from, and test your views against, Thomas Jefferson. You know who he is. He believes in you.

    I see that the English Defence League has a demonstration planned for Peterborough on 26th March. Now that those disreputable characters,Tommy Robinson and Kevin Carroll, are no longer members of the EDL, will the Wallsters who vilified them now voice their support for the demonstration? Or are their views of the EDL still shaped by the old media regardless of the League’s leadership?

  14. Radford NG (10 March @ 23:25)

    I think Anatole Kaletski is absolutely right – Crimea is going to be re-incorporated into Russia and there is nothing the US and Europe can do to prevent it, though is is hardly as grave a crisis as was that of the Cunan missiles..

    Mr Kaletski suggests that a national unity government can be formed in Kiev for the remainder of Ukraine, but I very much doubt it. Western Ukrainian politicians seem to be not just as pig-headed and mindlessly anti-Russian as Obama and Cameron and the rest of the leaders of the E.U., but fanatical enough to again use violence of the sort they have already used in Kiev. If they do, it will give Putin the opportunity to move on the other Russian-populated parts of eastern Ukraine in much the same way as he has done in Crimea. Whether he will then lose interest in controlling Kiev’s “western” Ukraine is unclear. Perhaps he would prefer it to stew in it’s own juice and become Europe’s problem?

  15. Malfleur March 10th, 2014 – 21:54

    “I am afraid that I spend so much time watching Alex Jones these days that even my two-fingered typing skills are going to pieces.”

    Not onlly that, you have recentlly allso develloped a paralllell identity sans llogo.

  16. Herbert Thornton – 02:55 ‘Ukraine’

    The west of Ukraine is not yet ripe enough.

    Leave it on the vine, allow the Eu to sink a few € billion in infrastructure investments, pay off the fuel bill (to Russia) and import a few more socialists, and then it can be rescued by Putin’s men!

  17. My eldest son and his partner were married today. On top of the Isabel Glacier. On the south Island of New Zealand. 🙂

  18. Ostrich (o) @09:41

    Good health, and good luck to them.

    (I hope you didn’t make any “slippery slope” and “all downhill from there” remarks!)
    🙂

  20. EC
    March 11th, 2014 – 07:50

    Oh, you mean my appearances as “telemachus”? So I’ve been found out. Well, you’re right, he’s me. But I had most people fooled for a long time! I may decide to keep it up for a bit.

  22. The ‘no balls’ Balls has ‘stood by Labour’s first election manifesto promise – a compulsory jobs guarantee for the young unemployed for the whole of the next parliament – by saying it will be funded by a one-off levy on bankers’ bonuses and a restriction on higher rate pension tax relief to 20% for those earning over £150,000 a year’.

    Under communism, everyone not just the young had a job guaranteed, so it seems Balls’s policy is a good start. Sadly, it was also true that those with guaranteed jobs pretended to work, and the government pretended to pay them. Give Labour the reigns, it’ll be the same here.

  26. Yep PoM, another piece of socialist scum has shuffled off this mortal coil. Be glad he’s gone so soon. Let’s not be hypocrites. Not one of those shits was the least bit decent when Thatcher passed away.

    This dumbf**k shared the same beliefs as Harman, Dromie and Hewitt. Let’s hope he died in some agony without the blessing of his family lose to hand.

  28. The Earth is safe from ‘Global Warming’ say the men who put man on the moon:

    “The planet is not in danger of catastrophic man made global warming. Even if we burn all the world’s recoverable fossil fuels it will still only result in a temperature rise of less than 1.2 degrees C.”

    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/03/08/Earth-is-safe-from-global-warming-say-the-men-who-put-man-on-the-moon

    But will we be getting vineyards up in Yorkshire?

  29. Bob Crow must have had plenty of exercise on His Brazilian holiday! Hope he has started a fashion for the commie scum.

  31. Anne.
    I agree absolutely. Let us hope the bastards start dropping like flies. I remember all too clearly the behaviour of such people when Maggie died, now is the time to force feed them a dose of their own medicine. I wonder if Hattie and the kiddie fiddlers will turn up at the funeral.

  32. stephen maybery
    March 11th, 2014 – 13:25
    Yes, Stephen I agree. Actually I did not agree with much that Thatcher said or did, but I respected her as an honest (rare) politician and a true patriot. The finest prime minister since Winston! The conduct of the Left was so typical of that scum.

  33. RobertC March 11th, 2014 – 12:18

    “But will we be getting vineyards up in Yorkshire?”

    Just for starters.

    Holmfirth Vineyard & Restaurant
    Woodhouse Farm
    Woodhouse Lane
    Holmfirth
    HD9 2QR
    —————————————————-
    Leventhorpe Vineyard
    Bullerthorpe Lane
    Woodlesford
    LEEDS LS26 8AF
    —————————————————-
    Yorkshire Heart Vineyard
    The Vineyard
    Pool Lane
    Green Hammerton
    YORK
    YO26 8EL
    ——————————————————
    Ryedale Vineyards
    Farfield Farm
    Westow
    York Y060 7LS
    Yorkshire

  34. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 March 11th, 2014 – 12:54

    Anne; this is the man, who when asked why he still lived in a council house whilst drawing a huge salary answered “I was born in a council house and I will die in a council house” prophetic or what?

  35. David Ossitt
    March 11th, 2014 – 15:06
    Yes, David,if he DID die in his own bed?

  36. Herbert Thornton @ 13:24

    Herbert, what surprises Baron is the reaction, or rather the lack of it, by Frau Merkel. Germany, already burning alot of brown coal, the worst pollutant ever, stands to lose most if Putin cuts gas supplies. More to the point,although she was never involved with any of the institutions that did the direct oppressing she wasn’t as saintly as it’s often portrayed – see the link. she should know better than anyone else not to poke at Putin, the backfiring may be more painful for Germany than Russia

    http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/new-book-suggests-angela-merkel-was-closer-to-communism-than-thought-a-899768.html

  37. Clear Memories @ 12:04

    Not one of those showering the guy with accolades on the radio has mentioned the deal meted out to the travelling public by his hate of capitalism. It was all how he secured the best pay, the best pensions, the beast working conditions for his union members and stuff like this. Not a word about the state of the underground, the London bus service. But then the public is to all pinky socialists just a nuisance, better to be ignored.

  38. In view of the very latest information from militery radar that the 777 flew in a different direction for over an hour with it seems it’s transponders switched off would you be happy flying with Muslim pilots.
    It may turn out to be wrong , but I came back on a plane with Muslim pilots into London and we got delayed , so after a few circuits over East London we set off for heathrow and suddenly turned dead in line with canery wharfe tower.
    At what seemed like the last moment the plane veered to the left and went to heathrow .
    I was quite relieved
    .

  41. Baron (11 March @ 16:33) –

    You posted an interesting link about Frau Merkel. I see that it says that she –

    “….joined the staunchly conservative Christian Democratic Union party in 1990s — a surprising move given her apparent previous political leanings.”

    Surprising to some people perhaps – but I think it just illustrates how the main motivation of many politicians is greed for immediate power and their own rapid enrichment, no matter what the consequences for their fellow citizens.

    How else can we account for the insane policies of Britain’s Labour, Liberal and so-called Conservative politicians?

  42. Baron, @16:33

    Excellent link, Baron. She was a “gift” from the DDR. (in either language)
    The German people are now suffering a coalition government with the two largest parties, the CDU and SPD, forming the government. Democracy? Ha!
    Are people getting fed up? Watch and see how well the new party “Alternative für Deutschland” does in the Euro Elections.

    Remember Thilo Sarrazin? A retired SPD politico, and retired banker.

    In 2010 he was vilified by the usual suspects for writing a book: blowing the whistle about the negative effects of immigration and the demographic islamic time bomb that Germany had brought on itself:
    “Deutschland schafft sich ab: Wie wir unser Land aufs Spiel setzen”
    (i.e. Germany abolishes itself. We gamble with our country”)

    Last month, he has just published another controversial book about “Political Correctness and the limitations on Free Speech in Germany:
    “Der neue Tugendterror: Über die Grenzen der Meinungsfreiheit in Deutschland.”
    (The new virtue Terror: On the limits of free speech in Germany)

  43. John birch – 17:53 ‘1 in 20 prisoners’

    For them, the term traveler is a misnomer!

  46. The biter bit:

    “The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday sharply accused the CIA of violating federal law and undermining the constitutional principle of congressional oversight as she detailed publicly for the first time how the agency secretly removed documents from computers used by her panel to investigate a controversial interrogation program.”

    This woman was unfazed to learn that the National Insecurity Agency is spying on every American, until she realized that “every American” includes herself and her corrupt cronies and that there is layer upon layer of cop structures purporting to be Defending the Realm while in fact up to far more nefarious games.

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/feinstein-cia-searched-intelligence-committee-computers/2014/03/11/982cbc2c-a923-11e3-8599-ce7295b6851c_story.html

    Hat Tip: Drudge Report

  47. The Malayan aircraft:It’s transponders were turned off and it appears to have descended and turned to the North-west.Ground observers in north east Malaya reported a low flying aircraft with landing lights on flying along that new path.

    If it had fuel to reach Peking,then on that path it had enough to reach as far as New Delhi,let alone Bengladesh.So what was going on??

  48. Radford NG

    “…Adding to the mystery, other relatives in the room said that when they dialed some passengers’ numbers, they seemed to get ringing tones on the other side even though the calls were not picked up….

    According to Singapore’s Strait Times, a Malaysia Airlines official, Hugh Dunleavy, told families that the company had tried calling mobile phones of crew members as well and that they had also rang. The company turned over those phone numbers to Chinese authorities….” (Drudge Report)

  50. Malfleur at 22-13.

    We might be dealing here with the complications of the international service providers and the workings of their systems.This has been addressed today on Mail on Line.

  54. …and I say to myself ‘What a wonderful world’… (Louis Armstrong):

    “Part of the desperation on the part of the West is because of the fact that Putin has tremendous access to energy resources, whereas the West does and it doesn’t. The costs of fracking are incredibly high, and the public has no idea about the chemicals that really go into fracking. Almost every single one of the chemicals that goes into fracking has a negative health effect.

    The reason I am suspicious of the government’s motives with fracking is because this is really our only card left to play. We don’t have any real viable energy resources in the Western world, aside from fracking. We cannot satisfy demand for energy unless we go to extremes.

    We don’t have that much clean groundwater, and without question fracking damages the clean underground water supply. All of these chemicals are seeping into the ground and every single one of them is a poisonous carcinogen. So this kind of desperation is not going to work in the long-run.

    We are looking at a geopolitical crisis right now where there is no answer — where the West is powerless. There is a tremendous alliance between Russia and China over natural resources. What is not making the headlines is the fact that the president of China just had a long conversation with Merkel, Cameron, and Obama. Did you see that anywhere in the headlines?

    I can tell you the nature of that conversation: The president of China warned the West not to start any trouble. He also told them not to slap any sanctions on Russia. Meanwhile, the United States is supporting a Ukrainian regime without legitimacy, that also has extreme Nazi-style support. One of the biggest concentration camps in World War II was right outside of Kiev. How does it make any sense for the West to support these thugs, Eric? The answer is, it doesn’t.

    But every day the West is becoming less and less powerful. So how can we rely on the the U.S. dollar to remain as the world’s reserve currency? How can we rely on the euro to be the second most desirable currency in the world? It makes no sense, and people are starting to get this message. This is why gold has bottomed.

    The real run in gold, the one that takes us to $10,000, that comes when people realize that ‘the emperor has no clothes.’ Yes, China has problems but they are many steps ahead of us. Russia also has the right idea. Today Russians live much freer than they ever did in the past 400 years.

    I have a friend who travels to Russia each year. He is one of the best chess coaches in Russia. He owns property in Russia, and he knows people all over the country who verify that the country is freer today than it has ever been. Putin’s popularity within Russia is also higher than it’s ever been.

    So this is why the West is acting out of such desperation. They know the clock is ticking against them and their dominance of the world. But all of the propaganda in the West is to convince the people that the West is still number one. This is not true. The emperor’s clothes are coming off, and the gold market is going to reveal this at some point.

    We may have a few more chapters to complete before we see $10,000 gold, but this book will be completed. And when the book is completed, this world will not be recognizable. What we are seeing right now is the last gasp effort on the West’s part to show its dominance….”

    http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/3/11_$10,000_Gold,_Russia,_China,_The_United_States_%26_Ukraine.html

  58. how many votes has millipede gifted to UKIP with his refusal to back an EU referendum?

  60. “Education Education Education”
    Anthony Charles Lynton Blair

    After 13 years of HIM, and then another 4 years of uncoordinated chaos and gesture politics by the H2BC and his coalition fuckwits……
    it’s come to this:

    “Teachers are to be given lessons in how to teach maths by Chinese teachers in a move to raise standards. The Chinese teachers will give masterclasses on issues such as how to help struggling pupils and how to deal with homework.

    In February an analysis of the 2012 Pisa report – which looks at the performance of 15-year-olds – found the children of cleaners in Shanghai and Singapore outperformed the children of UK doctors and lawyers in global maths tests.”

    http://news.sky.com/story/1224581/teachers-to-get-maths-lessons-from-chinese

    Homework? In state schools ? There will be strikes!!!

    (Yes I know that Michael Gove prides himself on being a very clever chap, but he hasn’t achieved much)

  61. Malfleur – 07:18 ‘Fracking and the destruction of the West’
    “Almost every single one of the chemicals that goes into fracking has a negative health effect.”
    A true statement, as a child can drown in an inch of water, but not very informative. Fracked oil and gas is ‘harder’ to extract than watching oil gush, but when the oil is in the Middle East, the circumstances have changed. It is difficult to say what chemicals will be used in British fracking because so little has occurred, but here is a list of possibles:
    http://fracfocus.org/chemical-use/what-chemicals-are-used

    I did read that fluoride toothpaste is more dangerous than the chemicals used in fracking, though I think it is the level of danger in fluoride toothpaste that needs to be investigated! Fluoridised drinking water is pretty poisonous, yet some countries add it to their water supply!

    “We don’t have that much clean groundwater”
    We do, and the water authorities allow between 25% to 33% of the original supply to leak from their pipes! The figures for water use assume very large scale fracking so, of course, the figures are large. Instead of projecting the silly scenario of fracked fuel providing all our energy for 50 years, why not 20% of our fuel for 250 years? Phasing a new technology in, gradually, allows for prototyping, continuous improvements, varied supplies and a gradually expanding workforce and sensible regulations. The Warmists are terrified that fracking will destroy the windmill world of the socialist dream, so they are fighting for their lives at the moment and getting a lot of help from the Trustifarians, children of the very rich, with large trusts, with plenty of time to protest around the country. The neighbours are more worried about the protesters than the fracking!

    Ninty nine percent of fracking fluid is water, which can be reused, and most of the rest is is hardly dangerous. Not “every single one of them is a poisonous carcinogen”; Guar gum is a food:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guar_gum

    Yes, there is political uncertainty, and when “The president of China warned the West not to start any trouble”, with our current mob, isn’t that a sensible wish? The West has spent the last fifteen years dismantling itself, so no wonder we are in trouble! We are in self-destruct mode. It has little to do with Putin! The Eu has been naively meddling in the Ukraine and has burnt its fingers. Good: it needs to be dismantled!

    If the rest of the world catches up with us, we shouldn’t be sending aid abroad ‘to the poor’. We should be ensuring our own ‘poor’ are lifted out of poverty so they can contribute! I think that would fix most of the problems we have, but it is not likely at the moment!

  62. Is Verity still contributing?

    Having been out of circulation due to a brain implant!

  64. RobertC March 12th, 2014 – 11:31

    Well said Sir, a clear, precise, non-hysterical and precise summary of the facts.

    We had occasion yesterday to drive out of Harrogate past the early warning ‘Golf Balls’ the monstrous seven wind turbines on the left were entirely still whilst a much smaller private twin blade turbine was busily spinning ten to the dozen.

    I would like to live long enough to see all of these abominations removed and sold for scrap.

  65. EC March 12th, 2014 – 10:32

    “Yes I know that Michael Gove prides himself on being a very clever chap, but he hasn’t achieved much”

    I disagree, he is one of the most successful secretaries of state in what is probably the most difficult sector to make change, what with the Marxist Unions digging their heels in at every opportunity and a civil service who will try to block every move that he makes.

    He, like Iain Duncan-Smith are both men with a mission, each of them are passionate about their area of influence.

  66. Alexsandr March 12th, 2014 – 08:50

    “how many votes has millipede gifted to UKIP with his refusal to back an EU referendum?”

    Having been a lifelong conservative, you would think that nothing that labour do or say will surprise me but no, almost every day they come out with some crass stupid non-thought.

    You are correct Alexsandr they will with this silly, silly, confidence trick shed a few more comrades over to UKIP.

    The truth is that nothing said before the May European elections has any real meaning, when UKIP come out of that victorious the conservatives and labour will be scrambling to find ideas to nullify the result, of course the LibDems will sail blithely on to their eventual doom.

  67. EC – 10:32 ‘Gove’

    I think you will find my ‘first post of the week’, with its accompanying link, relevant:
    9 Reasons Why Public Schools Wallow In Mediocrity
    http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/03/9_reasons_why_public_schools_wallow_in_mediocrity.html

    Both Gove and IDS are trying to roll back decades of socialist carp by changing process. It’s a rather brute force method, and very messy, but stands a better chance than academic pontificating to such a myopic crowd as the teachers unions, the civil service and other hangers-on.

  69. David Ossitt (12:13) & RobertC (12:25)

    I wasn’t trying to say that Michael Gove lacked the passion, sincerity, commitment, or the ability to make a difference. The education system that he inherited was, from top to bottom, a complete basket case. He was snookered from the start as he lacked a Conservative government to back him. Cameron was never going to deliver a conservative government, with or without a majority. The coalition with the far left LibDems has delivered anything but that!

    It’s sad to think that any improvements that Michael Gove has actually made will be soon undone by the Lab-Lib Coalition from 2015 onwards! (sorry but I can’t see Dave getting re-elected)

  70. EC March 12th, 2014 – 13:56

    “(sorry but I can’t see Dave getting re-elected)”

    Stranger things have happened we need Ed Miliband to have a couple of Kinnock moments and all might be well.

  72. It does appear that Boris believes the game is up for Cameron. The question has to be why the wet so and so’s occupying the conservative back benches do not grow some b…s and ditch Cameron now?

  73. EC March 12th, 2014 – 16:04

    “By pure coincidence, I’ve just discovered that this week’s Speccie has a story about Michael Gove being targeted by BoJo’s followers:”

    I am at a disadvantage my Spectator arrives by post every Friday morning but I am over two weeks behind in my reading, I am still reading the copy before last.

    This is due to having a backlog of new books to read (birthday and Christmas presents) there are at least a dozen of these and so I tend to read two or three articles in the Speccie each bedtime prior to picking up the current book for a couple of chapters.

    This is compounded by the fact that I read the Daily mail each evening.

    I never seem to have enough time, when I worked long hours I always appeared to have all the time in the world.

  74. Not that it should interest many of you, but the public in Poland has been hotly debating whether Pope John Paul II (Wojtyla) had a mistress and a son. Some progressive group wants to display a poster showing the three together in an election campaign.

  75. Another piece on news one is unlikely to see in any of our MSM is that the man who governs Belarus (Alexandr Lukaschenko) wants to ask Putin to send in some MIG fighters, he is unhappy with the NATO and Polish military exercises just over the country’s border with Poland.

  77. Baron March 12th, 2014 – 17:12

    “Some progressive group wants to display a poster showing the three together in an election campaign.”

    That would be an excellent idea.

  78. David ossitt. 16.50.

    Time.
    I am with you on that one David.
    Where does it go. ????

  82. RobertC @ 22:10

    It’s a group the name of which is hard to translate, something like atheists cum secularist cum whatever, and the country is Poland, Karol Wojtyla was their most famous burgher outshining Lech Walesa, the union leader credited with breaking the power of the comm party. And the election? Baron presumes the next one coming.

  84. Herbert Thornton @ 17:43

    It’s another of those ‘blinkered’ hobby horses of the ruling elite of the West, Herbert. How could one make a deal with a group of people who want to extinguish one.

    And as for the boy who was making a speech in the Middle East somewhere saying the creation of a two state Palestine will bring peace, prosperity, love, bla bla. What planet do these people inhabit?

  85. Malfleur @ 21:47

    You’ll have to educate Baron here, Malfleur, how exactly is the greenback to be devalued next week based on the link you’ve furnished?

  86. With all this talk about elections, I considered the fact that a curtain is not compulsory at the polling booth. I double-checked this out, since in many other countries a voter can select his/her candidate secure from prying eyes by a thick curtain. Here, there is no such protection, only three sides of the booth offering a measure of privacy. Do CHWs have any opinion about this?

  88. I think I am seeing double, n’est-ce pas?

    http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2014/03/20140312-074243.html

    Here are some snippets:
    “I’m one of those in the rest of Canada who doesn’t want Quebec to go, but who also refuses to lift a finger to convince them to stay.”

    “… I also suspect he and I share a similar definition of what independence would mean for Quebec – i.e. true independence. No half measures such as “sovereignty association,” no continued fiscal subsidization by the rest of Canada, no special trade relationship unless one makes sense for both sides.”

    “If Quebec decides to go, it must choose to stand on its own two feet fiscally, as much as politically and culturally. It has never been clear most nationalists were willing do to all three.”

    “Quebec is currently heavily indebted.”

    “Similarly, the Quebec government is horribly dependent on transfers from the rest of Canada to preserve its high-spending ways.”

    “Quebecers love their expensive infrastructure projects and rich social programs such as dirt-cheap daycare and university tuition.”

    “Nor is it clear (being deeply committed to the environment) that Quebecers would vote for more development of their province’s abundant resources just to fund separation. Many would likely prefer to stay “green” and continue to live off the feds.”

    And from the comments:
    “and if Quebec can seperate itself from Canada, by the same token Quebec is also divisable. Watch the Cree in the north, Monreal, Outaouais regions vote to stay in Canada.”

    “I wish the rest of Canada could have a referendum on whether we want Quebec to stay in Canada or not and do we wish to continue paying for all their perks? A sovereign Quebec means NO back-up or ties with Canada whatsoever, a SEPARATE country!”

    “.. let them go and we wont’ have to keep sending them money.”

    “If Quebec leaves the[y] can take the Trudeau influenced charter of rights with them and Canada can get back to its British influenced legislation. Taking the power away from judges who seems to be making a lawless Canada.”

    “Valerie Clark Right on and get back to common law instead of charter law and how about moving to a majority rule democracy while still providing decent but not obnoxious rights for minorities.”

    “Independence is independence. If Quebecers vote to separate from Canada, it’s 100% separate; no subsidies from Canada. We don’t give money to other sovereign countries; why would we give money to a sovereign Quebec?”

    “Let them go and become a 4th world country.”

    “I wish I could vote in their election. My vote would be for the Part Québécois. Would love for these donkeys to get the hell out of Canada and free loading equalization payments. That province has been a cancer to Canada for years. Just leave already and don’t expect any foreign aid from us when your bankrupt.”

    “Quebec acts like the kid who is constantly threatening to run away and join the circus if his bedtime isn’t relaxed and his allowance increased. The best antidote would be to pack their suitcases, throw in a picnic lunch and escort them to the door. Then let’s see how far down the block they get before turning around and running for home.”

    “Even if Montreal and the Eastern townships remained in a separate Quebec, none of its national (Canada) or international based business will! Those business and the thousands of jobs will flee into Canadian territory – likely Ontario! I simply can not see how Quebec (or PKP) can make any kind of economic argument for separation – it makes as much sense as Global Warming = total myth!!”

    “It’s time Eastern Canada pulled its own weight. Quebec must develop its resources and pay its own bills. Ontario must get off the dole and out of the Liberal bog in which it now finds itself. Alberta isn’t a bottomless money pit. We have debt too, mainly because we pay for Quebec’s cheap daycare and free university tuition while single mothers and university students in Alberta struggle to make ends meet. Canada will never become the Socialist country that Quebec wants and Quebec will never embrace Capitalism. These 2 divergent philosophies make Canada dysfunctional. An amicable divorce is essential.”

    So much déjà vu, but from where?

  91. Ukraine; natural gas; Russia; the West

    Helpful interview, some might think, with the English journalist, Paul Joseph Watson, about 5 minutes in here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-2K3Uy3tGQ

    Michael Savage has however been banned from entering England by the last two Home Secretaries and it therefore follows that no account should be paid to anyone who appears on his radio show.

  93. Ancient rights? The right to free speech that is offensive but not libelous. The right to having our borders secure. The right to have only British citizens take part in the political process. The right to have British jobs preserved in the first place for British citizens. The right to insist on no taxation without proper representation. The right to refuse service.

  94. Herbert Thornton, March 13th, 2014 – 00:22

    There has never been a greater disconnect between the electorate and government than at the present time. Democracy entered into a tailspin with the advent of a political class that went straight into politics from school, college or law school. Directly on to the largesse provided by the public nipple without ever having to earn real money in the real world. They have a symbiotic relationship with the bottom feeders of the MSM. Together they comprise the Westminster bubble, but every western “democracy” has it’s own version. Party politics: Reds vs Blues vs Yellows, provides the illusion of democracy, but reality it’s just one big club. Every now and again gerrymandering of electoral boundaries provides a change of government but, most importantly, the club membership remains roughly the same.

    For any MPs unfortunate enough to lose their seat in the HoC there are some fabulous sinecures available in the world of policy think tanks, “journalism”, quangos, and a good living can be made from TV SLEB/Reality show circuit. The HoL is also a useful safety net. All these organisations can provide a useful revolving door for ex members wishing to rejoin the club – providing, of course, that they stay “on message”.

    Finally: The LibDems have only about 12 months to go before they discover the answer to: “Whatever happened to Lembit Opik? ”
    🙂

  96. Well here we are back in Jolly England.
    Yall still here.
    I cannot see my old muckers Andy Car Park and Noah.
    We have been having a smile back home on the subject of our Communist President and one Blackpool beautician.
    We like Barraco Barner – but she should have gone the whole hog and tweeted Barraco Barmy.
    The said paper tiger has Vladymir Putin “quaking at the consequences” if the people of Crimea democratically say next week that they would prefer to be looked after by Putin. Strange strange world.
    Still you Limeys have sent Cameron and his delicious wife Sam to sort out Israel.
    Hey Ho.

  97. EC March 13th, 2014 – 09:48

    “Finally: The LibDems have only about 12 months to go before they discover the answer to: “Whatever happened to Lembit Opik? ”

    Horror of horrors they will all be queuing up to go on ‘I am a celebrity’ would it not be wonderful if every LibDem lost his seat?

  98. Herbert Thornton @ 00:22

    Not yet sufficient time to read the essay, Herbert, but shooting from the hips (and reserving all rights to change his mind) Baron would suggest democracies are losing out because those in charge in countries that in the past furnished the backbone to the idea of it, to its principles, tenets and institutions have hurt the core of democratic package – the coupling of policies with the will of the unwashed.

  99. Malfleur.
    I was going to post a reply to your question but then I read Peter’s post which said
    everything I would have said. As Frank often says, we’re doomed, and by \God he is right.

  100. Malfleur @ 03:44

    Whoever it is talking his point is valid, we rant about Russia nor respecting borders with the Ukraine (sending troops to Crimea), yet millions are pouring into the Republic from Mexico, the messiah wants to amnesty all of them. The Mexicans may not be armed (except for the drug cartels), but the culture they bring is more alien to that of the Republic than the Crimean culture to that of Russia,

    If longevity of possession be the criteria to solve the Crimean ‘ownership’, Russia wins with hands down. The transfer of the peninsula to Ukraine 1954 was akin to a transfer of Bishop’s Stortford from Hertfordshire to Essex, it had absolutely no legal meaning within the context of the USSR.

  101. EC @ 09:48

    Baron hasn’t read your posting before replying to Herbert, but isn’t it ironic you and him differ not in slicing the issue?

  102. There is a great tit giving it some outside office. Nice.
    (Why do they sound like a squeaky wheelbarrow?’

  103. Democracy is like syrup of figs, too much can have dire effects on the system, which is why I liken our political class to a heavy dose of the said elixir. I is not that democracy is directly responsible for this state of affaires but the power hungry apparatchiks who have their hands on the levers of power.

    That apart, democracy does not travel well, there are large swathes of the World where universal suffrage is not only alien, but unwanted. The Americans should take cogniscence of this before they go a ‘blundering in the Ukraine. The disaster that was the twentieth century was the result of America gallivanting around the globe convinced it had a divine right to stuff it’s principles down other folks throats but all the same stupendously proud of it’s ignorance of a World it did not understand.

  104. stephen maybery @14:15

    Nicely put.
    It is ironic that the Americans got rid of the British under George III only, in the fulness of time, to end up with far worse taxation and far more intrusive government under Barack I who is ruling by executive order from his palace in Washington DC.

  106. I have never seen Paddy Chayefsky’s film “Network”. I only learned of it’s existence when reading a reference to it in an article headed “How Russia is meddling with the dark side of the West”.

    The article appears in – of all places – Pravda. Pravda may not be a pure fountain of truth and wisdom, but it isn’t half as polluted as the Guardian and the BBC. At any rate, I think the article is worth reading –

    http://english.pravda.ru/russia/politics/06-03-2014/127040-russia_dark_side_west-0/

  107. stephen maybery March 13th, 2014 – 13:12

    “As Frank often says, we’re doomed, and by \God he is right.”

    Come on Stephen, chin up, stiff upper-lip and all that, because we are not doomed as in ‘cursed’ ‘condemned’ ‘dammed’, yes we are in a bad place but not as yet doomed.

    How does the silly Monty-Python jingle go? “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life”.

  108. Baron March 13th, 2014 – 13:14

    “If longevity of possession be the criteria to solve the Crimean ‘ownership’, Russia wins with hands down. The transfer of the peninsula to Ukraine 1954 was akin to a transfer of Bishop’s Stortford from Hertfordshire to Essex, it had absolutely no legal meaning within the context of the USSR.”

    100% correct, the Crimea is, was and always will be Russian and I believe has a 70/75% Russian population.

    The EU and Barak ‘I am a secret Muslim’ Obama should leave well alone.

    I wish that we had our own Putin.

  109. stephen maybery March 13th, 2014 – 14:15

    “Democracy is like syrup of figs, too much can have dire effects on the system, which is why I liken our political class to a heavy dose of the said elixir.”

    And when did we last live in a democracy (if ever) yes we have a periodic vote at all of the council elections but do these councils do as we would want?

    No the bloody well spend our money on stupid grandiose schemes that none of us want.

    The EU is as far from being democratic as one could possibly get, the EU parliament is a joke as is every single thing to do with this badly conceived corrupt evil empire, the only good thing is it will eventually collapse into the cesspit of its own making.

    As to our Parliament, elected by rotten boroughs and fiefdoms (Scottish, Welsh Irish and Muslim), corrupt postal voting with gerrymandering at every level, a parliament that pays no heed to the will of the indigenous population.

    If it truly served the will of the people, we would not be in the EU, we might possible still have the death penalty, murderers and some guilty of man-slaughter would receive proper long term sentences, not the sham we have today where life can and often does mean 6 or 7 years.

    If it truly served the will of the people we would not have as we have now a ‘fifth column’ in all of our major cities, these are the huge amount of Muslims who have been allowed (no encouraged) to bring their nasty heathen practices to this once green and pleasant land.

    If we had a democracy then parliamentarians would by law be held to their manifestoes.

    I would far rather live under a benign and ruthless potentate than see us governed by the likes of the idiot Clegg, flim-flam Cameron and for heaven’s sake the stupid moronic Marxist Miliband.

  110. EC @ 16:47

    Pat Condell is right, we, or rather those in charge and the MSM, are cowardly, and not only towards the Religion of Peace, they exhibit the same in relation to other powerful entities or individuals. It’s the Savile syndrome, only bigger.

    No MSM has published the news about the call between the Estonian guy and the Brussels Baroness? Why? They are all scared to upset the EU Empire, the editors may be cut off from EU briefings, ads, conferences, the EU financed projects and lucrative trips to foreign lands to see how the EU money enriches the locals.

  111. The more we read about the missing Malaysian airliner the more confusing it gets.

    The Wall Street Journal has a report the it could have gone on flying for four hours after it vanished from radar because it went on transmitting information about engine performance. The Malaysian government says – no it didn’t. Somebody – I incline to think – is either making things up, or denying the truth.

    So here’s a suggestion for somebody to write a thriller. The missing airliner has been flown to an airfield controlled by Al Qaeda and it’s supporters or to an airfield in Iran. (Think of the latest speculation that it was not Libya’s Gaddaffi but the late Ayatollah Khomeini who ordered the Lockerbie atrocity).

    The passengers are ordered off the plane being told that it needs to refuel. Once they’ve left the plane, they are all shot & the bodies incinerated.

    Then the interior of the plane is stripped of seats to make room for a nuclear bomb.

    After some months a legitimate flight by an identical aircraft heading for (pick a likely target) is shot down while the nuclear-carrying one is following it. The nuclear carrying airliner (pretending to be the legitimate one) continues to the target …….

  115. Baron @17:50

    “No MSM has published the news about the call between the Estonian guy and the Brussels Baroness?”

    I’ve been out. Have I missed something?

  116. Herbert Thornton, March 13th, 2014 – 00:22

    I can’t remember who said it but some cynical sod once said something along the lines of, “Democracy is far to dangerous a concept to be left in the the hands of the electorate.”

    Is this why successive governments (Reds/Blues/Yellows etc.) find the idea of referenda so abhorrent?

  117. EC @ 21:31

    It’s a call from the Estonian ForeignMinister to Baroness Ashton, in which he says the snipers who killed both the demonstrators (over 60) and the police (26) were members of one of the groups behind the new government. If you don’t want to listen the whole 10 minutes push the cursor towards 8 minutes or so.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX35vQ9TAG4

  118. David Ossitt (13 March @ 19:07)

    Around 30 years ago I did compose a short story.

    It was about a group of suicide bombers who smuggle a nuclear bomb into eastern Canada.

    Despite all efforts by the police (in those days not so politically correct as now) Canadian courts packed with Liberal Judges, all determined to uphold “Human Rights” at every opportunity, repeatedly thwart and criticise the police. They refuse every police application to be allowed to stop and search the terrorists’ truck. They say that the police are being unreasonable and accuse them of trying to undermine the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and it’s guarantees of things like freedom of religion, & freedom from racial discrimination etc..

    The terrorists, their truck and the bomb eventually reach the south-west corner of the coast of British Columbia, where, with the truck and the bomb, they all board a large yacht. It immediately sets off for Seattle.

    The last paragraph had an agitated detective walking down a Victoria street late at midnight, frantically trying to telephone the U.S. coastguard about it. Suddenly the sky to the south lights up and the detective says “Oh my God – it’s too late!”

    My 1980’s short story had no chance of being published and now being in my 85th year I’ve lost such urge as I had to become a successful writer. Somebody younger with more energy and talent is needed.

    Incidentally, I gave the short story the title “DON’T WORRY – IT CAN’T HAPPEN HERE”.

  119. RobertC – 23:47 ‘seeing double’
    It is even worse than I thought!


    “According to the Special Committee for Canadian Unity, which played a critical role defending the federation 19 years ago, 60% of Yes voters believed they would keep Canadian citizenship, the loonie and continue sending MPs to Ottawa.
    …
    After separatists have succeeded in tearing the country in two, why would any largesse at all be shown to them with respect to monetary policy?”

    http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/politics/archives/2014/03/20140313-171812.html

  120. Islam and child-brides

    I have had my attention drawn to four reports of Islamic countries and child-brides.

    1. The Nation in Pakistan reports:

    ISLAMABAD- The Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) ruled today that Pakistani laws prohibiting marriage of underage children are un-Islamic. At the end of its two-day session today, the CII said there is no minimum age of marriage according to Islam.

    “Islam does not forbid marriage of young children,” the council said. “However, the consummation of marriage is only allowed when both husband and wife have reached puberty.”

    2. Reuters reports from Iraq:

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) – About two dozen Iraqi women demonstrated on Saturday in Baghdad against a draft law approved by the Iraqi cabinet that would permit the marriage of nine-year-old girls and automatically give child custody to fathers.

    The group’s protest was on International Women’s Day and a week after the cabinet voted for the legislation, based on Shi’ite Islamic jurisprudence, allowing clergy to preside over marriages, divorces and inheritances. The draft now goes to parliament.

    “On this day of women, women of Iraq are in mourning,” the protesters shouted.

    “We believe that this is a crime against humanity,” said Hanaa Eduar, a prominent Iraqi human rights activist. “It would deprive a girl of her right to live a normal childhood.”

    The UN’s representative to Iraq, Nickolay Mladenov, also condemned the legislation. Mladenov wrote on Twitter the bill “risks constitutionally protected rights for women and international commitment”.

    The legislation goes to the heart of the divisions in Iraq since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, as Shi’ite Islamists have come to lead the government and look to impose their religious values on society at large.

    It describes girls as reaching puberty at nine, making them fit for marriage, makes the father sole guardian of his children at two and condones a husband’s right to insist on sexual intercourse with his wife whenever he wishes.
    …

    Iraq’s current personal status law enshrines women’s rights regarding marriage, inheritance, and child custody, and has often been held up as the most progressive in the Middle East.

    The proposed new law’s defenders argue that the current personal status law violates sharia religious law.

    3. In April 2011, the Bangladesh Mufti Fazlul Haque Amini declared that those trying to pass a law banning child marriage in that country were putting Muhammad in a bad light:

    “Banning child marriage will cause challenging the marriage of the holy prophet of Islam, [putting] the moral character of the prophet into controversy and challenge… Islam permits child marriage and it will not be tolerated if any ruler will ever try to touch this issue in the name of giving more rights to women.”

    4. In the Islamic Republic of Iran, Article 1041 of the Civil Code states that girls can be engaged before the age of nine, and married at nine:

    “Marriage before puberty (nine full lunar years for girls) is prohibited. Marriage contracted before reaching puberty with the permission of the guardian is valid provided that the interests of the ward are duly observed.”
    Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini married a ten-year-old girl when he was twenty-eight. Khomeini called marriage to a prepubescent girl “a divine blessing,” and advised the faithful to give their own daughters away accordingly: “Do your best to ensure that your daughters do not see their first blood in your house.” When he took power in Iran, he lowered the legal marriageable age of girls to nine, in accord with Muhammad’s example.

    And it’s that last part that explains the issue, we can turn to the influential Islamic website Islamonline.com from December 2010 which justified child marriage by invoking not only Muhammad’s example, but the Qur’an as well:

    The Noble Qur’an has also mentioned the waiting period [i.e. for a divorced wife to remarry] for the wife who has not yet menstruated, saying: “And those who no longer expect menstruation among your women, if you doubt, then their period is three months, and [also for] those who have not menstruated” [Qur”an 65:4]. Since this is not negated later, we can take from this verse that it is permissible to have sexual intercourse with a prepubescent girl. The Qur”an is not like the books of jurisprudence which mention what the implications of things are, even if they are prohibited. It is true that the prophet entered into a marriage contract with A’isha when she was six years old, however he did not have sex with her until she was nine years old, according to al-Bukhari.

    Islam and child-brides, for which you can read child-sex, is allowed, indeed encouraged because it’s following the Islamic Prophet Muhammed’s example:

    “The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death)” (Bukhari 7.62.88).
    As, in Islam, Muhammad is the supreme example of conduct (cf. Qur’an 33:21), he is considered exemplary in even until today, so who can argue with the practice?

    I find the silence of the Feminazis on this subject in particular and Islam in general disgusting. (I’m also surprised Harmen hasn’t converted to Islam.)

  121. Herbert Thornton @ 22:30

    You should publish it, Herbert, it’s timely and more than believable. Baron will be in the market for it.

  122. EC (13 March – 21:37)

    I can’t remember who said it either, but it’s a view that I’m sure has been expressed lots of times.

    About 40 years ago, when working for the Federal Government in Ottawa, I was searching for something in the Canadian archives and chanced on a letter written around 1832 by a Canadian Judge.

    His letter complained that the U.S.A. has been “abandoned to Democracy”.

    I’m sure that if he were come alive again now, the judge would not change his opinion of democracy one bit.

  123. Baron (13 March – 23:25)

    Several years after I’d written it, a man with a truck carrying some bomb-making materials was arrested at (I think the U.S. side) of the White Rock (British Columbia) border crossing with Washington State. He was on his way to an airport (in California I think) where he planned to cause a spectacular explosion.

    When I heard that news, my blood ran cold.

    Thanks for the compliment, but publishing it now – after the fact as it were – could have nothing like effect as it might have had then. Besides, I can’t afford it.

  124. English rights to be reinstated:

    I was just watching Wednesday’s Alex Jones Show which includes a report from an impromptu “open carry” citizens’ march in Austin, Texas, organized as part of efforts to defend and extend support for the 2nd Amendment to the US Constitution. I then realized that nobody had here had mentioned the right to bear arms as one of our liberties that we need to reclaim and reinstate. We would argue from the same base as our American friends that the right is not bestowed by government; it is ours by natural law and may not be infringed. The importance of the right is not to leave us free to hunt rabbits.

  126. Labour make it two in a week…
    Viscount Stansgate, aka Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn, has been called in.

    I wonder if William Hill are giving odds on a hat trick?
    Consulting http://www.deathlist.net/?y=2014
    I see that Dennis Healey is currently at #13 on the list.

  127. Things really are looking up. Two socialist hypocrites gone within a week. I’ve cracked open a bottle of local fizz to celebrate.

  130. I see the PAC has doubts about the government being able to manage contracts.

    It seems they have just been paying bills with no check of what purchase order they are against, and whether what they are being invoiced for has been delivered.
    The civil service is clearly unfit for purpose. Has anyone been sacked?

  131. The BBC had a Crowfest, now we can look forward to a Bennfest. Nothing or nobody lasts forever.

  132. Anne Wotana Kaye 1@March 14th, 2014 – 09:45

    I’m looking forward to a blairfest and a brownfest.
    not that i’ll listen, of course.

  134. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 @09:45

    “The BBC had a Crowfest, now we can look forward to a Bennfest. Nothing or nobody lasts forever.”

    Further candidates for the third man to complete this week’s hat trick: How about Arthur Scargill or, your bête noire, Jack Straw?
    The BBC would go into overload and hopefully explode!

  135. Clear Memories @ 23:23

    Baron too finds the silence of the liberated wimin disgusting, it’s driven by fear, Pat Condell’s right, those who can something about barbarity of the sort your piece highlighted are cowards.

  137. I was sickened by the sycophancy of the liberal elite regarding the deaths of first Crow, then Viscount Stansgate. The latter being one of the most toxic influences on the polity of this nation in the last century, Ne’ry a word of criticism for these two charmers, especially from Cameron, which in itself says everything you need to know about the fatuous clown who pretends to be a Conservative. I have only one more thing to say on this subject, God rot the pair of them.

  138. The draconian purge of gun ownership is pathetic. I grew up in the countryside, where everyone had a gun, usually kept behind the back door. I myself was taught to shoot (shot gun, hand pistol, bow and arrow) practically before I could walk, and I do not remember anyone running amok. Oh happy days. Sensible times which will not return.

  139. A fresh-faced reporter called Mark Stone, sent by Sky News to the far East to assist in the search for the missing 777, just portentously declared from the window of another aircraft, “The vastness of the ocean is extraordinary!!”

    As opposed to what Mark? The size of you pea-brain?

    Note to Sky News editors – FFS sake don’t let him fly over the Pacific. Whence do they recruit these wankers?

  141. EC
    March 14th, 2014 – 10:50
    All of them on a bed of rotten Straw !!!!!!!

  142. The latest information on the Malayan airliner (currently from the Guardian) can be found by `google-ing`the term *mh370*.

    We keep getting various reports which others then deny;so Rolls Royce and Boeing deny the Wall St Journal reports they were still getting signals after c.01-07.

    We now have claims Malayan military radar tracked a flight to the Indian Ocean.

  143. Apropos the missing airliner, I still think it was hijacked – and moreover that the government folk in Malaysia are trying to cover it up.

    It won’t surprise me if it’s now in some Muslim country and that the Chinese passengers are being held as hostages with threats to murder them if China doesn’t yield to Muslim demands in the far west of China.

  144. Herbert Thornton
    March 14th, 2014 – 16:57
    Agree! Also, I feel there is an Indian connection. Thr grandson of an Indian politician who was murdered was (is)? on board, and most certainly I believe muslims are involved and there is a cover-up.

  145. The Malayan airliner reminds me of the shooting down of the Korean airliner by the Soviet Far Easter Air Defences.

    In that case the aircrew,coming from the USA,had simply programmed `Seoul`into the inflight computer which on auto pilot had flown the aircraft on the shortest route,straight over the most secret sites of the Soviet Far East.

    [What has to be known is that civil radar coverage doesn’t extend many miles out to sea.The crews of airliners in flight are required to report-in to the respective air control when they reach a `way-point`.The Korean pilots dutifully did this at the required times but did not check where thy actually were.]

    The event was compounded by gross incompetence by the Soviet Air Defences.They failed to challenge the aircraft over Kamkhatka and let it fly on out of Soviet air space.It then flew on over Sakhalin Is.It was shot down in what appears to have been a panic measure as it was again about to leave Soviet air space.

    All this points up the nature of civil and military radar and behaviour of civil air crews.

  146. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 March 14th, 2014 – 17:11

    The grandson of an Indian politician who was murdered was (is)? on board, and most certainly I believe Muslims are involved and there is a cover-up”.

    Ever since the disappearance, I have had without any grounds or reasons whatsoever the irrational thought, that the North Koreans might be involved.

  147. Radford NG @ 16:50

    Baron is getting increasingly worried about the missing plane, and not only because it also was flying machines that hit the NY twin towers, hit Pentagon.

    It was reported on the 5 o’clock news a London firm that operates a satellite network reported receiving a ping from the plane five hours after it was reported missing. Apparently, the automatic ping signal (similar to what your computer sends out of you want to measure the speed of up and downloads) can be used to determine roughly the position of the plane.

    The suggestion the plane was hijacked, may be deployed in another terrorist attack doesn’t seem impossible.

  149. What chance Western defense systems intercepting a nuclear missile from an enemy country, if a Boeing 777 can disappear without trace?
    Doesn’t say much for the implied comprehensive coverage of satellite surveillance, does it?

    The overwhelming stench of rank bullshit pervades this incident and it renders all news coverage as suspect. I suppose the MSM will continue to speculate and spread half-baked theories until they get bored with it, or some overriding event supplants it. If it is a hi-jack, Surely the demands would be manifest by now?

  150. Ever since last week end I had thought that the semi-circle of pain in my chest side and back were the result of two much heavy pruning in the garden over the week end.

    Then yesterday morning when the pain was so bad I had to get out of bed a couple of hours early, I noticed as I got out of the shower the tell-tale red blotches in the area of pain.

    I guised ‘shingles’, later that morning our newest junior GP confirmed my diagnoses and prescribed me high doses of antiviral medication and strong pain-killers saying you will need them.

    These together with all of my regular medication have knocked me sideways and I have spent most of the day in bed.

    Do any of you have experience of this condition? and if so please tell me how long do the extremely painful symptoms last?

  152. We have had, in July 2012, Ed Milliband praising the ethical Coop Group:
    Ed Miliband MP sets out his banking reform plans at the Co-operative Bank HQ

    “Ed opened his speech by praising the Co-op: “You have always understood that ethics of responsibility, co-operation and stewardship must be at the heart of what we do. That’s one of the reasons why the Co-op Bank has in the last week seen a 25% rise in applications for accounts.” He introduced the Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, who was standing alongside him, as “a proud Labour and Co-operative MP”.”

    http://www.party.coop/2012/07/09/ed-miliband-mp-sets-out-his-banking-reform-plans-at-the-co-operative-bank-hq/

    And yet, his week, we have Lord Myners, a Labour peer, stating some hard truths about the same said group:

    “The shambolic state of the Co-operative Group was laid bare in a scathing verdict warning that the survival of Britain’s biggest mutual organisation was at stake.

    The Co-op has been undermined by “reckless” dealmaking, “shocking” levels of debt and governance standards far worse than even the banks before the credit crunch, according to Lord Myners, the group’s senior independent director who was charged with overhauling the boardroom.

    In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the City grandee who was installed as a Labour minister at the height of the credit crisis said: “I have observed the bad governance of the banks, but this is on an altogether worse level.

    “The rate of deterioration has increased over the last half dozen years because of the recklessness of the strategy being pursued and supported by the board.”

    He added that the entire retail, funeral home, pharmacy and farming conglomerate would deteriorate further unless it was radically reformed.

    …

    He said the company’s most senior managers were left to waste billions of pounds on disastrous corporate transactions because the directors drawn from the Co-op movement were not qualified to keep them in check. “Few of them have any serious business experience and many are drawing material financial benefits from their positions.”

    Myners said the Co-op’s elected directors – who include a plasterer, lecturer, tax official, nurse and farmer – had overseen “breathtakingly value-destructive” deals, including the takeover of the Somerfield supermarket chain and the Britannia building society.”

    Isn’t it beyond belief that the political wing of this ethical but incompetent financial car crash still thinks it has the skills to govern Britain at all or that the BBC pretends that it has?

    I know those, rich and poor, sucking wealth from the State’s taxpayers will pretend, but how can those in the Private Sector keep up with fantasy?

    We are not talking about the finer points of business acumen or even bad luck. We are talking about complete incompetence, where tossing a coin would have given given better results, except that there was no one able to pose the right questions!

    Euan Sutherland, at great cost, was brought in to save the group, yet he has quit because the board disagreed with his proposals:

    “In a report rushed out – just days after the group’s chief executive, Euan Sutherland, quit and branded the organisation “ungovernable” – Myners concluded that:

    • The group’s “massive failure of governance” had “gravely damaged the organisation”, letting its business decay and leaving it financially weak.

    • Its members, who supposedly own the business, have almost no say in what the board or managers decide.

    • Unless the governance is reformed “it will run out of capital to support its business”.

    Myners said it was a tragedy that Sutherland had quit because the Co-op owed its survival through last year’s bank crisis to him and his team. He said what he had uncovered at the Co-op was so serious that the group had no choice but to change.

    “What I think I have exposed is that the Co-op is not a democratic organisation and has a deeply flawed governance structure, and if it doesn’t address these issues the pace of decline will simply increase. The reality is that the Co-op has been in decline for 60 years.”

    The organisation had “the worst governance I have ever witnessed” and “shocking” levels of debt, some of which was hidden by complex property deals, he said. The group currently has debts of £1.2bn. “This is folly in the extreme. This really pains me.””

    It pains me too – what the future holds! But then again, the Tories and Lib Dems aren’t any better.

  154. David Ossitt (14 March @ 19:07)

    It happened to me around 1990 & believe me you have my sympathy.

    Medication plus Painkillers weren’t much help, but after several days of agony, I felt that I really needed a shower (it was the hot & humid season in Hong Kong) so I forced myself to take a shower. To my amazement, the hot water gave me immediate relief.

    So my wife kept filling a hot water bottle for me to use as a cushion. Eventually the condition (slowly) subsided.

    I hope this helps.

  155. RobertC @ 20:45

    This chap Lord Myners has been critical of that part of banking that needed changing less than the co-op, other ‘vanilla’ banks. Finally, he seems to have wised up.

  156. David Ossitt
    March 14th, 2014 – 19:07
    David, sorry to learn you are in such pain. No experience of this, and no advice, except suggest you try and relax with music you enjoy and catch up with some reading. Make the most of this as time out if you possibly can.

  157. David Ossitt
    March 14th, 2014 – 19:07

    Yes, extremely painful. I had it at school when I was about 16 and had to spend some time in the Sanatorium. I don’t remember that stay as being more than a few days, but it left a scar. Some connection with another disease – like chicken pox? If you get one, you don’t get the other – that kind thing.

  158. Baron has just caught the tail end of todays’s Newsnight, Mark Urban reporting from Crimea. A Mayor of one of the towns (Tartar ethnicity) said he had advised the town dwellers to remain calm, was against the referendum, as was one of the men on the street who said the referendum was an occupation of Crimea by Putin. The man was quite outspoken, showed no fear, offered his thoughts on Putin, Russia and the referendum quite openly.

    It didn’t occur to the BBC reporter this contradicts the Corporation message that people in the region are oppressed, fearful, frightened to speak their mind.

    Baron has said it before, given the decades of terror under the Red Menace, the people in the former USSR and its satellites don’t live in a fully fledged democracy, far from it, but the conditions are now much better than at any time in the past going back to the 16th century oprichnina.

    More to the point, it would be hard to imagine anything better in the transitional phase between the rule of the old guard and that of largely the same people, who just changed the party badge, still think the way they did before. Only when those poisoned by the creed of communism die out, the new generation untouched by the evil ideology arrives will the countries resemble something similar to what we have.

    If the new Kiev Government remains in power Baron bets you that within a couple of years they’ll be almost as corrupt as the administrations before.

  159. Malayan Flight MH370.

    The Guardian has provided live updates over the day.The latest reports are from Reuters and the New York Times.Now the Americans are involved in the search there appear to be whistle-blowers giving-out information.

    The latest story is that the plane’s transmitters were turned off one-by one.This still left a monitoring device able to send out a signal every hour;in the same way as a mobile phone does when switched off to keep in contact with the nearest relay point.[If you don’t want Them to know were you are take out the SIM card.]

    The aircraft is reported to have turned West,increased height,decreased height and flown West.Military radar showed an unknown aircraft crossing Malaya,turning North,then North West in the direction of the Andaman Islands–largely forested and uninhabited.

    It’s flight path was along civil airline routes where it’s presents would go unremarked ; and it changed direction at official `way-points`.

    If all this is true it shows the aircraft being flown by an experienced pilot for five hours out of the World of Islam into the land of the Hindoos.

  160. Flight MH370

    Guardian reports investigators are convinced plane hijacked by someone with extensive flight experiance who switched off communications and diverted plane,steering it to avoid radar.

    (Commentator notes the chief pilot had a private flight simulator in his home.)

  161. MH370 – to stir the conspiracy pot. All have assumed Muslim extremists are involved because they’re the usual mad bastards. But what about a bunch of fundamentalist Hindus? That culture was persecuted for hundreds of years by Islam and remains aggrieved and aggravated by it to this day.

    So, if you can fly over 2000kms and disappear somewhere on the Indian sub-continent, what prime little-sheethead target is in range. Well, anywhere in Pakistan obviously, but a little further (and amongst some of the busiest airspace on the planet, Dubai & Doha airports handle thousands of aircraft a day) lies Mecca, always wall-to-wall with f**kwits and a place all Muslims must visit once. In truth, successfully destroying Mecca is just the kind of message Muslims will understand and respond beneficially to. The history of Islam demonstrates time after time that the only message they truly grasp is one backed by a severely bloodied nose.

  162. Malayan Flight MH370:

    Why so many lies and so much obfuscation?
    There two things that the “authorities” are keen to avoid coming to light – at all costs!

    1) That the plane was hijacked.
    2) That the ROP was involved.

  163. Just read the story about the fallen soldiers from WW1 being discovered and reburied. I suppose some leftie twat at the Mail thought it would be amusing to use Volkswagon (Das Auto) as the lead-in advert to the embedded video clip.

  164. I think that Michael Gove is quite right in his recent comments about David Cameron and his “Cameroons”. The takeover of the Conservative party by the “Etonian Tendency” in 2005/6 meant that the Cameroons were drawn from too narrow a social background to win the full confidence of the electorate in 2010.

    And so it came the pass… Labour’s U-666, with its madman at the helm, should have been sunk without trace but, predictably, Dave’s depth charges lacked the necessary depth.

  165. EC – 08:25 ‘Eton mess’
    I don’t think that having several from Eton in the Cabinet is the fundamental problem.

    It is having several from one school in the Cabinet that is of concern. When a group is formed and everyone has something in common. It is a weakness.

    Whether the school is Eton or North London Comprehensive, it shows that there is a clique of dysfunctionals, unable to work with allies, preferring instead to work with mates, in a gang. It’s no different from the last government.

  168. If it’s Muslims who have the 777 I would feel very nervous working in the three shanghai skyscrapers.

  169. That plane must have been stolen for a purpose.
    You wouldn’t fly it on the journey it’s been on just to crash it at the end.
    In a Muslim country like Malaysia I am sure an extra tanker load of fuel could go into the tanks to make sure it completes it’s journey.
    And was going up to much higher altitudes than normal just to kill all on board who were not prepared for it.

  170. It now seems that it’s a very high probabilty factor that othe diversion of the plane was a deliberate act, rather than a mechanical or electronic failure. The lapse of time since take off indicates that it has either landed or crashed. If it had landed it follows that it would have been noted in myriad ways and the demands of the hi-jackers would be underway.

    This leads me to surmise that the hi-jacker’s intentions were thwarted either by the extended crew, or by passengers and as a result the plane ditched and is lost – either in the sea, or in a deserted jungle area. If this is so then it could be some time before it is found – if indeed ever.

  171. RobertC @09:50

    Re: ‘Eton mess’

    At the heart many of the problems of the coalition have been the hoards of inexperienced, gushing Cameroonian and Cleggian SpAds. Not only were many of these people born, quite literally, yesterday but they also make Daniel Korski look a like venerable sage.

  172. I still suspect it’s landed .

    Captain Ross Aimer, an aviation consultant who was formerly an instructor for the 777, tells TIME that a pilot with “considerable skill and experience” could land the aircraft in as little as 3,000 ft (900 m). “It’s conceivable that if this was a calculated set-up they may have an old military field somewhere in the middle of some jungle,” he says. “You could even land it on a beach or small strip of land.”

  173. Things must be very critical with the aircraft saga, as the Angel of Death Orla Guerin has been called in to announce developments on the BBC Radio 4 News.

  174. EC – 11:15 Re: ‘Eton mess’

    The problem is not that the SpAds are not from down the mines from South Wales or Scotland 🙂 It is that they are all from the same background. The fact that what they have in ‘common’ is Eton is not relevant, apart from making the privately educated Gove the odd one out! More or less!

    It can be useful to have a ‘sprinkling’ of not very experienced SpAds, though they shouldn’t be at the top of the tree. They should be asking the stupid questions which are needed to stop ridiculous group-think, not creating policy with the Cabinet gleefully agreeing!

    SpAds are either ex-Cabinet ministers, ex-board members or they are young, and as experienced as one would expect!

  175. John Birch (11:26)

    I agree that your scenario is possible, but then what? It’s more or less out of fuel. So what next? For it to be re-scheduled as a flying bomb would require refuelling logistics that would draw the attention of the heightened surveillance capabilities. If it was a terrorist suicide/homicide run, then why no ‘Allahu Akbar’ cries?

    There is another possibility – the Indian authorities detected a bogey object on their radar and decided to eliminate it with a missile over the Indian Ocean (which is undoubtedly what the Yanks would have done if one was headed their way); but that would be difficult without someone blowing the whistle on the action if they did – and many other monitoring authorities would have detected such an action (one hopes) in the current state of sensitivity world wide. I still think it was a thwarted hi-jack and it’s all over; until, that is, they find the debris at sea or in some remote area – a massive task and the search has to be abandoned at some stage; the cost is prohibitive. Also remember – at the moment nobody can be held responsible, so there can’t be much appetite for any of the authorities to find it. A successful search is now problematical – cui bono? Apart from the poor relatives of those on board who would get closure and maybe redress. Who do they sue under the current circumstances?

  176. Btw the fiction writers and conspiracy theorists will make a bomb out of it – even if the terrorists don’t.

  177. RobertC @12:37

    AND in Vince Cable’s department, even ex jailbirds!

    I think that the major role inexperienced SpAds have played in some very high profile Coalition policy cock-ups is not fully appreciated. Now if you excuse me, I’ve got a missing airliner to find.

  178. Frank P,

    I think Hollywood has already covered something similar so stand by for a rapid remake. Wasn’t “Raid on Entebbe” (1976) released before they had finished sweeping up?

  179. Malfleur @ 10:05

    Yes, Malfleur, there are those who back you on this one, Baron’s one of them.

  180. Clear Memories @ 07:47

    You are right, Clear Memories, and may be on to something. Every religion has its shares of the loony phylum, it’s just the ROP seems to have cornered the market for them.

    Baron also reckons the plane has landed, we better find it quick before it gets loaded with stuff that goes bang, flown into a major city.

  181. John birch @ 11:26

    The whole story smells as if it was well planned. It may have landed in a place that already has re-fuelling capacity, prepared months ago together with the explosives.

    If it ditched in the sea why wasn’t it detected by the network of earthquake sensors that are everywhere in the area. Similarly, the US military satellites would have picked up a bang in the skies if the plane were to explode high up.

    Like you, Baron reckons it’s landed, and most likely in a place we aren’t looking. If the guy knew how to switch the comm devices he has switched, he was most likely also aware of the pinging capacity, left it on till last when the plane was ‘supposed to run out of fuel’ then switched it off, damaged it so that it stopped pinging. Those looking for the plane would interpreted this as a crash – no pinging, no fuel – it would make sense. In the meantime, if it really was planned they would have had more fuel that the official record shows, enough to get them where they wanted to go.

  182. EC – 13:06 “inexperienced SpAds”
    If inexperienced SpAds are playing a major role, then the Cabinet are not doing their job. (As if we didn’t know!)

    Isn’t that what the Cabinet is for, to take responsibility, which should include understanding what they are responsible for? It needs to have a breadth of experience and having everyone with the same background, Eton or South Wales mines, does not help in this endeavour!

  186. One of the independent newspapers in Russia is reporting today that an American drone was flying over Crimea, was ‘landed’ by Russian fighters.

    It’s getting abit uncomfortable, let’s hope it doesn’t get out of hand.

  187. Today is the tenth anniversary of the abduction,torture and murder of 15 year old Kriss Donald from the streets of Glasgow by a group of Pakistanis :the most horrific racial crime in British history.Most sites don’t even record what was done to him.

    On wikipedia is reference to the bias in the case from the BBC and the prejudice of the police.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kriss_Donald

  191. EC
    March 16th, 2014 – 09:32
    The delectable “Daily Mail” headlines. Just because it says so, it ain’t necessarily so!

  192. It looks like Uli Hoeness has decided not to appeal against his conviction for tax evasion, and is now bound for Landsberg prison.

    The former German international and World Cup winner, and now former manager of FC Bayern, has put out a statement on the club’s website:

    http://www.fcbayern.de/de/news/news/2014/erklaerung-von-uli-hoeness-140314.php

    Reading between the lines I think he says that he regrets not being a dog owner and hiring an English lawyer. (NB. unlike previous inmates of that institution I don’t think that he has any plans to write a book)

  193. As I expected.

    The missing Malaysia Airlines plane could have been on the ground when it sent satellite signals, officials have admitted.

    The last ‘ping’ was picked up by a satellite nearly seven hours after the flight dropped off civilian air traffic control screens.

  194. Anne Wotana Kaye 1, @10:04

    Do you remember these?

    “(Legless) Nudist Welfare Man’s Model Wife Fell For The Chinese Hypnotist From The Co-op Bacon Factory”.
    News of the World

    “Headless Man Found in Topless Bar”.
    New York Post

    h/t Gentlemen Ranters – The Last Pub in Fleet Street.
    http://www.gentlemenranters.com/

  195. Baron 15th, – 20:09

    “an American drone flying over Crimea, was ‘landed’ by Russian fighters.”

    If it’s true, I doubt the Americans, with their attitude to military secrecy and security, will be that bothered…they won’t have risked anything that was an advance on what the Russians already have.

  196. EC
    March 16th, 2014 – 10:24
    Oh, my goodness, pass me the smelling salts !!!!!! 🙂

  197. EC

    If you were a top security official of the Indian Government and your military and civil sources reported that a rogue Boeing 777 had turned from it’s scheduled run towards China and altered its course in your general direction – and that the Islamic pilot (or someone else) had turned off its transponder; what would you do.

    And just supposing that you did what was necessary to protect your cities from a possible flying bomb, would you necessarily tell the rest if the world how you had obviated that risk? And if, in the aftermath of such a defensive action, the rest of the countries in the area continued to search for the plane, would you join in?

    Note:

    It is reported that the Indian authorities have stood down their their search effort, pending further information.

    ??

  198. The only contra indication to my inference, is that in those circumstances it might be politic to continue to search, as a red herring – making sure, of course that you avoided certain areas where you knew debris might exist. No country would relish shooting down a plane loaded mainly with innocent passengers – well – no civilised country, anyway, with the possible exception of the Iran, N Korea or -ahem – the US.

    As far as I have seen or heard nobody has asked the Indian authorities whether they were on ‘high alert’ and if they were not, then why not – given the high state of tension between India and its Muslim neighbours?

  199. Frank P@March 16th, 2014 – 12:32

    the possible area where the aeroplane could be is about 1/10 if the surface of the world. So they are spending time considering where to deploy assets to find the plane. The indians stood down over the andaman islands as the malasians thought the plane had gone further.

    It could be in chins -where they are having islamist trouble. or in one of the ex USSR states beytween china and the caspian sea. But I understand there is doubt as to the amount of fuel on board so the area in which it could be is even larger.
    Bet the religion of peace is something to do with this somewhere.

    If the plane was landed somewhere (as in using its wheels so its intact) where are the passengers?

  201. Alexandr 12:48)

    “If the plane was landed somewhere (as in using its wheels so its intact) where are the passengers?”

    Well – I doubt they are continuing their journey by ‘bus or train; we would perhaps have heard about that by now, don’tchathink?

  203. Frank P, @12:32 ; @13:01

    The Indian air force are a professional outfit and I would expect that for many years they have been on a constant state of alert watching for any lunacy that their neighbours might launch against them. Any aircraft approaching Indian airspace would have, undoubtedly, been identified and challenged and have received the offer to be escorted to the nearest IAF airbase. A refusal would have meant that only one option was available.

    Despite “Scott M’s” reservations, I would like to suggest that it would be negligent of the USA NOT always have a spy satellite looking down on that region. Any activity on the Afghan, Pakistan, Indian and Chinese borders should be of great interest to them. Also I would have expected any increase in radio communications related to an incursion of Indian airspace to have been detected by the NSA, GCHQ and Chinese listening stations.

    Somebody, somewhere, knows where that plane is and they ain’t telling!

  204. Alexsandr @13:41

    In that case their best hope of rescue is that the Texans deploy Chuck Norris, Louisiana deploy Steven Seagal, and that Liam Neeson thinks his daughter needs rescuing again.

  205. EC

    Donald Sensing expands the possibilities of MH 370:

    senseofevents.blogspot.co.uk

  206. The next clue will not come from any of the search parties, but from thorough and painstaking examination of the passengers, the crew of the flight. That assumes the plane was hijacked, the hijacking planned well and for long.

    One of the reports suggested the plane was taken above the normal flying height, it may have also more fuel than what was needed to fly to Beijing plus one hour. There are plenty of long landing strips in the Afghanistan, Pakistan built and abandoned by the helpful Americans, even more further north west.

    The ping signal stopped when the plane was supposed to run out of the officially recorded fuel intake. This may have been a part of the plan for it would have been interpreted (is interpreted) as the time the plane crashed. In reality, the plane was loaded with more fuel to take it where the hijackers wanted to go at a height the Indians cannot reach with their radars.

    When loaded with whatever the hijackers want to transport to the final destination the plane will get into the traffic path easily. There are thousands planes daily that are not listed, guided anywhere except by a ground network of which we know FA.

  207. Could someone explain to Baron why is it the communication devices can be switched off by the crew? What possible reason could there be to let the crew (or anyone else anywhere else for that matter) to disable the com devices? No unlike the ping generated gear the com gadgets should be on all the time, report automatically. I couldn’t be that expensive, and may pay off what with religious fanatics developing a habit for hijacking planes.

  208. The distance between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing is about 2700 miles, that between Kuala Lumpur and Kabul is over 3000 miles, just about what the plane could have made if loaded with the normal fuel intake (distance plus one hour). Remember the plane could fly up to 7000 if it takes the max its tankers allow.

    You can speculate where else it could have gone on distance here:

    http://www.freemaptools.com/how-far-is-it-between.htm

  209. I think we all need to keep an open mind almost as vast as the Indian Ocean and the Southern Ocean combined. But I concur that the Global intelligence Services probably have the full sp now and for some reason it ain’t the right time to share the full Monty with the great unwashed.

  210. Baron

    According to Scott M, who seems to know what he’s talking about, over on American Digest (see above links) the Transponder can be manually turned off by the pilot in the case of fire emergency – demanded by air safety regs.

  211. Good point, Frank, but there is yet another thing that puzzles.

    Everyone assumes the plane could fly within the two flying corridors (one southwest into the massive depth of the Indian ocean, the other northwest towards the stronghold of the ROP). Why? If it was hijacked, the men planned it, they could have taken with them a GPS gadget, ran it independently of anything in the cockpit. The accuracy of the commercially available GPS package used in cars is measured in centimetres, more than good for flying a plane by it.

    Is it really a coincidence the ping signal stopped when the the plane reached the flypath where it could have turned either southwest or northwest?

    If it is true the Boeing was taken over, and the last conversation with the Kuala Lumpur’s tower – calm, measured and exactly as it should have been – was spoken after the com devices were disabled, the people who did it must have thought about everything in minute detail, arrange things in a way that would confuse everyone looking for them. They need time to dispose of few things, cover their tracks. They want us to look in the wrong places.

  212. Frank P @ 16:56

    Thanks, Frank.

    It still doesn’t make sense, why would a com device ticking automatically interfere with fire? It would burn exactly the same way whether on or off, it couldn’t add to the fire if the battery was feeding the circuitry or wasn’t.

    Still, the health and safety know bwtter.

  213. Does anyone know of firms that ship cats by sea? <it's a far more secure journey, and they get to have visits every day so the owner cab check on the conditions and the contentment of the cats during their long journey.

    I was a gigantic fan of KLM for 20 years, then they started stuffing them in holds and vans and keeping them icey cold for the duration of the journey and subesequently lost my trade.

    Do any others know of safe, warm and pyschologically secure firms offering household pet transportation from one country to another, usually across water?

    Thanks if you have an answer!

    If you don't know about the-once superb shipping standards of

  215. Short circuitry apparently – that’s the danger. I agree that it seems illogical because normally that causes fuses to blow – that’s what happens in my gaff anyway. But then my adobe hacienda doesn’t have to fly at 35,000 feet with a Muzzy pilot. 🙂

  216. I thought that this Guardian headline would make a good examination question in Economics, or even as an Entrance Exam to some august establishment:

    “Co-op pays official £2,000 a day to examine why it is in debt”
    Discuss!

  217. Baron (16 March @ 17:13)

    “….. the people who did it must have thought about everything in minute detail, arrange things in a way that would confuse everyone looking for them. They need time to dispose of few things, cover their tracks. They want us to look in the wrong places.”

    I believe that you’re right – and that they have a plan already in place to use the plane for a spectacular terrorist atrocity.

    What we need to think about now –

    1. Where will the target be? Any suggestions? e.g. –

    a. Tel Aviv?

    b. The China Bank building in Hong Kong?

    c. The Indian Parliament in New Delhi?

    2. Will the plane alone be used to destroy a vitally important building or have they acquired, and are they loading the plane with, an atomic bomb?

  218. Whilst we ate breakfast the television news was on in the kitchen and we could hear it in the dining-room so we listened to it, the plebiscite in the Crimea was being discussed to aid (supposedly) this discussion a useful idiot was wheeled on who managed to say that it was (the plebiscite) illegal at least four times and that Russia has now invaded the Crimea he said this not twice nor thrice but at least five times.

    On none of these occasion was he disabused of his erroneous comments and so the BBC has allowed a totally wrong picture to be broadcast.

    The facts are, that amongst many more rights by treaty than I have listed hear, Russia rents its Sevastopol base from Ukraine and furthermore, the Russian navy is allowed up to 25,000 troops, 24 artillery systems with a calibre smaller than 100 mm, 132 armoured vehicles, and 22 military planes, on Crimean territory.

    We the British have many similar concessions for our military around the globe.

    It is high time that the BBC be closed down in its present form as it is nothing less the propaganda arm of the Socialist Workers Party.

    We are a long way from the how John Reith described his principles of broadcasting such as an equal consideration of all viewpoints, probity, universality and a commitment to public service, with the motto “Nation shall speak peace unto Nation”, sad timers indeed.

  219. Irony is not dead! Herman Van Rompuy(@euHvR), unelected President of the EU, declares Crimea referendum “illegitimate” and will not recognise the likely 93% vote in favour of rejoining Russia.

  223. Frank P – (17 March – 02.16)

    Your response to EC points up the absurdity of Herman van Rompuy very well – but had you realised that it applies with just as great effect to the search for the missing flight MH370 airliner?

    If the allusion escapes anybody – just Google ‘The Hunting of the Snark’.

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