The Coffee House Wall – 12th/18th May

Posted on May 12, 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.

Please consider supporting the Coffee House Wall by making a donation of whatever amount, to fund the running of the site using the Paypal donation button provided.

Your support is needed, without it the Coffee House Wall can’t function. Please consider a donation of even just £5.



140 thoughts on “The Coffee House Wall – 12th/18th May”

  1. Malfleur 11th, – 23:32

    “This turns out to be a piece called “Oliver’s Army””

    I suspect your source is a bit unreliable…

  3. Apologies. I read too rapidly through Boris Johnson’s article in the DT where, towards the end, he draws a comparison between the two songs.

    Johnson also comments pertinently that: “…by the same logic Tony Hall, the BBC director general, and all the corporation’s schedulers should be asked to “commit Hara-kiri” for broadcasting Pulp Fiction, a film containing repeated use of the N-word. ”

    The people at the BBC involved in wrecking Mr. Lowe’s livelihood over this footling matter are damned fools.

  6. “Mexico begins swearing in former vigilantes for new Michoacan force”

    “Vigilantes” is obsolete media vocabulary for “militia”. They are fighting the drug cartels which are of course Mexican army units who switch clothes from time to time to maintain the fiction of no government involvement in the drugs trade.

    It reminds us that we should examine if we should be pressing for the restoration of our right to bear arms. An article in the November edition of Standpoint by the way quotes Guizot on the idiosyncratic nature of English liberty and how it has always included hat right.

    If it is good enough for the Swiss incidentally, then it ought to be good enough for the English. In Switzerland it is not only a right but also a duty for adults to bear arms. Why do the English get their knickers in a twist whenever this is mentioned nowadays?

    http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27360126

    The BBC would like to think that the Mexican government (aka drug dealers) is being successful in persuading the militia to disarm or at least to register their arms. The BBC reports are not however necessarily reliable; if wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

    Now, why did we used to have trained bands again?

  8. RobertC 12th, – 19:25

    “No one, of course, is allowed to describe first generation black or coloured immigrants as ‘immigrants’ though no other collective noun exists.”

    I note the above from Ray Honeyford’s piece.

    Some 45 years ago, ‘immigrant’ was the new acceptable word to replace the now unacceptable ‘nigger’.

    One of the Sunday broadsheets of the time (of course, they were ALL broadsheets at the time…nearly.) printed a cynic’s modern lexicon where they suggested we would have to introduce the expression, “an immigrant in the woodpile.” 🙂

  9. Ostrich (occasionally)
    May 12th, 2014 – 19:36
    Try buying Immigrant Brown shoe polish!

  10. “the carefully-coiffed politician’s campaign…” “…extensive interviews, including to pro-Kremlin media, blaming the Ukraine crisis on the European Union” “… the virulently pro-Israel..” “… far-right leader…” “…fawning approaches to Nigel Farage…” (AFP…)

  11. My mother was a tailoress and made for me my first pair of drain-pipe trousers, she made them fro some spare gabardine that she had, the colour was nigger-brown.

  18. Seeing that UKIP is leading over his rotten party, Scabby- Eyed Clegg says, “What goes down goes up, and what goes up comes down.” Years ago, the lovely Lady Diana Cooper called her autobiography, “he Rainbow Comes and Goes”

  19. Our local GP surgery has made another saving. Now, not only are there Health Assistants, instead of nurses, who draw blood without wearing surgical gloves because they find them unwieldy to use, but face-to-face appointments with doctors are now being replaced by telephone conversation appointments. Why did these doctors and the State pay for expensive medical school training when in the end they are just Call Centre workers?

  20. Just been listening to the news. The international court is to investigate British soldiers over war crimes in Iraq. This is the only country in the World which would allow this to happen. I feel certain that our boys are once more to be sold down the river. Our leaders are beyond contempt, they and the lawyers behind all this should be strung up from the lamp posts.

  21. Here in Yorkshire we are looking forward to the Tour de France starting here both stage one and stage two, however we are less than happy that BBC Look North news persistently refers to the start not as the “Start of the Race” but as the “Grand Départ” with both words having a particularly guttural French pronunciation.

    This for us this is particularly galling or should I write Gauling.

  22. David Ossitt – 19:18 ‘le Grand Départ’

    It is starting on Thursday 22 May 2014.

  23. stephen maybery May 13th, 2014 – 18:48

    “Just been listening to the news. The international court is to investigate British soldiers over war crimes in Iraq. This is the only country in the World which would allow this to happen. I feel certain that our boys are once more to be sold down the river. Our leaders are beyond contempt, they and the lawyers behind all this should be strung up from the lamp posts.”

    I agree, especially that these heinous lawyers were using British Legal Aid to fund their disgraceful assertions, stringing up from lamp posts is not for me sufficient punishment for these lawyers.

  24. RobertC May 13th, 2014 – 19:23

    David Ossitt – 19:18 ‘le Grand Départ’

    Robert I stand corrected I missed the ‘le’.

  27. AWK
    I am heartened to know that my GP will save me a trek to the germ infested surgery by contacting by telephone
    It has benefitted my family on 2 occasions over the last year
    You have to respect the patients wishes
    I am well able to decide if I need a face to face

  28. David Ossitt
    May 13th, 2014 – 19:27
    Hello, David. I’ve never been to Yorkshire, must do so as the scenery looks wonderful.
    Regarding Verity, I am concerned. She seemed very distraught and unlike her usual tough self when she last posted. I miss her and also Frank P.

  30. stephen maybery @ 18:48

    It is the one thing, stephen, that often keeps the barbarian awake at night more than anxious, the feeling that one day the seemingly bottomless endurance of the indigenous unwashed will snap, the anger will home not on the ruling elite tucked away in their safe havens, but on everyone with even a smidgen of non-English hallmarks of whatever sort (name, skin colour, accent ….). And it would be hard to blame the angry.

  32. RobertC @ 19:25

    Baron reckons Mr. Honeyford would not be treated as harshly today as he was then. He may have even got some backing today, certainly from the blogging community, and possibly by some politicians of the Ukip orientation. The tide may have not turned yet, it has certainly stabilised, at least in the educational domain.

    The core of the problem remains, however, no end to the inflow of new immigrants and their offspring. Could the EU count, if it goes as predicted, engineer a shift?

  33. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 May 13th, 2014 – 22:05

    “I miss her and also Frank P.”

    As do I, put Yorkshire on your “bucket list” if you drive a car it is a long way but not too bad if you take it in stages, make Harrogate your base for seeing the major dales and Scarborough for a base to see the North York’s moors.

  34. David Ossitt
    May 13th, 2014 – 23:39
    David, ashamed to say but I never learned to drive. I have a National Coach card which allows a discount on travel, and I could take your advice and use Harrogate as a base, and then Scarborough to see the moors.

  35. “Is Boko Haram a creature of United States’ security agencies?” is one of those questions which can be found, with answers, in the “Do Bears Shit in the Woods?” folder of guides to the obvious.

    I make that statement as one who, on the sidelines, watches with concern and hope the development of the “Bring Back Our Republic” movement among our cousins over there, temporarily overshadowed by the “Bring Back Our Girls”/”Bring Back Our Balls” dilemma highlighted in Mark Steyn’s article helpfully linked above by Baron.

    More urgent matters are on the agenda however, notwithstanding that “defence of the realm” has been stated on this Wall as the full justification of any action taken by those estimable agencies and thus not to be questioned by hoi polloi.

    The former Assistant Secretary of the United States Treasury, and ranting nut case, Dr. Paul Craig Roberts, lays out the following lucid, or hallucinatory insane exposition (depending on your political views or intensity of complacency) of what is in play in the events focused on Ukraine:

    http://kingworldnews.com/kingworldnews/KWN_DailyWeb/Entries/2014/5/13_PCR_-_Washington_Is_Driving_The_World_To_The_Final_War.html

    Arguments against?

    Anyone demonstrating in the streets against this drift to war or is does that only happen these days to protest when rogue elephants like The English Defence League choose to exercise their political rights? I see the latter’s chant in Rotherham last Saturday was “We want our country back” or in other words Bring Back Our Constitutional Monarchy. It is interesting that the same theme is heard in England and the USA.

  36. David Ossitt
    May 13th, 2014 – 19:18

    Why is Le Tour de France starting in England. Has Elizabeth II revived her ancient claim to be Queen of France?

    I was sorry to read last year that 5,000 French Jews were fleeing France for Israel. I would urge them to consider joining the 300,000 French already in England.There are some immigrants who benefit us; some who don’t.

  38. We had the Tour de France run a stage in Kent a few years back Malfleur. It’s a promotional exercise really I think. It was very exciting and there was a street party atmosphere on the stretch of the course near our home where the cyclists passed at great speed.

  39. Blatant piece of Taqqiya, kitman & injured innocence on the ‘Today’ programme this morning… 🙂

  40. O(o) – 09:44
    Can you give us some fragments of information on this? To save us from having to endure the whole programme, you understand!

  45. RobertC 14th, – 10:12

    It was an interview by Michal Hussein with the muslim governor of a Birmingham school. Despite her being unavoidably partisan she did have a good shot at trying to expose his lies…his responses were consistently, “Nothing to see here. Move along now.”

  47. I was deeply saddened to learn that Stephen Sutton has died, but I am also very angry. This brave young man was betrayed by our ‘wonderful’ GPs and hospitals. Complaining of great pain, his agony was shrugged off as constipation, and despite having a family history of a gene linked to colon cancer, the GP continued to insist no malignancy existed. Finally, admitted to an A&E, tests proved that Stephen’s se;f diagnosis was correct, and he had a large tumour. It was now too late to cure him, if he had been diagnosed even six months earlier, he would have stood a far better chance of survival. Today, his family have lost a beloved and highly motivated son, the world has lost one of the rare doers and movers so sadly needed. The doctors who neglected to listen to his cries, and insisted he was too young to have colon cancer, are free to continue ticking boxes and killing those unfortunate to fall into their hands. There is no justice where patients are concerned. Yesterday I visited a GP surgery to renew my prescription. On the wall was a notice stating patient’s can access their medical records. They must apply to the practice manager, and the procedure can take up to 40 days. Only then, the GP in charge of the patient has the authority to decide whether the patient can see their own records. If he/she thinks they will suffer severe physical or mental danger from seeing the records, they will be denied access. What a convenient get=out. In the meantime, the NHS can pass the records to any agency they believe will find them useful, to improve services, help other patients bla bla bla! Today’s NS is a disgrace and the founders of it must be turning in their graves.

  49. Anne Wotana Kaye 1
    May 14th, 2014 – 17:00

    Apologies for poor typing of above posting

  51. Malfleur @ 13:33

    As if the Ukrainian unwashed were short of local people impoverishing them, ha?

    Still, have you noticed the Orwell speak in the press release? The new man will consult on matters of ‘transparency…. and diversification’.

    Well, diversify they may, and Baron would bet that Ukraine could well become the world leader in wind turbines as it cuts its dependancy on Russian oil and gas. Constructing the monstrosities could be funded from the massive loans the West is preparing for the country, or whatever remains of the money when Ukraine pays what it owes Gazprom, and creates more domestic and American oligarchs.

    It’s not meant to be a joke. Ukraine has cornered the market for strong winds, if it’s wind you enjoy, Malfleur, (not that of the body, but the one nature furnishes), it’s the country for you.

    One sweeps the country from the inhospitable Arctic through the open spaces of western Russia ending in Odessa, embalming the country in snow and ice in the winter months, cutting grass to a minimum, leaving the hills bare and uninviting, the other blows in the summer through the Georgian passes over the Volga steppes bringing in hot desert air from the arid central Asia.

    Konstantin Paustovsky, a Russian writer of the Soviet era describes it in his reminiscences from his youth: (Baron quotes from memory): It blew for weeks, the sun’s glare was the colour of Mars, the air heavy with dust choking the old and the young alike, the trees lost their leaves, blackened, and the leaves that remain would turn into powder when touched, the women veiled inside the cottages, the men were sitting outside, bewildered, poking the dry land with sticks, thinking of the days of hunger and more death ….

    Still, given that an American lawyer is advising the Kiev puppets, the times of aplenty are ahead for out new friends, wouldn’t uou say?

  52. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 May 14th, 2014 – 17:00

    “Yesterday I visited a GP surgery to renew my prescription.”

    Anne does your surgery not use “SYSTMONLINE” or something similar, once a month or more often if needed I log on to that site with my designated user name and designated password where I can access the long list of all my medications and order them by simply ticking boxes, I do the same for my wife using her user name etc. and all of the prescriptions are ready to be collected on the second working day following my placing the order.

    Prior to our surgery using the “SYSTMONLINE” I used to order in the same way by accessing the surgery’s own web site.

    It makes ordering prescriptions so much easier, I always do mine on a Sunday morning so that they are ready to collect on the Tuesday the day we shop, as well as a list of all current prescriptions there is a space to type in any requests for medication that are only prescribed on an irregular basis.

    We have found it very easy to use.

  53. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 @ 7:00

    Like you, Baron is also saddened by the young man’s death, it was avoidable, he should still be with us.

    To blame the doctors for his death may not be the whole story, Anne. Eleven years ago, in the Spring, Baron, too, suffered debilitating stomach pains, consulted five GPs over two months (he couldn’t see the same doctor on each of the visits, it’s just how it is where he lives). All of them assured Baron it was anything but cancer, prescribed drugs, advised patience. The fifth GP even offered a bet to Baron it wasn’t cancer after he referred Baron to a specialist for a colonoscopy. The result of the procedure? A cancerous growth which, when cut out, was the size of an orange.

    The problem, Anne, is the system rather than the inefficacy of individual medical practitioners. Because of the shortage of resources, it’s the GPs judgement based on the symptoms the patient describes that rules, and Baron’s symptoms didn’t suggest it was colon cancer. In the Republic (and other countries), the doctors don’t rely on judgement backed by the patient’s describing the pain, they go for tests, procedures, and only then decide. It’s much costlier, but it saves lives even of those sufferers whose symptoms differ from those of the majority. Baron was just lucky, the young man wasn’t.

  54. David Ossitt @ 19:59

    Like you, David, Baron also orders repeat prescription ove r the Internet, no hassle, it’s always ready.

  55. Re prescriptions: we simply phone the local pharmacy, they get the required prescriptions electronically from the surgery, dispense them and then deliver them to our door. Just one phone call does all. The items delivered are long term prescriptions.

  56. David Ossitt
    May 14th, 2014 – 19:59
    David, obviously up North you are more with it. Here in the genteel suburbs of London, it is a wonder they are not still using leeches and letting blood!

  57. Baron
    May 14th, 2014 – 20:18
    Baron, pleased you were finally given the correct diagnosis and treatment. Actually, here much of the problem is the hubris, the gross arrogance of the half-baked doctors who sit like tinpot gods dispensing tranquillisers and other rubbish. Too many of them cannot bear it if a mere patient dares to give a self-diagnosis and will squash any suggestions made.

  58. David Ossitt
    May 14th, 2014 – 19:42
    Thanks David, now I just need a small win on the lottery!

  59. “…UKIP leader Nigel Farage issued a statement late this evening which read: “I’ve just heard the disgraceful news that my colleague Gerard Batten MEP’s house was attacked with bricks. The attack on his home is a direct consequence of the media campaign against UKIP.”

    His comments are not without merit. Earlier this month Labour MP Karl Turner tweeted a picture of a UKIP leaflet wrapped around a brick, and implied that he would post it to UKIP’s freepost address.,,”.

    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/05/13/ukip-mep-gerard-batten-home-attacked

    Labour is our national Socialist party.

  60. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10831432/850-foreign-offenders-in-British-jails-because-they-cant-be-deported.html

    Well, we could follow the American example:

    “…last year the Obama administration released 36,007 immigrants convicted of a nearly 88,000 crimes, including homicide and sexual assault. ”

    http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/12/ICE-released-murderers-sexual-assault-kidnapping-convicts-in-2013

    Anyone see a pattern here?

  62. “HIV testing offered in Tesco store
    A sexual health charity is to offer HIV tests at a supermarket in Slough”. BBC web
    EVERY LITTLE BIT COUNTS

  63. Anne,
    This country gets worse and worse. pint of milk and an aids test love, and no condoms. This reminds me of when I had an aids test. I was on the way to Russia, and one of the conditions of the visa was that you had an aids test, this entailed a morning in the Whitechapel clap clinic, that was an education, fortunately I do have a sense of humour. The best was when it was my turn to see the nurse. I explained that I needed the result in a hurry for the visa. He obviously did not believe a word of this and proceeded to ask a stream of very personal questions, at this point I decided “If you want a storey sunshine, then you’ll bloodywell get one” After I had finished I think it probably took the poor sap a week to recover from the experience. Anne do you think I should pay a visit to Tesco?

  64. stephen maybery
    May 15th, 2014 – 10:25
    Well stephen, if you must, make sure that Tesco give you points for attending their testing station. In an earlier posting, I mentioned that the GP surgery in this genteel suburban district employs health assistants who cannot cope with wearing surgical gloves when drawing blood. The surgery is too mean to employ qualified nurses. They believe that because they have patients who are middle-class, white and not on benefits, they are free from AIDS. One day I will walk in and ask for a test, then whilst the HA is drawing blood sans gloves, casually mention I had a really wild time in the African Congo where none of the men minded I was past my sell-by date! In actual fact I NEVER, EVER, have a blood test there, but travel further afield where I feel safer.

  66. Just arrived, a book called THE TRUTH ABOUT MUHAMAD. This is not available here, it had to come from America, but Foyle’s got it for me in less than a week. When I have finished the tome, and it will not take me long, I will keep you all posted on the contents.

  68. Malfleur;01-27.Re attack against the house of Gerard Batten MEP (the lead UKIP candidate for London).

    There is an independent web site promoting UKIP and exposing the attacks coming from UAF/SWP and their Trade Union and Labour sponsors.

    The latest posting has:three days-worth of news not promoted about dodgie establishment politicos;an invitation to attack Farage’s home:the attack against Gerard Batten’s home;and Hope not Hate inspired violence and lies.

    http://nopenothope.blogspot.co.uk

  69. Peter,
    Yes, that’s the one. I read a mention of it in the Freedom Association mag. I have just finished the first chapter, and I’ll say this, it is moving in the right direction. Have you read THE SHADOW OF THE SWORD by Tom Holland? very good. It is time these Muslims were deterred from trying to strangle us with their primitive myths.

  71. It’s not just Buyer Beware. A leaflet came through our letter box for the European Parliament Election. It is from UK EPP 4 Freedoms Party, from a Dirk Hazell the Leader!

    Well they do say Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

  72. Anne,
    They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery because it is. And while I am on the subject, who in their right mind would imitate Millimarx.

  74. stephen maybery @ 17:11

    It won’t be reviewed in the Spectator or the DT then, (just a guess).

    When you finish with it, stephen, let us know if it says anything new, please.

  77. Baron.
    No arguments there Baron, it will definitely be no review in the Speccie or the DT. I should be completed in about three days and I will keep you all posted. Sorry about the preceding balls up but I am half blind and computer illiterate, well, if Milton could manage then so can I.

  79. “In little over a year, close to 60 Chinese officials have died of unnatural causes, with most being suicides. The strong suspicion is that this epidemic of mysterious deaths among China’s elite is likely tied to the anticorruption campaign being led by Chinese president and party general secretary Xi Jinping…Not surprisingly, Chinese newspapers have been told in a secret order from Beijing to stop reporting on suicides by top government and party officials…Let’s hope U.S. intelligence is taking advantage of the internal turmoil among the Chinese elite.”

    http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/trouble-top_791180.html

    (h/t Drudge Report)

  80. “The architect of formerly communist Czechoslovakia’s economic transition from communism has called for his country (now the Czech Republic) to quit the European Union.”

    This was taken from one of the comments by “Hagar” below this article:

    http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/matspersson/100027291/the-british-people-becoming-less-keen-on-leaving-the-eu/

    And from another of a number of comments by hagar:

    “May I remind folk who still wish to vote for the pro-EU parties LibLabCon that the EU president (unelected and unaccountable to the people of course) said last week:
    ‘The EU intends to control every country on the western flank of Russia and if the people don’t want it WE DO IT ANYWAY.’ ”

    *****

    In the same edition of the DT online:

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10833644/Ukip-enjoys-donation-surge-after-Tory-donors-defect.html

  82. You may have heard of the tale of 97% of climate ‘scientists’ believing in ‘Global Warming’.

    Well, there has been developments. Brandon Schollenberger would like to review the data, and the paper itself, but has been threatened with legal action by the University of Queensland, a public university in Australia. He describes his situation here:

    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/05/15/university-of-queensland-threatens-lawsuit-over-use-of-cooks-97-consensus-data-for-a-scientific-rebuttal/

    With Michael Mann taking Mark Stein to court and the ‘university’ of Western Australia taking action to protect Lewandowsky., the move of climate science from the laboratory to the Courts is going global.

  83. stephen maybery @ 21:07

    For someone claiming to be what you say you are, stephen, you are doing remarkably well on all fronts, not unlike the great man you mention.

  84. Malfleur @ 02:39

    But Baron has said it before, Malfleur, it’s a mistake to think only the British are fed up with the EU monstrosity, others are, too. Baron has recently travelled through a part of the continental Europe, and has met but a few who have anything nice to say about the undemocratic set-up.

  85. RobertC @ 09:40

    Even if tomorrow Jesus were to descend, tell us ‘don’t be silly, people, your burning carbon has nothing to do with the earth’s warming, I and Nature have put in enough self-correcting mechanisms in place’, even if that were to happen, and in writing, the politicians wouldn’t give up on the AGW imbecility.

    After the war what kept the unwashed everywhere more or less content, in line, behaving well was the promise of a better future in things material. As we got there, well, as we got to the point where consumption engendered by a need became insignificant compared to that for its own sake, the unwashed discovered it didn’t make them any happier than they were before the buy-buy-buy driven nirvana got going.

    The idea of material aplenty as the driving force of politics was losing its power to convince, something else was needed. And, voila, the hockey stick has furnished it. Instead of luring us into a paradise on cloud nine the politicians began scaring us with a future in which we, and more importantly our children, are all to burn or drown or both. And who wouldn’t pay the last penny he had in taxes to save his children from such a fate?

  86. Baron,
    I am a Celt, which means I am a fatalist, what happens is meant to be. If life deals you a bad hand, then get on with things, there is no point whatsoever of grizzling. But above all else, keep a hold of your sense of humour. If you can laugh at the World, and more importantly, laugh, at yourself then you will not go too far wrong.

  87. stephen maybery
    May 16th, 2014 – 10:31
    I am Jewish, and it seems we have a very similar philosophy to the Celts. Beshert means “inevitable” or “preordained, ” and with a sense of humour and the ability to laugh at oneself we can get by in this funny old world.

  88. As if Clarkson wasn’t enough, it appears the BBC has got another little racial ethnicity crisis on hand. This time it’s Harry Enfield’s show to be screened on May 25. In it, he has a young Muslim girl dressed in burkha who meets a young penguin ….

    This is what Harry has to say:

    Asked to justify his decision to include a young girl in a burqa at a preview screening this month, Enfield, 52, said he wanted to have a ‘little Muslim’ in the show. He said: ‘I thought we had to have a Muslim person in it because they always have Muslims. All the Swedish programmes, they always have a Muslim. Why is there a Muslim in them?’

    Enfield joked that his burqa-wearing character should have been called ‘red herring’ because that is the role that Muslim characters play in the foreign thrillers. Last night, media standards campaigner Pippa Smith, of the group Safermedia, said Enfield risked stoking ethnic tensions with his comedy.

    She said: ‘Is Harry Enfield just going out of his way to be controversial by using a young girl dressed in a burqa meeting a young boy dressed in a Pingu penguin costume for his sketch?

    ‘Poking fun at young Muslims, who look no more than children, is in very poor taste, especially when some young Muslim women are complaining of being harassed and even attacked for wearing the burqa.

    ‘To then shoot a woman in the head is completely inappropriate. Harry Enfield is no longer funny and the BBC has lost the plot.’

    Doees the idiocy of the PC brigade have no bottom? One can only hope these are isolated cases, one or two individuals who would detect racism in a handful of dust getting upset, complaining, calling for heads to roll.

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2629870/BBC-fresh-race-row-Harry-Enfield-blacks-pokes-fun-girl-burka-latest-comedy-sketch-show.html

  90. I am English and have the same stoical but hopeful attitude to life.

    Today I am Suffolk by the way. My parents have hired a holiday cottage and my wife and I are spending today and tomorrow with them, the weather is pleasant and I shall hopefully find WiFi everywhere.

  91. Peter from Maidstone
    May 16th, 2014 – 12:32
    Have a lovely break, Peter and I am sure most of us will forgive you if you forget about the WiFi. The sun is shining and everything is so fresh and green. Wonderful!

  92. Here is a clear, if lengthy, piece on how the famous hockey stick, that starred in the IPCC 2001 report, was nurtured. It is written by Judith Curry, one of the REALLY good guys, with the help of extracts from the testimony of John Christy, who was a Lead Author (along with Michael Mann) on Chapter 2 Observed Climate Variability and Change. :

    http://judithcurry.com/2014/04/29/ipcc-tar-and-the-hockey-stick/

    The science is not so important as the role that hierarchy plays.

  93. So, the only thing stuart hall was convicted off was a single case he admitted to.
    Gives a clue what to do in the future doesn’t it.

  94. Has anyone any thoughts or intelligence on when the results of next Thursdays EU and local council elections will be available?

    I am so looking forward to celebrating.

  96. David Ossitt – 19:06 ‘when the counting has finished’

    I think the French vote on Sunday, so we won’t start COUNTING until at least after they have finished.

  97. “…Today I am Suffolk by the way….”

    Yesterday I was Northumberland.
    Today I am Kent.
    Tomorrow I fancy being Rutland, before reverting to being God’s best county, Lancashire, on Sunday.
    For the rest of the week.

  99. RobertC – 19:47

    Isn’t there a certain president whose father was of the same faith as Meriam’s father?

    “Meriam Yehya Ibrahim, 27, who was born to a Muslim father but brought up a Christian by her mother, was convicted on Sunday in Khartoum and given three days to recant her faith or face a possible death sentence.
    “We gave you three days to recant but you insist on not returning to Islam. I sentence you to be hanged,” Judge Abbas Mohammed Al-Khalifa told Mrs Ibrahim, addressing her by her father’s name, Adraf Al-Hadi Mohammed Abdullah.”

    Nothing is logical any more!

  100. David,
    Here in Tower Hamlets the local count will take place on the twenty third, with the results available on the council’s web site. I would assume they will all follow a similar pattern. As for the EU elections. I think Robert is close to the mark. All this brings to mind execution day at Newgate, the crowds were phenomenal and the pub across the road used to make a fortune selling pies and pints.

  102. Balkanize Britain is the common policy of Lib-lab-Con.

    For example: “Local residents in the London borough of Newham have raised concerns after a new Conservative Party flyer was handed out today outside local mosques during Friday prayers.
    The leaflet seen by Breitbart London features a prominent picture of a mosque and declares, “If elected, [Conservatives] shall help facilitate and cater for the needs of the Muslim community” as well as listing 10 reasons why local Muslims should vote for the party over the dominant Labour incumbency.
    The leaflet bears the election imprint of the local party agent Chris Buckwell, who confirmed to Breitbart London that the “sectarian” leaflets, which have Urdu, Gujurati and Bengali translations on the back, were genuine. ”

    http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/05/16/tory-party-leaflet-east-london

  103. Nigel has a media ‘train crash’?

    I don’t think so. Just watched 8th May QT as well, as long as keeping up with all the other media outlets not behind the paywall.

    Nigel is right – the establishment have just woken up to the fact that he resonates with the voters and is about to spoil their cosy little club. Their tame attack dogs in the media have been ordered to stop treating him as a harmless joke and try to destroy him. Dimbledore was a bigger disgrace than usual and the sneering, snide turd from LBC should be removed from the airwaves for good. And despite their efforts, I suspect every time he’s attacked and slandered, it’s more votes in UKIP’s bag.

    Roll on next week. (Interestingly, after three months, I still await my postal vote. And if it doesn’t make you in the UK mad that I get to vote for 15 years, even though I’ve left the UK for good, it should!)

  104. There is much media attention on the current candidates standing for UKIP.

    Don’t worry too much about them Nigel. Start worrying after next week when the aspiring professional politicians start to wake up to the fact they most probably have a better chance of climbing on the gravy train next year with UKIP than with any of the traditional parties.

    A good showing in the Euro-polls is likely to see a major revision of UKIP’s chances in the GE. Be prepared for swing-seat Tories (especially) trying to jump ship to the highly buoyant UKIP.

  106. I see that this chap Salmond (from the French ‘sale monde’?) has called for a rejection of far right organizations peddling racial intolerance. Are the English a race, I wonder?

  107. Herbert Thornton @ 05:10

    There exists a video ofthe speech, but the transcript is worth reading, too.

    Weird, isn’t it that the BBC can gloatingly report on the community service of Berlusconi, now a private citizen, but it, and the pack of its MSM poodles, have no time to say anything about a speech delivered by the leader of the largest opposition party in Budestag on an issue that may engender more than just civil war in an European country.

    http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/951.php

  108. Clear Memories @ 02:03

    You may like to know, Clear Memories, that in the news this morning, just five days before the EU count, there was an item about the sale of British citizenship to anyone who wants to come and knows not a word of English, a mere 500 quid will secure it.

    The story feels it has a reasonable longevity, it should certainly be around when the unwashed vote. How strange it should have broken out just now, ha?

  109. Baron,
    A candidate pack came through my door the other day, it gave a list of those entitled to vote. All British, Commonwealth, Republic of Ireland and European Union Citizens will be entitled the vote. With that lot on the list then why go to the trouble of Offering £500 to any others who wish to join our ranks. Incidentally I am still under the impression that we are British Subjects, or is that designation something else bloody Blair has tossed onto the dustbin of history?

  113. Peter from Maidstone @ 12:27

    Had you rung Baron after hitting Bury St Edmunds, Peter, he would have taken you to the restaurant with the best ambience in Suffolk (some 20 minutes from the town by car) where we could have dined of excellent fishcake at low cost. The name of the place is Wyken Hall.

    http://www.wykenvineyards.co.uk/restaurant.php

  114. Austin Barry @ 12:27

    Not perhaps the best, Austin, but certainly an honest slicing of why the unwashed are not put off by anything the progressives throw at Ukip, and why the party is ‘invoking all these bladder-bursting conniptions in the chatterati’?

    Please God, let the awakening continue until the next year count.

  115. stephen maybery @ 11:02

    True, anyone from the 27 countries of the EU could register and vote not only in the EU election, but council and other elections, too. This could have an impact on the results, the EU results in particular, there are allegedly over half a million Polish residents here, and Poland is one of the few countries whose unwashed are keen on the Brussels construct.

  117. Pity, the DT is closed to non-subscribers, you’ve missed Charles Moore’s column today on the Ukrainian crisis.

    To sum it up for you: It’s all the fault of the nasty Putin, the West comes over as saintly, totally committed to law and order, cannot be faulted. Tebbit, Farage, Snowden et al get it all wrong, as does the Bruges Group. It’s named after Lady T famous speech in which she correctly identified the evil of communism as being separate from the unwashed suffering under its yoke.

    The Group released a video critical of the West’s involvement in Ukraine. It has somehow escaped Mr. Moore, who penned the great politician’s biography (and may now think he is the heir to her thinking because of it), that, perhaps, she would have agreed with the Group’s view rather than his. Nope, that thought obviously didn’t cross his mind.

    One can hardy deny the man the conclusions he comes to. What saddens rather than anything else is that the evidence he furnishes for his warning that appeasing Putin is not unalike appeasing Hitler or any other dictator.

    Nowhere in the column would one find the close to E400 spent in the Ukraine by the EU in just 2 years undermining an elected President and the Government (the Americans have apparently spent a greater amount), the involvement of the Sloboda party in the Kiev putsch, the presence of armed thugs when the deputies were asked to vote to unseat Yanukovych, that the vote didn’t reach the required 75% of those present as the Ukrainian Constitution requires ……

    Nor does he mentions, amongst other facts that don’t fit his narrative, the bargain struck when Germany united – no NATO bases around Russia, or the the presence of fascist elements in the current puppet Government in Kiev or Gysi (leader of the largest opposition group in Bundestag) quoting Tyahnybok (the leader of the Sloboda party, a member of the provisional, American appointed Kiev Government in Kiev): ‘Grab your weapons, fight the Russian pigs, the Germans, the Jew swines and other vermin.’ The quote is recent from the end of February …….

    The referendum in Crimea to join Russia is seen equal to that in Nazi Germany in 1933 on her foreign policy, a totally baffling analogy. What he misses totally is not only that Crimea has been Russia’s longer than anyone else’s, but that two thirds of the country are Russians, genuine Russians, who until now lived under an Ukrainian sovereignty. More to the point, according to Khrushchev’s son, Nikita transferred the peninsula to Ukraine purely for administrative purposes, any unbiased court of justice would very likely rule that it was Russia who was robbed of its territory in 1992, not Ukraine in 2014.

    There are also journalistic tricks in the piece to paint Putin as the villain. He, Putin, ‘suddenly changes tact, rage is suddenly replaced with pacific noises… Have you ever seen Putin raging? If not on the TV, which of the steps the KGB colonel took felt like raging? Mr. Moore, of course, doesn’t say, but what better than to dress a scarecrow then kick it.

    What amazes Baron is that clever, educated people are incapable of seeing when they, in the words of an old Slavonic quip, ‘shite into the own nest’. Here is what Mr. Moore identifies as a trait of a dictator: ‘The propaganda of the deed. Do something utterly outrageous (invade Abyssinia – Mussolini; Take over Crimea – Putin), and then watch the world flounder … Whatever your take on either of the acts of takeover may be, thinking people couldn’t but ask ‘what about the West doing something utterly outrageous like invading not just one territory, but any number you chose to pick – Iraq, Serbia, Afghanistan, Libya ….

    What saddens Baron is this. If even thinking people of the right, opinion formers, supposedly conservative, balanced, sticklers for the law, doped with the religious, if even these people cannot be more objective, either cannot or would not see the boils and warts of our policies, what chances do we have pulling out of the progressive nightmare?

  119. I was thinking about Nigel Farage’s remarks on Romanians and Romania in general. I have travelled extensively, worked with people from many backgrounds, and I agree with Farage about the lack of ethics, morality and decent behaviour of this nation. I should loathe to have them as neighbours. So saying, I alighted a number 65 bus going to Kingston on Thames, a route which services much housing association homes and social housing estates. A very noisy crowd occupied the front seats, reserved for the elderly and disabled, and the aged were forced to move to the back of the bus. The young women, really no more than girls, were each with babies and young children from obviously multiple fathers, or in the modern parlance, partners. Their necklines were immodest to say the least, and they flaunted tattoos on bare body parts. The young men also wore tattoos and their speech was practically impossible to understand. The noise and smell of this party was disgusting, as were the takeaways they piggishly gorged. I certainly would not like them as neighbours, products of British youth raised under New Labour.

  120. Anne Wotana Kaye 1@May 17th, 2014 – 18:39

    never see plod on public transport 🙂

  121. Alexsandr
    May 17th, 2014 – 18:49
    Would indeed be a rare sight! 🙂

  122. Alexsandr @ 17:49

    Not unlike dictators, Amnesty International also gets things occasionally right. Baron has signed, and thanks, Alexandr, for pointing to the injustice of the ROP practitioners in Sudan.

  123. “I am an Englishman” I’ve just come across this – a stirring speech from an episode of ‘Manhunt’ in 1992. 22 years ago and yet reflects feelings many of us have today. Quote: “My gripe is that we were never asked.” How true of the situation we find ourselves in today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWHPJ8hO-ZM

  124. Well, crikey, didn’t Arsène’s lads make heavy weather of that match???

  125. The treatment meted out to that poor woman in Sudan is utterly disgusting, but where is the universal outrage? Why is not Madam Obama spluttering on the tele? While I am on the subject, why isn’t the woman getting her knickers in a twist over Pakistan where 75% of female prisoners are rape victims, in that charmless polity if a woman is raped then she is the criminal. But let us not forget, those two countries are Muslim and as we all know, Muslims can do no wrong, therefore how can they possibly be criticised. It is all very well outfits like Amnesty organising petitions but regimes such as Sudan treat petitions as spineless posturing by Western nations. There is only one language they understand, unfortunately the West has not the guts to speak it.

    As for Amnesty’s petition, I would not sign it under any circumstances, not only would it be a waste of time but by doing so you would be laying yourself open to endless pestering for funds, not only from Amnesty itself but from the other organisation to whom your details will be circulated. People on reading this will say I am harsh, no, I am just a dedicated realist.

  129. Regarding Farage’s remarks on Romanians, “Keith Vaz, chairman of the Home Affairs Committee, said the comments had echoes of abuse against members of the Asian community in the 1960s.” I do not agree, the Asians were mostly fine,upstanding family minded people, with excellent professional and business qualifications. The people who maligned them were ignorant, mainly uneducated yobs and lower class louts. Personally, I would not like to live next door to a Romanian anymore than I would liek to live next door to Marxist Mililband.

  130. RobertC – May 16th, 20:06 ‘Meriam Yehya Ibrahim’

    I have a hard copy of The Sunday Times, courtesy of JL, and on page 4 there is a headline:
    “Carey urges Muslims to end death sentences”

    He does ‘get it’, the threat to what we call civilisation, and in asking “Isn’t there something fundamentally wrong with Islam at its core that it cannot allow its people to change religion?”, he gets closer to the dilemma that we have, but when he says that “Moderate Muslims … have to say enough is enough”, does he realise the he is asking them to put their own lives at risk, as he is of his own.

    And I wonder what the Sharia loving. ex-AoC, Rowan Williams, has to say about it?

  131. Well I have to say that I would be very happy to live next to any of the fine Romanian families I know well. But I would not want to live next to an Asian family if I had a choice. Most Asians, if we mean Pakistanis, are unemployed.

  132. Anne,
    Keith Vaz is a loathsome opportunist, he can not see a headline without attempting to climb on it. As for living next to Millimarx, I’d sooner move back to Saudi.

  133. RobertC,
    I do not think there is such a thing as a moderate Muslim, scratch a Muslim and you find a fanatic of varying degree. The religion was founded on violence and intolerance, it has not changed in 1400 years.

  134. Stephen, I do think that there are many who are brought up in Muslim cultures and are vaguely Muslim but do not buy in to all the teachings of Islam. This seems to me to be manifestly true because many become Christians and this would not be possible if everyone classed as a Muslim was a fanatic.

  135. Peter from Maidstone@May 18th, 2014 – 18:29

    I lived in N Wales in the late 1970’s as a young man. They still had areas in the west where the pubs were closed on Sundays, and the many non-conformist chapels were all well kept and used.
    Go to Wales now and the pubs are open 24/7, and the chapels are derelict or have been converted for other uses.
    so in those few years, the religious map of the area has changed out of recognition, as people have dumped organised religion.
    I wonder if, in the coming decades, the same will befall Islam in Europe as people realise there are more important things in life.

  136. Alexandr,
    It is sad what is happening in Wales, on all fronts, but as for Islam changing, I do not think so, here we are dealing with a very different animal to the culture and values of Western Europe, Between us and Islam it is a case of kill or be killed.

  137. Peter from Maidstone
    May 18th, 2014 – 18:15
    I was NOT referring to Pakistanis, but rather Indians and others who were cruelly kicked out of East Africa. Most Pakistanis are hardly unemployed, they are busily engaged in grooming and pimping young girls and working overtime in the illicit drugs trade.

  138. stephen maybery
    May 18th, 2014 – 18:16
    Vaz has certainly earned the nickname Vaseline, slimy sod!

  139. PfM – 18:29 ‘vaguely Muslim’

    You mean a sort of C of E Muslim? 🙂

    I think they would not be considered to be believers by the ‘Authorities’. For example, requesting a non-religious education for their children would not be celebrated!

    And how about this story:

    “Mrs Nobakht was in Iran visiting family in October last year when she was arrested by police as she arrived by plane in the south western city of Shiraz, according to an account given by her husband, Daryoush Taghipoor, to a family friend in Britain.

    She was then taken back to Tehran and charged with “gathering and participation with intent to commit crime against national security” and “insulting Islamic sanctities”, according to a copy of her charge sheet seen by The Independent.

    Mr Taghipoor, who is currently in Iran, claimed that his wife’s arrest was over comments she had made on a Facebook group about the government being “too Islamic”, and that she had only been charged after a confession was extracted from her “under duress”. Facebook declined to comment.

    She is believed to have been detained ahead of a trial at Evin prison in Tehran, which is notorious both for its harsh conditions and for its housing of political prisoners.
    …
    Mr Taghipoor told the Manchester Evening News: “It’s a very bad situation. We don’t know what’s going on. Roya is not well at all. She has lost three stone and is frightened. She is scared that the government will kill her.””

    http://wwrn.org/articles/42089/?&place=iran

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *