The Coffee House Wall 4th/10th March

Posted on March 4, 2013

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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289 thoughts on “The Coffee House Wall 4th/10th March”

  1. There’s a good quote here from Keith Joseph, posted at the other place. It is intended there as something reprehensible, but it seems eminently sensible to me.

    “Making the rich poorer does not make the poor richer, but it does make the state stronger—and it does increase the power of officials and politicians, power more menacing, more permanent and less useful than market power within the rule of law. Inequality of income can only be eliminated at the cost of freedom. The pursuit of income equality will turn this country into a totalitarian slum.”
    ― Keith Joseph

  2. @ 08:12

    Yes, I am reading Simon Sebag Montefiore’s “Jerusalem – the Biography” and have reached Chapter38 (The New City 1855-1860). He writes of his forefather, the plutocrat and philanthropist Moses Montefiore that “His life’s mission of helping Jerusalem’s Jews was never easy: many of them lived on charity and were so infuriated when Montefiore tried to wean them off his handouts that they rioted in his camp”.

    Isn’t this the conundrum to be solved if we are to break the political class and roll back the frontiers of the state? It is Romney’s 47%; it is the US Congressional pork barrel system; it is the honeypot for the Brussels mandarins; it is the abuses of the welfare state in England; it is the basis on which the rotten boroughs of Neathergate have been constructed. These are all subsidized by transfer payments which tend to make the rich poorer, the state stronger, and the beneficiaries enslaved.

  5. Last week there were nearly 500 postings. Is this a record? Also, although I don’t like spiteful arguments, rather than rhetoric and civilised debates, I found the triad (whom I shall not name) jolly good fun.

  6. P from M:Sir Keith was speaking for a different time and age ;although the general principle is sound,tactics need to be different.Douglas Carswell(MP;Clacton) writes in Mail on Line that the Conservatives are like HMV;they’ve lost their place in the market.After abandoning monetarism they failed to draw-up a new policy for the free market.They now continue the Brown policy of `print-more-money-and-pray`.He goes-on to say how Conservatives need to connect locally with the grass-roots.[This would apply to any other small group.]

  7. Just a little bit of fun for you to PUT up with.

    There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any other two-letter word, and that is’UP.’

    It’s easy to understand UP, meaning toward the sky or at the top of the list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP ?
    At a meeting, why does a topic come UP?

    Why do we speak UP and why are the officers UP for election and why is it UPto the secretary to write UPa report?

    We call UP our friends.

    And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish UP the silver; we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.

    We lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.

    At other times the little word has real special meaning.

    People stir UP trouble, line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UPexcuses.

    To be dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

    A drain must be opened UP because it is stopped UP.

    We open UP a store in the morning but we close it UP at night.

    We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP!

    To be knowledgeable about the proper uses of UP,look the word UP in the dictionary.

    In a desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can add UPto about thirty definitions.

    If you are UP to it, you might try building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.

    It will take UP a lot of your time, but if you don’t give UP, you may wind UPwith a hundred or more.

    When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.
    When the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.
    When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.
    When it doesn’t rain for awhile, things dry UP.

    One could go on and on, but I’ll wrap it UP,
    for now my time is UP,
    so…….it is time to shut UP!

    Now it’s UP to you what you do with this.

  9. Clear Memories
    March 4th, 2013 – 12:22

    “For your list David why do Politicians always f**k UP?”

    Nice one.

  12. Good morning, my time, P from M, and thank you very much for the Keith Joseph quote. Every sentence rings with the clarity of truth. Radford Ng, you too – your earlier post and you post of12:55! And David Ossit for his “up”thoughts and his12:46 addendum.

    It looks as though it’s going to be an interesting posting week! Roll on!

  13. Radford NG 12:14 ‘Douglas Carswell MP writes that the Conservatives are like HMV’

    It is a surprising article! It starts of well:
    “The Coalition is set to borrow more in five years than Gordon Brown managed in 13. Instead of cutting taxes, this Tory-led administration has significantly raised them.
    Rather than a return to sound money and banking, we have carried on with the last Labour government’s print-more-money-and-pray economics.”

    and

    “The Conservative party is run a bit like HMV, and if it does not change, it will go the way of HMV.”

    But then it goes on to say:

    “What we need instead is to be like the music-streaming service, Spotify.
    Online, you can dip in and out. It is based on self-selection, catering to tastes no matter how niche, distinctive, particular or local.
    The Conservative Party needs to become a genuinely grass roots organisation once again. It needs to open up its selection process to everyone.”

    What! The problem has been no conservative policies and too much “you can dip in and out” policies. He has continued on his blog:
    http://www.talkcarswell.com/home/the-conservative-party-like-spotify–what-does/2612

    The comments there are encouraging!

    He has also admitted that the Climate Change act is damaging:
    http://www.talkcarswell.com/home/i-was-wrong-about-the-climate-change-act/2607

    Carswell is an MP, not an MEP, so I would have thought he must be wondering what will happen next as much as an HMV employee.

  15. How about ‘get’? In my childhood that was the word to be avoided…”If you can’t express yourself without using ‘get’ or ‘got’…dah-de-dah.” was the eternal parental nag. And yet…and yet…it has a perfectly respectable meaning in the sense of ‘obtain’, one that is still in use across the pond in the conjugation in use at the time the ‘Mayflower’ set sail.

  16. Radford NG
    March 4th, 2013 – 12:55
    Brilliant!
    Don’t panic, Don’t panic!

  17. Just perusing the BBC Trust documents and came across this little gem:
    “….. – after all, the domination of the Right for ten years in the 1980s never resulted in Thatcherism becoming the default mode within the BBC – but there can never be too much fresh, lateral or distinctive thinking, and it is up to programme editors and series producers to stimulate it.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/assets/files/pdf/review_report_research/impartiality_21century/report.pdf

  18. What a find this BBC Trust document is! How about this?

    “When the Question Time audience in the ultra-white city of Lincoln was leavened with black and Asian people bussed in from afar, was this a legitimate attempt to skew the audience to fit national proportions – in which case what was the point of going to Lincoln? Or was it an unacknowledged distortion of the true character of Lincoln?
    Are such decisions made deliberately – or automatically, as part of the BBC’s own progressive culture?”

    What was the point?

  19. My wife and I have been registered with and had superb service from the same multi-GP practice in our home town for almost forty years.

    Today I received a letter advising me that it is time for me to book an appointment with the Sister who runs the Diabetic Clinic, enclosed was a brief Patient Data Questionnaire.

    This asked for the usual name, date of birth, phone number, ethnicity, alcohol usage, are you a smoker if so what, were you a smoker if so what.

    All quite simple you might think but no not really, the town that I live in has no Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi living here, there might be as many as half a dozen black people and the only Chinese are the three families who separately own the two takeaways and the one Chinese Restaurant.

    And yet the Questionnaire asks us to tick one box next to any of the following:-

    White British Black British Indian
    White Irish Black Caribbean Pakistani
    White Scottish Black African Bangladeshi
    Other White British Black other-non mixed Chinese
    White Irish Black other – mixed Other-non mixed
    Traveller Other- mixed

    Yes White Irish featured twice, I wonder is that for north or south?

    I was decidedly a bit miffed and so I ticked the box Other White British with an asterisk next to it leading to my hand printed ‘White English’.

    It would appear that equality is but a one way street, I wonder how the Welsh might feel about this or will they be happy with Other White British?

  20. David O @ 15.45

    What those ethnicity forms don’t tell you is that it is not compulsory to fill them in. It is not an offence to refuse or to fill them in incorrectly. Over the years I have adopted many personas (including the accurate white English if there’s a space to enter that and no-one has queried it). Also treatment cannot be withheld if one refuses to complete them.

    Ignore any mealy mouthed formulations along the lines of ‘you should fill in..etc etc’

  21. David Ossitt
    March 4th, 2013 – 15:45
    David, it sounds like paradise on earth. No Pakistanis in your town? Don’t dare give its name lest the Pakistanis will come crawling in and set up a huge mosque on the town square. I am not a rascist, I just do not welcome hearing their imans screaming that all Jewish people should be killed. Never heard this before from other ethnic groups, and damn it, I won’t hear it from child abusers and female mutilators.

  22. Anne Wotana Kaye 1
    March 4th, 2013 – 16:23

    David Ossitt
    March 4th, 2013 – 15:45
    David, it sounds like paradise on earth.

    Anne there are many places around here that have a similar make up.

  23. I may have missed it, but the list of usages of UP seems incomplete.

    But I’d like to hear it chanted by the entire audience every time Cameron makes a speech containing another of his promises. “UP YOURS!”

  24. Ostrich (occasionally) – 09:39

    “…I’ll just stick with tipp-ex and pencil!”

    Very white-fingered of you!

  25. A good article from TOP by a NHS cancer surgeon, under his own name:
    http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2013/03/the-nhs-cancer-surgeon-who-blew-the-whistle-on-foreigners-scamming-the-nhs/

    There is also a good post from Dr_E:
    “Prof Thomas’s article was brave and honest. If you ask anybody who works in the NHS they will tell you the same thing. I too am an NHS doctor and I work in a hospital very near to Heathrow. Every single week I see people who have been flown in from all over the world with a great variety of extremely serious health problems. Many of these people had to be wheel chaired onto the plane because they were too unwell to walk on board.
    …
    Every single one of us has countless tales about patients who have flown to the UK, landed in London with some terrible health problem and have been brought straight to hospital by ambulance where they then remain for many weeks or months. These people are poor. They do no have credit cards or health insurance. It is not an easy problem to solve. I wonder whether we could perhaps start charging airlines for the medical bills of people who were clearly not fit to fly. Only last week I admitted two patients to ITU who were both reported to be “semi-conscious” at their origin airport. This cannot be right. As much as people in the UK do not like to admit it, healthcare costs money.”

    Blimey! It is worth reading all the posts as well!

  26. RobertC 21:33 ‘NHS cancer surgeon’ postings
    It looks like some GOT there before me!

  27. RobertC 21:33 ‘NHS cancer surgeon’ postings
    It looks like someONE GOT there before me!

  28. RobertC
    March 4th, 2013 – 13:55
    Douglas Carswell is a very interesting politician ,if you get a chance read his book:”The End of Politics and the birth of iDemocracy”
    He, like Daniel Hannan, is one of the politicians promoting more direct democracy.If democracy survives that is how it will need to evolve.

  29. Anne Wotana Kaye 1
    March 4th, 2013 – 16:23

    The real truth is that there are many, many places in the UK not tainted with international dross. That is why the fawning of the politicians and the knee-jerk slavering of the left is so difficult to take in demanding expensive services and cultural allowances for these invaders. It also goes a long way towards explaining why the likes of the BNP have such a problem – in too many areas, their (genuine) concerns are not an issue. Robert C’s post re Lincoln and the BBC would seem to support this.

    We might appear knee-deep in immigrants but that is because they are (a) concentrated in the big cities (b) both visible and vociferous (c) greatly played-up to by the liberals, who control the media (d) kow-towed to by politicians at all levels.

  31. James102 21:56 ‘Douglas Carswell’s The End of Politics and the birth of iDemocracy’
    I haven’t read it, but I have bookmarked it, for later review.

    I have read his and Hannan’s The Plan, ISBN-10: 0955979900. “Britain is heading in the wrong direction. The British people are giving up on politics and politicians. Here is a plan to renew Britain written by an MP and an MEP.”

    It was a good read. The first part describes the failure we have, then we have the changes we want and lastly, the thirty laws that need to be changed. The last is usually what is missing from any contribution to the subject, and the only one that will effect a change.

  32. RobertC 4th, – 23:19

    “the thirty laws that need to be changed”

    Only 30? Not “Everything from 1997 to 2010”?

  33. Ostrich (occasionally) 23:25
    I do agree, but if I remember correctly, one of the issues is that so much needs changing that it would be very easy to get bogged down in those changes, and then nothing would happen! The full title is: THE PLAN: twelve months to RENEW BRITAIN

    The ‘thirty laws’ were chosen to have the most effect in the shortest possible time. For example, decentralisation, so that local people are ‘forced’ to choose and make decisions, rather than civil service ‘experts’ do it to them. It shares the load, shares the responsibility and removes the need for so many experts sponsored by the State. It changes the people from being passive beings to those who can see that they can influence change.

    I have just seen on the back cover of the book, “Devolve power to the lowest practicable level”. So, inside the book, we have, “Central government should cease to dictate administration and teaching policies to local schools”. It would be up to parents (and teachers) to decide. They may ‘borrow’ a set of rules off another school, so it wouldn’t be re-inventing the wheel, but they would be responsible for it and it would not be set in stone. The whole point is that what is important is not ‘the policy document’; it is parents and teachers talking together, agreeing what is best for their children, and then writing it down, to be use next time!

    When I read it, I thought it was a good draft and done in a spirit that welcomed change, as long it was change driven by the people who would be affected, and to describe the proposed changes before the election is a novel idea!

    Positive criticism is an act of someone buying into the plan.

    I like it, not because I agreed with all the suggestions, I didn’t, but because of the new approach if offered. We ask, here, with an air of resignation, “How do we get out of this mess”, and we can only offer fragments of the solution. I think what this book offers is an overview, the big picture, of how it might all fit together or, as the title says: THE PLAN: twelve months to RENEW BRITAIN.

  34. Clear Memories – 16:23 – Good post. It sums up the problem. The left loves the islamics and other Bronze Agers, plus the pre pre-Bronze Agers from Somalia et al, as we know from the mind-boggling damage to our country.
    The burning question is … Why?

    The Left patronises them because the aforementioned “unprivileged” are a blunt instrument that can be wielded on the British, who they hate with inexplicable malignance. Why?

    Why did Tony Blair (I’ll bet he didn’t go by “Tony” at school), hate his own people so much? And his fat ugly wife … well she grew up as the daughter of a successful TV scriptwiter, so she wasn’t exactly underprivileged, but perhaps her looks caused her to be bitter and hating.

    Same with “Call me Dave” Cameron and his thin ugly wife. I wonder how many lefty MPs and thousands of quangocrts have ugly wives. Or, in the case of the women, are ugly themselves!

    They don’t care about the people they are patronising, who they use as a blunt instrument to beat the British. It is a very peculiar psychosis and I haven’t seen anything written on it anywhere. Odd, as there is plenty of material to work with.

  36. Verity (0021)

    “And his fat ugly wife … well she grew up as the daughter of a successful TV scriptwiter,”

    Funny you should touch on the subject of Cherie Booth, as I was just doing some research, triggered by my viewing last night of “Killing Lincoln” on the National Geographic Channel (the film of Bill O’Reilly’s much lauded book (much lauded, that is, by Bill O’R himself on the factor :-); I wondered whether Anthony Booth could be distantly related in any way to John Wilkes Booth, who whacked Abe. They bear similar facial features.

    Actually the ‘drunken scouse git’ (as A. Booth became generally known after his role as Alf Garnett’s son-in-law, the series ‘Til Death do Us Part – which sometimes has a slight resonance on this platform) wasn’t a script writer as far as know, he was a second rate actor, which was another factor that made me wonder whether there could a familial connection. And the fact that both were bonkers, also. I know you think Cherie is too, so perhaps we could add another genetic factor, but as she’s a lawyer, I will reserve judgement on that, despite her apparent effort to prove it when she appeared on the steps of No.10 in her hair-curlers).

    Anyway … take a look at these three links, which you may (or may not) find interesting and could add some grist to the mill of your ridicule of Cherie (fully deserved, of course – awful ‘first lady’ and an even worse lawyer imho).

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antony_Booth#cite_note-1

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0095641/

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

    See note (1) of the Wiki entry and – whaddayaknow? Somebody there is claiming that Anthony and John Wilkes are ‘cousins’. However the link to note (1) which is notated, [“^ Madera Tribune Tuesday, August 22, 2006. Tony Blair and John Wilkes Booth, by Bill Coate”] comes up as ‘not found on this server’ as you will no doubt discover when you click on it.

    Soooo.. then I progressed to this:

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

    and bingo: seems there might just be something in it.

    Trivial pursuit question: what is the connection between Tony Blair and Abe Lincoln? Bwaaahahahaha.

    Just sayin’ (FWIW).

  37. David Ossitt
    March 4th, 2013 – 15:45

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287531/British-citizens-forced-carry-ID-cards-access-free-NHS-care-crackdown-health-tourism.html

    One could almost take issue with David IF the pedantic lying bastards used the data to tell what percentage of the total were invaders, what type of invaders and applied that as a % of the population as a whole.

    I have read, for example, that the vile desert cult breeders, whilst only 3% of the total population (who knows!) are responsible for 29% of the genetic defects treated by the NHS. In other words, UK taxes are used to keep these experiments in in-breeding alive, whilst in their homelands, they’re simply thrown out into the sands (especially if female).

  39. I came across the view in Front Page Magazine that president Obama’s strategy is to reduce the USA’s defence capability in such a way that when the next significant crisis occurs he says “I don’t have the tools” and passes the matter to the United Nations. We have probably already reached that point in England.

  40. All this talk of ID cards is unnecessary – the system here works well. Upon (legitimate) arrival, you obtain a Medicare card – no photo, just your name and a mag strip that ID’s you as being on the Health System. Only needed when you’re ill, so never used for anything else as most only carry it to the Doctors. Indeed, all the family are on one card.

    No card, you have to pay, either cash or credit card, on the spot. If you are a legitimate visitor, you either claim it back from the local equivalent of the DHSS office (say, a British resident who has reciprocal health agreement with OZ) or from your own insurance. Upon arrival at Hospital, treatment starts but very soon, a Purser arrives whose sole task is to ensure everybody pays, either through entitlement or cash. This prevents leftie nursies and doctors + legitimate aliens letting people through for political or ‘loyalty’ reasons. Also keeps union noses out of the system.

    Simples! No card, no cash, no treatment. Works well, because if you are genuinely ill, you still get treated then deported. Leaves illegals with a very simple choice, all their own to make – die or depart.

    As for arriving sick, I’ve sat on an Emirates flight for some time whilst an arriving Arab, requiring a wheelchair, was questioned at length and didn’t even get past the offloading gate. The very simple answer for health tourists is to make the airlines, ferries and Eurostar liable for their treatment costs if they abscond without paying.

  41. Clear Memories – 15:45 – Excellent! Applause! Applause. I wish that post could be more widely disseminated!

    BTW, as much as I don’t like, or trust, the sand fleas, Emrirates Airlines is one of my favourites. (First place, SQ. Second Garuda. Third Thai. Then Emirates.)

  42. Malfleur 02:04 — Yes. All too believable.

    What we actually need is the UN (I almost wrote “to be blown up”, but too much of an echo to the chilling 7/11) be dismantled with maximum force (i.e., the richer countries tell the vast, vast majority from crap countries to vacate the building within three weeks – given the number of Third Worlders who work there – and pull the building down and construct an ultra luxury condo for rich people, with a heliport on the roof, plus a heliport. Very, very expensive insulating material would be used on the roof, so as not to disturb the extremely rich residents. (There would be a ban on ex-dictators and ex-UN “ambassadors”.)

    Then the Third World trash delegates could be given a one-way first class ticket home … what the hell, it would be worth it to get them out to the airport and checked in and on board when the plane begins to taxi. There could be REWARD posters posted all over Manhattan for any who succeed in absconding.

    UN – end of. All it exists for is to give politicians in democracies a means to subjugate the people they were elected to serve. Hi, Barak! Hi “Dave”!

    Next would be a means to get rid of the other dictatorship, the EU.

  43. Verity – you’re right about Emirates, good flight experience but Dubai is about the worst airport on the planet. Qatar Airways as good a flight experience but their Doha hub with its dedicate Business/First class terminal is superb – if you’ve got to idle between flights, this is the place to do it. Sadly, both are absolutely shit when it comes to aftercare – have a problem and, like all Arabs, they just don’t want to know. As soon as they have your money, they lose all interest. As such, I no longer bother to look at Emirates as a supplier of choice – I’ll use them if they’re cheapest. Air France are pretty good as well, but then, they are French so you know any minor gripe will be met with a gallic shrug.

    One thing I do try to avoid is passing thru the UK. To get to Africa (by usual business haunt), I have to travel through Paris, whatever route I choose to get there. However, if I come through the UK (and visit family) it costs me an extra £1000 over what it costs if I fly into Paris and forget my family ties. I can fly my Dad to Paris for dinner and back for less than that. DozyDave needs to wake up, we have choices and I’m not paying his so-called green taxes to fly into planet UK if I don’t have to.

  44. SQ, as far as I can determine has never lost its No 1 Airline vote since it was inaugurated two or three decades ago.

    If you ever go to Indonesia, or fly from Indonesia, you would vote them into the top five airlines of the world. The inflight service is warm and interested in the passenger. They are just a terribly nice airline.

    Some people vote Thai into the top three or four, and it is very good. It’s just that I can’t stand the Thai people. But, in fairness, they do run a good airline.

  46. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2287846/Thousands-police-vote-strike-industrial-action.html

    That’s because they’re no longer Constables nor join for the right reasons.

    Time to consider a serious reorganisation. Transfer the day-to-day keeping the Queens peace and preventing/controlling anti-social behaviour to the Army, along with any suitable candidates within the Police Farce that miraculously slipped past the PC weeding-out process; (I visited Northern Ireland at the height of the troubles and asked my business contact what life was like, apart from the troubles. He said it was great, apart from the risk of being blown up, there was little crime, few muggings and woman could safely walk the streets. He put this down to three things – on every street corner was a man with an SA80, there were no blacks and if you upset the neighbours, a man with a hood would come and blow your kneecaps off!)

    Beef up VOSA and transfer traffic control to them as a kind of highway patrol. Take away the ‘have you got nothing better to do’ question often (and not unreasonably) asked by the average law-abiding mororist when stopped for a trivial offence once and for all.

    Combine CID, the Border Agency and the spooks into an intelligence/investigation service.

    Privatise the Policing of major events (football matches, pop concerts etc) with the costs met by the promoter and adopt a similar approach to the maintaining of the Queens Peace in City Centres with the cost met through pub and entertainment licences. There will be lots of out-of-work Plods desparate for a bit of mindless bullying forming private security companies. Licence them, take the fees and remove the licence when they misbehave as they most surely will.

    Fine tune how you like but the Constabulary the UK has is no longer fit for purpose, does not meet the expectations then public has of it and is shackled by political interference.

  47. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2288247/Britains-senior-judge-hits-Home-Secretary-Theresa-May-brands-attack-courts-failure-deport-foreign-criminals-unhelpful-wrong.html

    What is particularly unhelpful is Judges with foreign-sounding names acting in a manner completely at odds with elected representatives and contrary to the wishes of the greater part of the population.

    The law belongs to the people, the judges are there to administer it on behalf of the people. Ignoring the people always ends up in the same way – with people (figuratively) dangling from the end of a rope!

    If Judges continually ignore the wishes of the people, the people will take the law (their own law) into their own hands, decide guilt themselves and apply the sanctions they see fit. That means Judges become redundant, parliament becomes redundant and the states bullyboys are left to decide who they throw their lot in with. That’s called anarchy and it is the road down which the UK is set to travel if the establishment don’t start paying attention to the indigenous electorate.

  48. I was doing some simple maths last night after I saw a piece somewhere about public sector management. There are at least 25,000 managers receiving over £100,000 a year. If the numbers of these managers were reduced by 10%, and if the salary of the remaining were reduced by 10% then even with the much too low assumption that the average wage was £100,000 this would produce an annual saving of £500 million. My experience of public sector managers is that few deserve over £100,000 a year salaries.

  49. Frank P

    Thanks for identifying the possibility of the Booths John Wilkes, Antony (only second rate? I thought he was thurd) and Cherie all being family. Would much be explained by that? Well if your great great great grand daddy had bumped off Uncle Abe, one of the C19th’s secular saints, you probably wouldn’t shout about it in your CP and Labour Party circles, would you?

    It wouldn’t go down well on the Hampstead and Brixton dinner circuits either.
    But having two members of a family to who have contributed significantly to
    destruction of their countries is an unusual distinction.

    Like Malfleur I don’t share Mr Boot’s analysis of Lincoln as a war monger and precursor of the modern Demoncratic movement either. The South was wrong to incorporate the issue of slavery in the more fundamental debate about States rights. And there were famous and respected Southerners, such as General Patrick Cleburne, opposed it and later argued that slaves should be freed and enlisted in the Confederacy’s armies. Not enough of them and not timely enough, I’m afraid.

    http://www.ohioverticals.com/blogs/akron_law_cafe/2011/07/civil-war-7-general-patrick-r-cleburnes-letter-on-slavery/

    How would the debate and the war have gone then, one wonders, without that poisoned pill? Would the European powers have recognised Richmond? We shall never know, but supra-nationalism was all the rage then, in both Europe and the US, as I suppose, supra-internationalism is now.

    For a highly readable, nuanced but lengthy discussion of the issues and history of the Civil war I highly recommend Shelby Foote’s trilogy and definitive history of that name. A literary and historical masterpiece.

    As to Cherie’s curlers! Well, comments like:-
    “..I will reserve judgement on that, despite her apparent effort to prove it when she appeared on the steps of No.10 in her hair-curlers).”
    Are just not gallant, are they now?
    In failing to accept her right to do so you dismiss those generations of stout hearted and waisted northern lasses, chip-fattened and Cadburys de-toothed who have been immortalised by great acting roles like Ena Sharples and Nora Batty and by great comedians from Arthur Askey to Les Dawson.

  50. Clear Memories
    March 5th, 2013 – 02:26

    A well thought out argument, I agree.

  51. Clear Memories
    March 5th, 2013 – 07:56

    What is particularly unhelpful is Judges with foreign-sounding names acting in a manner completely at odds with elected representatives and contrary to the wishes of the greater part of the population.
    …………
    If Judges continually ignore the wishes of the people, the people will take the law (their own law) into their own hands, decide guilt themselves and apply the sanctions they see fit. That means Judges become redundant, parliament becomes redundant and the states bullyboys are left to decide who they throw their lot in with. That’s called anarchy and it is the road down which the UK is set to travel if the establishment don’t start paying attention to the indigenous electorate.
    ……………..
    I have selected just sentences from your excellent posting, and agree with all you have wrutten except for the last paragraph. Somehow, I think I have posted my views on this issue before, but will repeat them again. The UK, Britain will not resort to anarchy. The populace has grown lazy and apathetic after years of fascist/communist control. They are afraid of the knock at the door and many are more fearful of having any Benefits removed. With the ability to obtain and keep a proper job becoming rarer and rarer, much of the lower income/under educated sector is dependent on government handouts (paid actually by the tax payers). The middle classes are too polite to say “Boo”! Think, would any other country suffer the influx of scum which has taken over large areas of our country? Would foreigners anywhere else be allowed to determine what laws shall be ordained here, with freedom to practice primitive rites, such as female genital mutilation? The government here pretend it is illegal, but how many prosecutions have there been? The wave of eastern europeans undercutting the native workers will swell even more come January 2014. Germany is demanding that these Romanians and Bulgarians must have passports, but Britain is preparing to restrict the rights of our own citizens rather than upset these freeloaders preparing to invade these shores. There is talk now of the need for Britons to have written proof that they have paid for NHS treatment, and other bureaucratic procedures will be put in place. All this, note, for the rapidly diminishing British! No, there will be no uprising, no anarchy, no revolution, just muttering into the beer, if home brews are still allowed, or grumblings too quiet to disturb the horses.

  52. My news paper this week pointed out that when our Queen is awarding honours a few of these who are to be honoured ask for and receive complete privacy no photographs or reporting almost all of these are members of the Security Services or members of our Special Forces.

    However at the most recent award ceremonies Satchel Mouth Cherie Booth QC was given an award for her charitable work, only a day or so before she was quite happy to be photographed gurning over an innocent baby lying defenceless in its hospital bed (do babies have the vote) whilst she was electioneering at the recent by election.

    But and her is the rub she demanded and received complete privacy no photographs or reporting, was this so that we would not see her bend the knee to the Queen or worse not bending the knee.

  53. Clear Memories – 07:56

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2288247/Britains-senior-judge-hits-Home-Secretary-Theresa-May-brands-attack-courts-failure-deport-foreign-criminals-unhelpful-wrong.html

    “What is particularly unhelpful is Judges with foreign-sounding names acting in a manner completely at odds with elected representatives and contrary to the wishes of the greater part of the population…

    The law belongs to the people, the judges are there to administer it on behalf of the people. Ignoring the people always ends up in the same way – with people (figuratively) dangling from the end of a rope!

    If Judges continually ignore the wishes of the people, the people will take the law (their own law) into their own hands, decide guilt themselves and apply the sanctions they see fit.”

    Well, where does one start!

    “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers” is, in this case, just an excuse by the politicians for their failings. If May and her party want to do something, they should change the law that they themselves supported when it was enacted.
    Its simply not good enough to go blaming the lawyers for your own mistakes and inadequacies when they simply apply and interprate the mass of often contradictory laws passed by a multitude of institutions.

    And how can we really judge whether the majority of people agree with her or not? When then suite of laws that have brought us to our present pass were enacted it was done by a government with a clear majority. At present no party has a mandate for government.

    As for the British people taking to the streets to change the law, well, one rather doubts it. Given some serious benefits cuts though and the unions would no doubt bus in 500,000 into London for a day’s tax payer subsidised shopping and ‘rioting-lite’; all under the friendly eye of a dis-chuffed and May-be de-motivated constabulary.

    Politicians are terrified that riots will start and that anarchy will prevail. It’s why they beg, borrow and steal to maintain the status quo. After their financial self-destruction though, states can normally run on quite a while longer on fiat money and repression, which is about where we are now. Censorship, thought control, increasing limitations on the ‘rights’ of freedom of thought, speech and association.

    More and more the frantic writhings of this pathetic coalition remind one of a freshly caught sprat, the head pointing in whatever its thrashing tail points it, whist waiting what fate the fisherman decides for it.

  55. Noa 10:02 ‘Judges, Government and the EU’

    We will have to redefine what we mean by ‘Government’, or throw them out!

  56. Noa and AWK1 – you may well be right in your low opinion of the British people.

    But they do get roused. And when roused, have a proven history of proceeding, through all manner of setbacks, until the matter is resolved to their satisfaction.

    I don’t recall suggesting we kill the lawyers – although, in my opinion, that would be a good start.

    Looking from afar, maintaining contacts with an, albeit mildly biased, group of friends and contacts remaining in the hell-hole and monitoring diverse strands of the media, I sense a growing frustration.

    Perhaps UKIPs rise is an indication. Perhaps its Camerons loss of control of the party narrative, perhaps the general disdain for the Labour Party and the inability of the unions to rally people to their cause. These things are all minor encouragements.

    Of more tangible pleasure is the growing awareness of the white ‘working’ class that they’re being shafted and their recognition that Ali from the corner shop and Singh from the takeaway are being shafted with them and they are starting to stand together against both the establishment and the dirty desert cult. See Manchester recently – even the lefties are starting to realise that they might just have got things a little wrong.

    No, I really do think the slumbering Lion is starting to awaken. A diverse enemy, with the EU on one extreme and Islam on the other and the old foes, France and Germany, stuck firmly in the middle (even if they’d rather be friends) is starting to draw the unhappy together.

    Last week (seriously) I was asked by an old friend, an ex-brit living in Canada for nigh on 30 years, if I would consider returning if fighting actually started on the streets. Damn right we decided – and I bet we’re not alone.

  57. Clear Memories
    March 5th, 2013 – 11:26

    Noa and AWK1 – you may well be right in your low opinion of the British people.

    But they do get roused. And when roused, have a proven history of proceeding, through all manner of setbacks, until the matter is resolved to their satisfaction.
    =============================================
    Hello There,
    Apart from The Civil War when Charles I was topped, and the Battle of Cable Street in the 30s, when the Blackshirts were prevented from marching, there were, to the best of my knowledge only trade union organised demonstrations. I’d be happy if you, or some other Coffee Houser could enlighten me. By the way, despite my great age, I’d be more than happy to join you and your friend in fighting these evil traitors. I could always pour boiling oil onto the politicians and lawyers fat heads!

  59. I think that the Poll Tax demonstrations and the Countryside Alliance marches were both significant. I was not allowed to attend the Poll Tax march as I was still just under parental control but I wasn’t going to attend it as a Trade Unionist in any case, though I was on the Left in my foolish youth.

  60. I attended the first Countryside Alliance march; I think it scared the shit out of Blair, hence the extreme violence meted out by the TIU against, basically, the Archers brigade at the second gathering.

  61. You folk are probably aware that ‘Sir’ David Nicholson was appearing in Parliament today. He is the bloke in charge of the NHS as a reward for his sterling efforts at Stafford hospital in carrying out what looks like an unannounced euthanasia policy to complement Labour’s Neathergatian project to detoxify the nation.

    There has been much @rse covering from the Queens Own Quislings (LibLabCon) and an outright rejection of ‘scapegoating’ the people responsible throughout the country for killing patients in pursuit of targets.

    Except…

    Two nurses from Stafford are currently up before a disciplinary panel, accused of all the bad practices revealed in the Francis Report. thats two, not twenty, or two hundred or two thousand target driven nurses nationally.

    Why so? A quote from the Beeb website’

    “The hearing was told that Ms Turner, who no longer works at the hospital, often swore in front of patients and made comments about their weight.

    She is also accused of describing one Asian junior doctor as “Osama’s mate” and asking him if he had a bomb in his rucksack.”

    It looks like a policy of killing people on behalf of your bosses means protection from ‘scapegoating’ However call someone fatso or a bomber and that puts you beyond the pale.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-21660791

  62. “As to Cherie’s curlers! Well, comments like:-

    “..I will reserve judgement on that, despite her apparent effort to prove it when she appeared on the steps of No.10 in her hair-curlers).””

    But did she? Wasn’t she fetching in the milk from her front doorstep the morning after Labours 1997 victory?

  66. The BBC ignored the Countryside march(the largest civil gathering in British history).`The Archers`avoided it by killing-off John Archer on the Friday.On the Monday I listerned to the Today programme for news and discussion on it(this being the first major news programme after the event).There was nothing on.Complaints were met with the excuse it was old news.The editor of Today later caused scandal by writing a column in the Guardian condemning the Countryside Alliance.The BBC was forced to sack him.His name was Rod Liddle./……./As for The Archers;they caused scandal by promoting the Gay Pride march.They featured the 2nd Countryside march whilst using it as opportunity for Aldridge’s adultery…….[I gave-up on The Archers after Nigel went off the roof:Radio 4X has comedy hour at that time.]

  67. P from M – Around six posts of mine have appeared on the screen and then been deleted this morning my time. What is happening on the site???

  68. Hexhamgeezer
    March 5th, 2013 – 14:52
    Frank P@12.26

    Hi Gentlemen,

    I sent the email copied below to Sir Shite Nicholson, on 18th February.

    Resent it twice, and surprise, haven’t even received the courtesy of a reply.

    To: commissioningboard@nhs.net
    Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Delete | Show original
    Please try and see that Sir Nicholson receives this email.

    Sir Nicholson,

    I hope you live to be a very old man. They do say that only the good
    die young, so you probably will live well into your dotage.

    One hopes that you will be placed in geriatric care, rather like that
    in Sraffordshire and so many NHS hospitals and British so-called care
    homes.

    In the depths of the long lonely nights you will spend neglected in a
    soiled bed, remember all those who died and whose deaths are being
    covered up.

    Finally, rot in hell.

    Mrs Anne Wotana Kaye

  70. Verity
    March 5th, 2013 – 16:05
    Thanks, Verity. Pity it is just metaphoric.

  73. P from M – I posted earlier on four different subjects, the posts appeared, and then the next time I looked (to see if anyone had commented) they were gone.

  76. Oh! Thanks, Peter! How odd, though, that I clicked on the right dates, because I was referring to comments that had been posted today … and if I was on the wrong date, I wouldn’t have been able to read the comments to which I was responding …

  77. Noa (10:02)

    Excellent and amusing post; I wish I had your faith in the ‘will of the English people’. Had you been sitting in the OPD waiting room at the local infirmary yesterday, where I was awaiting the latest ‘probe’ procedure; the third world atmosphere that prevailed and the sheer hopelessness that emitted from the herded sheeples would have tested even your optimism, I fear. The alternative to old age and infirmity is still unacceptable, but only just – and diminishing hourly.

    What I saw occurring on the screen today as the latest Parliamentary Sub-Committee Inquiry into the Stafford mass annihilation of troublesome patients and the ease with which the bloviating bureaucratic bully swatted the effete questioners like houseflies, was extremely disturbing.

    Ex (ha!)-commie, incumbent conman; he should have been ripped to shreds. NFW! Another whitewash. Should have been the Old Bailey, not a cosy chat within the Westminster Bubble. Skin like a rhinoceros … no shame! He’ll use your excellent salvo as Izal, Anne, if he ever gets to see it, which is doubtful. Very sad.

    The stories emanating from the ‘hospital near Heathrow’ yesterday, discussed hereupon are absolutely valid. My wife worked there in her last post before retirement. She came home with similar stories every day. And that’s well over a decade ago now. All foreign aid must be rescinded; we must withdraw from the EU. People who arrive in wheel chairs for free health care must be sent back by IOs, regardless. And pigs must fly-past the planes in which they arrive.

  78. Re Frank P’s post, why cannot the British public understand what has been done to them by their governors? Their country has been surrendered. Why? How did the far left gain hegemony over the entire system of governance in Britain? How?

  79. Verity 18:38: “How did the far left gain hegemony over the entire system of governance in Britain?”

    See Sultan Knish yesterday, “The closing of the Liberal Mind”.

  82. Someone called Lord Tyler, a Liberal apparently, has said that ‘I do not know where Mr Farage’s ancestors were between 1914 and 1918, but he would do well to revisit the history of that period. Fomenting distrust can so easily lead to hatred’.

    I have reached the point in Montefiore’s “Jerusalem – the Biography” which deals with Kaiser Wilhelm. The author recounts that before WW1 a Prussian general died of a heart attack after having been forced to dance for Kaiser Bill dressed in nothing but a tutu and a feather boa.

    I would have thought that the Schlieffen Plan and a raging lunatic on the throne of Germany did more to cause the disaster of the Great War than our distrust of the Germans. It might be argued that we didn’t distrust them enough.

    Big plans for reorganizing Europe and nutty politicians are what we should be on the watch for. Meanwhile, I see that Tyler has been made to look an even bigger fool now it has been disclosed that Mr. Farage organizes regular tours of WW1 battlefields.

  83. When the contemporary political class has been replaced by honourable men and women, we will want to open an e-museum of liberal double-talk as a warning to later generations.

    This example of jobsworth newspeak by Sir David Nicholson quoted in the Daily Telegraph would be shown with interpretation in square brackets:

    “During that period [in the past, so almost forgotten by all serious men], across the NHS as a whole [i.e. not anywhere in particular and certainly not in my office], patients were not the centre of the way the system operated [patients were treated like shit].

    “For a whole variety of reasons [which I am not going to analyse], not because people were bad [we don’t do ‘evil’] but because there were a whole set of changes going on [we were so confused] and a whole set of things we were being held accountable [others were really responsible] for from the centre [it was the government’s fault], which created an environment [everyone was doing it anyway] where the leadership of the NHS lost its focus [I abdicated my responsibility].

    “I put my hands up to that [I killed these people] and I was a part of that [I killed these people], but my learning from that [I was found out] was to make sure it doesn’t happen again [please don’t punish me and let me keep my job and perquisites, pretty please, I’ll be good, promise].”

  84. Malfleur – I think you are wrong. I think they are more contemptuous than that and do not recognise any fault on their part.

  85. Verity – “How did the far left gain hegemony over the entire system of governance in Britain? How?”

    Why, it suborned one half of the populace with the taxes it confiscated from the silenced other.

  87. Frank P 18.18hrs.

    Thoughtful comments.
    I too have been spending time with the NHS recently. Having walked into a Hawthorn bush I had to have a mote (a small one) removed from one of the old peepers.

    Four hours. It always takes four hours in A&E.

    Full or empty, the drunks and the strange lost old ladies, frightened children. It needs a new Hieronymus Bosch to capture it in all its strange contrast of personal caring and neo-sovietised existance. The Blair purchased furniture and equipment now breaking and liable to malfunction; the mountains of paper files spilling off the dollies. Indian consultants, competent and disinterested, driving the new top of the range Audis and BMWs. The nursing staff, dis-empowered; paying to park their cars, both targeted and targets. The support staff, supportive; but in a British Rail sort of way. A stale, cheddar cheesey, white sandwich sort of support.

    And what has Comrade Sir David Nicholson and his ilk, or is it ink, to do with all of this one wonders? One doesn’t see the bureaucrats at the cutting edge, so to speak. Their cuts are made elsewhere, or relayed down. Everyone suffers, but they suffer the least. After all, it wouldn’t be nice to cut NICE.

    But perhaps the problem is that there aren’t any cuts. Not really. Just increases in a limitless demand for a finite resource. Too many new treatments, illnesses, diseases, people, bureaucrats. The paradox; not enough choice but too many choices. Not
    Fat belts, free crutches and wheel chairs, issued and never reclaimed, overpriced drugs. Free use. Free issue.
    The NHS maybe a priceless asset, brokering life and death as it has broken the UK’s economy. Much as it has the much of the spirit of the people within it.
    In a future time, the last assets sold, the last pound taxed, its cost gone beyond the reach of the people who need it most, it will fail. But there’s a deal of milking to be done by the Hunts and Nicholsons yet.

  88. Noa
    March 5th, 2013 – 23:14
    Very good writing, describes the atmosphere exactly. Hope your eye is O.K. and be careful!

  90. Malfleur 5th, 2013 – 20:51

    “When the contemporary political class has been replaced by honourable men and women”

    Eh? You don’t believe the current political class will ever allow THAT to happen?

  91. Anne-thanks for your concern. I’m healing fine and the Dale Cregan look-alike in the mirror has almost disappeared.

    Indeed I can now 😉 normally!

  92. Malfleur ;5 Mch [already!] at 20-23:How does a political movement in 80 years go from being represented by Norman Birkett to `Lord` Tyler?(Rhetorical question.) How does a constituancy go from being represented by Birkett to Chris Leslie[Lab.]?/……/Looking into this I see there is a different aspect to the political equation ignored by Cameron and his ex-chum Lord Ascroft which UKIP should address.There are constituancies where the turn out is c.55%, even gets below 50%, in a general election (where it was normally 70% till after 1992).There are a lot of alienated voters out there[out here] who are ignored.

  93. Verity Another answer to your question of how the Far Left got control…

    “…As Plato and Aristotle postulated and their fellow Athenians showed, even a limited democracy can function effectively only in a nation possessing a high degree of civic and political sophistication. Unless a vote is cast from a position of responsibility and knowledge, it’s at best useless and at worst subversive…”

    http://alexanderboot.com/content/life-liberty-and-pursuit-stupidity

  95. Noa ;5 Mch at 22-31:Don’t agree with you .One reason is the low turn-out as I refer to above. /…./Local conservatives are having the affrontary to hold a celebratery dinner to commemerate the 30th. anniversary of the city electing three con. MPs[all long gone].This is not a place like the urban North where any donkey with a red rossette gets elected.Historically it has one conservative ,one socialist ,and one `hung`constituancy.Now it is all Labour;as is vitually all the Council seats.This isn’t a Labour `pork barrel `vote. It is the betrayal by the conservatives. They financialy ruined most of my people,the lower middle classes and the Tory working classes(a third of Trade Union members were Tory) by the ERM policy.They’ve never been forgiven.[And caused further alienation by the metro-sexual agender]

  97. We never had a kitchen.We used to warm our gruel at the night-watchman’s brazier by the hole in the road in what we lived.

  98. Radford NG -6th – 01:09
    I don’t dispute that the Conservatives have been singularly effective at alienating their voting base!
    And yet the UK as a whole prospered after leaving the ERM.
    And, from 1997 until 2010 Labour has assiduously cultivated and developed a dominant and dependent voter base using revenues past, present and way into the future.

  99. Gruel? Heat from a Brazier?
    Luxury!
    We used to warm our hands on the horse chestnuts pulled from the glacier that Labour council hadn’t moved since ‘Huronian ice age, throw our furs over the cat to dry, and take turns to sleep once a year in ‘igloo.

  103. As a footnote to my post at 02:04 yesterday, I note that the DT reports that the Desert Rats will be left with no tanks following Coalition cuts. Meanwhile, the Washington Times carries a stories today that Russia alarmed the Pentagon last month by conducting large-scale tactical and strategic nuclear exercises near its border with Europe and that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence has approved the appointment of a rogue muslim American, Mr. John O. Brennan, as the CIA Director.

    In all the main concerns that we express on the Wall, can anyone make out a convincing route map of our line of march?

  104. Malfleur 5th, – 20:51

    🙂 Much more accurate than the original utterance!

  105. It’s dead easy to make socialism work…when you’re sitting on a 100 year pool of crude oil!

    Or, as Lady Thatcher puts it, “Sooner or later you run out of other peoples’ money.”

  106. The MSM’s coverage of the death of Hugo Chavez has been remarkably benign, not to mention the statement of William Hague, our esteemed Foreign Secretary. While I appreciate that diplomatic protocols and niceties have to be observed whilst the egregious old tyrant is still awaiting planting, one would have thought even a generation of hacks and politicians brainwashed by their uni tutors into thinking that Che Guevara was really a good guy, might have pointed out what a douchebag the ranting bastard Chavez was; enemy of the West and almost as bonkers as his counterpart in N. Korea. Good riddance! How has the other bag of rotting detritus Castro managed to continue to leap over the Reaper’s scythe for so long, I wonder? Must be that wonderful NHS they have over there. RIH Chavez and may your buddy Fidel join you pronto along with his nepotistic tribe.

    Sorry Peter, that’s not a Christian sentiment, I know, but I’m following Mr Koestler’s imperative, which you kindly displayed below our insignia above.

  107. Ken Livingstone and the Foreign Secretary appear to have become completely interchangeable spare parts these days. Unbolt your old Leninist hot air filter and just replace it with the new Trots-Tory model made to fit the same specification.

    As to Hugo, he doubtless be trying out his new shovel in stokers corner.

    For Venezuela, and for South America, an oligarchic, corrupt and uncertain past continues, with a sinister Leninist swing.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/06/world/americas/hugo-chavez-of-venezuela-dies.html?_r=0

  108. Radford NG 01:34 ‘We never had a kitchen …’

    My Dad told me that, as a child, his family were poor, very poor indeed!

    They were so poor that they couldn’t afford any clothes. Then one day, they managed to accumulate a little money, so his Dad bought him a top hat, so he could look out of the window!

  112. Frank P
    March 6th, 2013 – 11:04

    …,. the death of Hugo Chavez
    ========================
    Good riddance to that evil dictator Chavez. Watching “The Daily Politics” I can think of a good few more who can join him!

  114. The Boot laces his essay on conservatism today with delicious irony tipped barbs in response to Rachel Sylvester’s piece in the Times about David Cameron. I particularly like his last sentence. A man after my own heart! It’s pleasing to know that even this erudite Russki sage appreciates the value of Cockney Rhyming Slang.

  115. Noah (13:06)

    Liked his ‘dream world’ – except for his apparent endorsement of Frasier.
    But I suppose he has to support and flatter his occasional editor.

  116. Noa@March 5th, 2013 – 23:14
    You are dead right about disabled loan items not being returned or properly accounted for. I had to beg them to come and get stuff issued to my parents, and there was no questions asked about stuff that was missing -their stock control system is rubbish. (I think some stuff had gone back already)
    Go into a charity shop and look for zimmers, rollators etc. I bet half of them are NHS issue that people have just dumped in charity shops.

  117. Alexsandr – Whatever …

    Yesterday, the Telegraph had a couple of blogs on Cameron and the Tories and they got what I believe was hundreds of hits. It was clear from the Comments columns that David Cameron is held in contumely by the average Tory and they are all vowing to vote UKIP at the GE. David Cameron seems to be held in greater contempt than Gordon Brown. And that’s by Tory readers.

    UKIP and Nigel Farage, however, are constantly quoted in post after post as a viable alternative. Of course, they’re not, not just yet. But with the anticipated surge in support come the election, I think UKIP is well on the way to becoming a major, and much-needed, player.

    It strikeds me that none of the other parties have a good-humoured leader. Nigel has a most entertaining way of rolling with the punches and coming out on top.

  118. Alexsandr
    It’s a well known perk for the numerous Royal Saudi Air force personnel seconded to BAE Systems in Lancashire to obtain custom made wheelchairs for their disabled offspring and relations at the local hospital and take them home with them on completion of their tour of duty. The UK taxpayer also pays for their childrens’ education as well as the normal range of visitor benefits…
    Still it all helps the export drive.
    And once issued the hospital isn’t interested in the return and refurbishment of items. After all that would mean a reduction in next years departmental budget.
    I suppose they forgot Call Me ring fenced the overall budget.

  119. Noa@March 6th, 2013 – 15:02

    this is the problem across the public service. no-one gives a stuff cos it isnt their money.

  120. Regarding the low percentage of the electorate prepared to bother to vote in an election (general or local), could this have something to do with the fact that many of us feel Britain is governed by the EU, not by Downing St, and whichever way one votes won’t make any difference at all.

    One example; you are no longer allowed to buy decent light bulbs. Who decided this? The EU of course.

    Personally I think we should all vote, but I can understand the feeling that it no longer matters which party is in “power”. I really think that if one votes for Cameron one may as well vote Labour anyway, as he is just as Leftish as Miliband and co.

  121. Lesley C.
    March 6th, 2013 – 15:26
    Exactly! And speaking about those wretched light bulbs which resemble castrated sheep testicles, they have ruined my eyesight. I have now found a shop where I go to buy the good old style bulbs, creeping in furtively, and leaving with them wrapped in a brown paper bag. Rather like ‘scoring’ with a drug pedlar, the EU has turned me into a criminal!

  122. I do hope the “Malfleur” will forgive me because I have just attempted to post his excellent post below; in the other place, on the “David Nicholson’s select committee session: five key points” it immediately was flipped to the moderators or should that be the censors, I wonder why?

    Every thing written below was posted yesterday in another place by that ever vigilant crap watcher “Malfleur” he with his clever whit has translated the gobbledy speak into their true meaning.

    I do hope that he forgives me but in my opinion his words should be posted here as well.

    “This example of jobsworth newspeak by Sir David Nicholson quoted in the Daily Telegraph would be shown with interpretation in square brackets:

    “During that period [in the past, so almost forgotten by all serious men], across the NHS as a whole [i.e. not anywhere in particular and certainly not in my office], patients were not the centre of the way the system operated [patients were treated like shit].

    “For a whole variety of reasons [which I am not going to analyse], not because people were bad [we don’t do ‘evil’] but because there were a whole set of changes going on [we were so confused] and a whole set of things we were being held accountable [others were really responsible] for from the centre [it was the government’s fault], which created an environment [everyone was doing it anyway] where the leadership of the NHS lost its focus [I abdicated my responsibility].

    “I put my hands up to that [I killed these people] and I was a part of that [I killed these people], but my learning from that [I was found out] was to make sure it doesn’t happen again [please don’t punish me and let me keep my job and perquisites, pretty please, I’ll be good, promise].”

  123. Anne
    “…I have now found a shop where I go to buy the good old style bulbs, creeping in furtively, and leaving with them wrapped in a brown paper bag. Rather like ‘scoring’ with a drug pedlar…”

    They’re freely obtainable at £3 per dozen, for 100 watt on Clitheroe and Preston markets. Ge thee’sel’ up North for a reet good bargain, lass!

  124. So…the British government is going to supply body armour and armoured vehicles to the Syrian opposition?

    Well, it seems like good destination for the ‘snatch’ landrovers that were NBG in Iraq and the flak jackets that wouldn’t stop an armalite round in Belfast. And then deduct their book value from the aid budget.

    What?!? You mean we’re giving then good stuff?

  125. Ostrich (occasionally)
    March 6th, 2013 – 18:11
    I heard about this too. Is this wretched government completely bonkers, or perhaps they are just corrupt? Not enough poking their noses, as usual, in the Middle East, Philip Hammond is stepping in where the rich oil states are keeping out. Or is it possible that cash us changing hands on a secret deal? Nothing is beyond belief!

  126. Noa (6 March – 18:10)

    You keep making me reminisce. This time it’s your reference to Preston Market. You’ve made me wonder if a a lad from Garstang called Dick Lord still runs a second hand stall there. Not a lad any longer though – if he’s still alive he must be nearer 80 than 70.

  127. Noa
    March 6th, 2013 – 18:10
    Thanks, but …..My eyes are dim, I cannot see, I have not brought my specs with me…..:-)

  128. Herbert Thornton
    Preston market is divided into the indoor and covered markets supplying foodstuffs and new goods and products, now sadly diminishing. And a large car boot market on the covered and old fish markets on Wednesday and Saturday. Mr Lord, or his family, may well be there but I do not know them personally.

  130. Herbert Thornton and Noa

    All this talk of Preston Market brings to mind facts long forgot, Leeds City Market circa 1822 is the largest covered market in Europe if not the world and Leeds City Council are proposing spending over £22million in order that it will happily merge in with a new proposed ‘huge’ John Lewis development that will change the entire Lower Headrow.

    The original and current design sensibly kept the butchers row on the exact opposite side of the building to fish and fowl. The silly Billy’s are proposing having the fish and the butchers on opposite sides of the same isle.

    My maternal grandfather was able to afford to run two cars at a time when only one household in a hundred had a car, all this from a stall at Leeds Market and every race course in the north selling ‘Trundle Pies with Hobson’s Choice Marrow Fat Peas’ his four elder daughters (one my mother) worked virtually for free.

    A Trundle Pie was baked in the same hot-water pastry as a Pork Pie but the filling was of dark tripe.

  131. “Sen. Paul’s filibuster can be viewed live on CSpan 2. Senator Rand Paul is leading a one-man filibuster of John Brennan’s nomination to lead the CIA.

    Senator Paul is on the Senate floor quoting Hayek, Montesquieu, Glenn Greenwald and an author at liberal blog FireDogLake in his effort to prevent Brennan’s nomination from going through. He says he will not stop until President Obama confirms that drones will not be used to target Americans on American soil.” http://www.breitbart.com/
    http://www.c-span.org/Live-Video/C-SPAN2/

  135. Barm cake – ancestor of the Hamburger Bun?

    Never had Trundle pie but it sounds good. The only kinds of tripe I see nowadays are the dark & light sorts that arrive on a Dim Sum trolley. I always seem to be the only Gwailo who enjoys them.

    But for a real Preston treat, how about Goosnargh Cakes?

  139. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2288924/Gang-men-arrested-dawn-raids-suspicion-raping-age-girl.html

    ‘I would urge anyone who has been a victim of this type of offence or who believes they have any information to please contact police on ….’

    Plod might have a better chance of getting some information if he wasn’t so PC, mealy-mouthed.

    Nothing at all in the article provides the average reader with any hint as to the direction of the investigation. Are we looking at black men, white men or what? Of course, we all know it Muslims, but we hadn’t better mention the predilection of the vile sons of the desert for a bit of kiddy-fiddling.

    And if it isn’t, on this occasion, the little sheet heads, the Met and the media do nothing for ‘community’ relations by hiding the common factor.

  140. Clear Memories 23:58 ‘Any victim of this type of offence we have not described …’

    My thoughts exactly! And the image included is only a ‘file picture’ so we can only infer that the law enforcers wore yellow visibility jackets! Such a lack of detail!

  142. Hexhamgeezer 7th, – 01:19

    I do recall a photoshopped picture from a few years ago showing the shapely ankle of an alleged “Lady of the Night” tattooed with a bar code. Might work with a laser scanner but I can’t see her submitting to being swiped through a card reader!

  145. A rather depressing morning; in the Mail, anyway:

    1) ‘What you did is depressingly familiar in this country’: Judge condemns pair who drugged and raped vulnerable underage girls before moving on to ‘fresh meat’

    The Judge doesn’t understand the new cultures that we have. Appalling!

    2) Off with his head: Frankie Boyle booed by Comic Relief crowd as he makes ‘jokes’ about the Queen and Duchess of Cambridge that are so revolting BBC3 axed his entire routine from TV broadcast.

    And that is just the headline! Why can’t the Daily Mail write shorter headlines? Headlines are meant to be brief!

    3) BREAKING NEWS: Schoolgirl, 15, is stabbed to death on a bus during morning rush hour. The commuter horror is believed to have happened during rush hour at 7.37am today in Birmingham. On social networking sites unconfirmed reports have said ‘a 15-year-old schoolgirl had been stabbed by a friend’.

    By a friend! With friends like that …….

    4) The drug that steals women’s lives: It’s more addictive than heroin, with horrifying side effects. So why, 50 years after its launch, is Valium still given to millions?

    At least we know that the State is in control and it is not the nasty private sector drug pushers that are benefiting.

    5) Split RBS into a ‘good’ and ‘bad’ banks now… and return them to the private sector, urges Bank Governor King

    and

    Millions of NatWest bank customers left without access to their money for four hours after computer system crashes AGAIN

    So, which is the bad bank? NatWest for being a ‘good’ high street bank, where you can’t get your money from your account, or the remaining part of RBS, where the money has disappeared? Perhaps we would end up with just the one bank, where you can’t access your money, even if it was there!

  149. Ostrich (occasionally) 10:51 ‘Well, who’da thunk it?’
    “Groups like the EDL also shun images such as “racial supremacism” and actively sought to recruit people from Jewish, Sikh, Pakistani, Christian and gay communities, the report said.”

    Well, these ‘communities’ do have one thing in common! They seek solace in poetry, like Rudyard Kipling’s If. It starts:
    If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

    And then continues with more words of wisdom:
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;
    If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
    Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

    If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
    If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
    If you can meet with triumph and disaster
    And treat those two imposters just the same;
    If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
    Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with wornout tools;

    If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
    And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breath a word about your loss;
    If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,
    And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

    If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
    Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
    If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
    If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
    Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
    And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

  150. Ostrich (O)

    Maybe it was her Tesco Clubcard number? Or a ‘Best Before’ date.

  151. RobertC
    March 7th, 2013 – 12:39
    A truly great writer of both prose and poetry. No wonder the so-called ‘liberal’ fascist/communist establishment have tried to sweep him under the carpet. “Tommy Atkins” brings tears to these cynical old eyes!

  152. Let’s have more recognition of true good loyal decent people and more verbal honesty at every opportunity of the scum that have betrayed our country.
    Gillian Duffy has to be well up on the good list. She pricked the bubble and pointed out the emperors new clothes of that loathsome reptile brown.
    Tony Martin ( political prisoner ) is also well up on my good list .
    After brown, the list goes on and on.
    And the bastards try to get away with a sorry.
    They should be put down.

  154. RobertC March 7th, 2013 – 12:39

    ‘If’

    Always brings a lump to my throat.

  155. Hexhamgeezer 7th, – 13:12

    “Or a ‘Best Before’ date.”

    As in, “Use by…”?

  156. Robert C (12-37):Another quote from Kipling answers the complaint from `Lord` Tyler against UKIP [Malfleur:5th;2023].”It was not part of their blood,/It came to them very late/With long arrears to make good,/When the English began to hate.”//”It was not preached to the crowd,/It was not taught by the state./No man spoke it aloud,/When the English began to hate.”(The Beginnings:1914-1918)/………./The crimes of the German(Prussian)Empire,including genocide in S.W.Africa,had become know other the years,which made the nation ready for war in 1914.This starts to become relevant again now the Establishment[Cameron] is planning official commemerations of the Great War for the next four years.I fear these will be based(biased) on the left orthodoxy of recent decades.

  157. Then let us form the 1914-18 Remembrance Society or something similar and not allow the state to present a left revisionist account. It would be possible to begin now and gain some publicity by 1914. There could be a badge. There could be a small subscription. There could be a website and national events encouraged etc etc. Everything is possible.

  159. P from M at 16-52:Hear,Hear.I have got my information on this during the last ten years from the popularist magazines,`History Today` and `BBC History`,both of which have reclaimed history to show the left-intellectual and `soldier-poets`[as it’s now called]view of the Great War to be false.

  160. Funny priorities the press in this country have. A 16 year old kid was stabbed on a bus on the way to school this morning. She was planning to become a nurse. Properly trained and motivated she’d have been a useful member of society. Apparently it was a random attack.

    What’s the top headline in the papers? “Vicky Price convicted”. Well, while she and Huhne are languishing in jail they can warm themselves with thoughts of the millions they already have stashed away, and the life they still have to live. Carreers ruined? B*llocks! More like a speed-bump on their roads through life.

  162. Doesn’t Vicky Price look like Nigel Slater?! 😉
    The only thing she can cook, alas, are the books.

  163. Watching QT: If Clarke is the best the Tories can dig up, they are doomed! Bob Crow mutilates the English language, but is far more articulate than this poor old muddled codger. If Crow was in charge of the Labour Party instead of that Polish Marxist Milliband we would be really doomed (Shades of “Dad’s Army). Looking at the effete Twig (“They (don’t) like it up them”) it seems that now is the time for all good men, and women to press hard for UKIP!!!!

  164. AWK 1 7th, – 23:09

    Nah, Anne, putting Crow in charge of the Labour party would be the second longest suicide note in history, after Michael Foot’s. I didn’t watch it all, but Melanie argued well, and furthermore was listened to respectfully; I believe she has more support in the country that the whole HoC put together!

  165. Ostrich (occasionally)
    March 7th, 2013 – 23:24
    Agree with you regarding Melanie! You have misunderstood my comments on Crow. ” If Crow was in charge of the Labour Party instead of that Polish Marxist Milliband we would be really doomed” I don’t support him, I do not support socialists, but I see him as dangerous, as far brighter and far closer to the British socialist then that wretched Milluband.

  168. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2289775/The-drug-drive-limits-lead-prosecutions-drivers-influence-illegal-substances.html

    As usual, Plod & Co can’t get anything right. Why are they dicking about with limits? They’re illegal drugs, thus by definition, any driver who has them in their system is a criminal, so take their licences and crush their cars.

    Drugs are behind the majority of anti-social behaviour and crime in the UK (and across the planet). They destroy lives. Sensible countries have the death penalty for drug smugglers for good reason – they are the first link in the chain that leads to degradation and civil unrest.

    If they’ve developed a suitable test that proves illegal drugs are in the system, let them apply it to those claiming the new Universal Benefit (or whatever they’re calling it this week). Drugs in the system – nothing this week, come back when you’re clean. Taxes are not collected so the idle, feckless or mentally-weak can get stoned.

  169. Duplicate comment detected; it looks as though yoell u’ve already said that!
    I keep getting this message. Wanted to tell OO, I agree 100% with him about Melanie and that I do not support Crow, but see him as dangerous, as he is a more vibrant and natural Labour man than the awful Milliband.

  170. Robert C 12:39 – So?

    Did you think you were introducing us to a new writer, and a poem we hadn’t encountered before??

    P from M 16:52 – I’m in!

  172. BTW, re the hi-viz gear that is donned by increasing number of self-important men, I noticed yesterday that the boys/young men here who carry buckets of water and a wet cloth touting around for cars to wash for a tip are wearing high viz. They have the orange coloured sleeveless long waistcoat variety, trimmed with hi-viz chartreuse.

  174. Verity on March 8th, 2013 – 00:32 ‘Did you think you were introducing us to a new … poem’

    No. I thought the first two lines were very ‘topical’, considering where the author was born:
    . If you can keep your head when all about you
    . Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;

    Then I read the next few lines and thought, “they look relevant as well”, and then the next few, and before I knew it, I ended up with the whole lot!

    Blasted poem! Why does it sound so much like an instruction manual for our present situation!

  175. Anyone else noticed this? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/9916636/Farage-suggests-Conservative-pact-at-secret-dinner-with-Murdoch.html Naturally the enemy’s having a field day with it. I suspect Tory dirty tricks! No deals, Nige. Keep it undiluted like the best, er, beverages!
    Verity
    March 8th, 2013 – 01:20
    Spot-on! Hilarious. Definitely on a par with “Nudist Teacher’s Model-Girl Wife Runs Off With Chinese Hypnotist From Co-op Bacon Factory” from the late and largely unlamented News of the Screws.

  176. Vicky price should have gone to court in a burka to reinforce her argument .

  177. CHINA – an aggressor?

    Now where were we on that lively discussion on here last week?

    I came across this advance puff dated 6th February for a political novel by Michael Savage, A Time of War, published in the USA last month:

    ” “A Time for War” brings focus to another misunderstood danger to U.S. security, communist China.

    Savage sees a tie to today’s news of North Korea’s defiant nuclear test.

    “Make no mistake about the North Korean nuclear blast. China is behind them,” he said. “They are China’s ‘junkyard dog.’ They do nothing without approval of Beijing.”

    Savage believes China has a message for Obama: “Do as we say or we can’t predict what our Korean friend might do.”

    “And what does China want from Obama?” he asked. “Unilateral disarmament of U.S. nukes, disarming the population.” ”

    How’s that Korean story going? Is Obama going to have a bit more flexibility now on nuclear disarmament and what plans does he seem to have for the Second Amendment?

  178. I’ve noticed that the DT is running a piece about the EU voting on legislation to ban all gender stereotyping and pornography in the EU including the internet.

    Thin edge of a thick wedge.

  179. P from M – Agreed … Very busy people … thinking, thinking, thinking about how to subjugate the population of Europe. I wonder what the motivation behind this subjugation is. Is it power for power’s sake, or something even more sinister?

  181. Do the Tories actually have a communications department.
    After all the fuss about mansion taxes being debated in the coalition
    here is the thin end of the wedge sneaked in unnoticed by the press

    What is Annual Residential Property Tax (ARPT)
    ARPT is a tax payable by companies on high value residential property (a dwelling). It will start on 1 April 2013 and will be payable each year.
    Rate bands
    Property Value Annual Tax 2012-13
    £2 million to £5 million £15,000
    £5 million to £10 million £35,000
    £10 million to £20 million £70,000
    £20 million and over £140,000

  182. RobertC ; I agree that “If” is a wonderful poem, and yes it is hackneyed. Like all the best literature, art and poetry, eg the operas “Carmen”and “The Magic Flute”, Van Gogh’s “Irises”, nearly all of Mozart, Wordsworth, etc. they have become victims of their well-deserved popularity and therefore hackneyed, but that doesn’t make them any less perfect works of art. Less well-known creations which are fresh and new to most of us, are obscure for a good reason; they are just inferior to the well-loved works that we know and love. Unfortunately this means that after having seen and listened to Carmen and other pieces innumerable times, I get to the point of saturation with them and no longer derive any pleasure, which is a great shame, because they are just as wonderful as they have always been.

  183. on the subject of light bulbs, I paid a visit to Bury Market recently and discovered, guess what. Heavy Duty, whatever that means, 60 or 100w. works a treat, and sod the wretched low energy rubbish I had been using, which made the room look like a graveyard. Apparently the stall holder had invested in thousands when the law first started banning the bulbs. Wise man.

  184. Yesterday evening we watched a pre-recorded first episode of that rare item an edition of ‘Top Gear’ to be watched in two parts.

    I and my wife invariably like ‘Top gear’ we find it entertaining and easily watchable whilst we are completing the crosswords.

    However last nights episode left us feeling less than happy, all of it was shot in Rwanda, Burundi and I think Tanzania, the abject poverty, filth and squalor was plain to see and I wonder what improvement there might be if we were able to increase aid by 10,000%?

    I strongly suspect that there would be no improvement.

    It is my opinion that because of wrong headed political correctness we can never ever point out and discuss why some ethnic backgrounds can prosper in certain difficult environments whilst others never will, until we can do so, we must stop entirely throwing good money year after year into these veritable cesspits.

  185. Lesley C. March 8th, 2013 – 16:11

    “on the subject of light bulbs, I paid a visit to Bury Market recently and discovered, guess what. Heavy Duty, whatever that means, 60 or 100w. works a treat, and sod the wretched low energy rubbish I had been using, which made the room look like a graveyard. Apparently the stall holder had invested in thousands when the law first started banning the bulbs. Wise man.”

    You have spotted one of the loopholes that Brussels has left unplugged, the sale of heavy duty (intended for building sites industrial use excreta) was never prohibited and according to my wholesaler Brussels banned the manufacturer, and so he (my wholesaler) feels free to sell as long as he can find supplies and up to now has had no problem.

  186. David Ossitt 16:13 … You are correct, but you won’t catch anyone in the government admitting it and acting accordingly. Aid to countries rich in natural resources, like all central and southern Africa, should get no aid at all. We, and other countries, should send advisors to help them organise themselves and get on their feet, yes. But money that the British taxpayer needs for himself/herself for their own families, no.

    Africa is the richest continent on earth in so far as natural resources go, and we don’t owe them anything. If they were too backward to defend their countries against the British, who came in and organised them, tough. That’s life.

    We, and the French and the Dutch have been overwhelmingly generous to our former colonies, but enough is enough. We have very little in the way of natural resources, and the Africans are swimming in ores and fertile land. I think governments should now withdraw all aid from Africa. They are far richer than we are, or the Dutch, or the French. They wanted independence, they got it, so they should now be independent.

  187. Chavez is to be embalmed, according to BBC news just now – accompanied by a discusion on embalming being relatively common practice in South America.
    No mention that I heard of other notable embalmees – Lenin comes to mind.

  188. Lesley C. – 16:06 ‘favourites the hackneyed victims of popularity’
    It is a heavy burden that these pieces bear, though orchestral pieces seem to fare better.

  189. David Ossitt – 16:13 ‘foreign aid and political correctness’
    The most valuable asset we have is our attitude. Foreign aid from the West was calculated to be in excess of £4,000,000,000,000 many years ago and, as you say, nothing has changed, except that even more aid money is ‘needed over there’ and we are starting to ‘need it over here’! I think though, our most valuable asset is changing. We have to thank Cameron for that!

    I think I have already said this (at greater length) but, forty years ago. a geologist told me what the two most scarce resources were: political stability and human intelligence. We still have a little of each here but it does not travel well.

  190. I hear on the news that police personnel and prison staff were arrested for giving information to newspapers. Their names were announced, but one name was held “for legal reasons”. Does anybody know what this means? Is it because the person is so powerful and will be quietly let off?……….

  191. Frank Sutton
    March 8th, 2013 – 17:30
    They are all bonkers! The late Eva Peron was worshipped as a goddess, and there is a dreadful history of her rotting body being hidden behind a cinema screen, being ‘made love to’ by maniacs, and other horrible events. Chavez embalmed is better than Chavez stinking as he disintegrates!

  192. AWK1: ‘…one name was held “for legal reasons”.’
    I guess the name in question is already charged or on trial for somethinmg else, and hence naming them here would be sub-judice

  193. Well,well – the Euro dictators are going to vote to “ban all types of pornogrpahy”. Oh, yeah, that’ll work.

    MEPs will meet next week to vote on a “ban on all forms of pornography” including censorship of the internet in a bid to “eliminate gender stereotypes” that demean women.

    Are they going to outlaw gay pornography as well?

    Who appointed them censors and deciders of what citizens of countries in the EUSSR can read? Does anyone here recall voting for someone over there in Europe who had the power to censor what they read?

    First they came for the pornogrpahy …

    Someone has to put an end to this EU power creep. It won’t be Dave. God willing it will be Nigel … and if the British people want an end to the open sale of pornography, they will make their wishes known to their MPs in WESTMINSTER.

  197. Herbert Thornton, that would be hysterically funny if it weren’t so tragic. Unwanted migrating Romanians are shunning places with a high percentage of Pakis. As you rightly say, “You couldn’t make it up …”

    (On the other hand, it may signify that Romanians have better taste than previously assumed …

  199. Peter from Maidstone
    Peter, I do not like to disagree with you, but in this case I do. I dislike the Romanians, and know what a devious people they are. The Roma Gypsies are simply composed of ill educated, oppressed people who exist by petty theft and by their wits. The Romanians are a greedy, selfish nation who always prejudiced against the Roma, and in World War II, the so-called neutral Romanians joined the Iron Guard, en masse, and allowed, indeed delivered, the Roma to the Germans for extermination in concentration camps. Together with Jews, the Roma were hunted down and men, women and children were destroyed in their hundreds and thousands as ‘inferior’ and ‘subhumans’. On a lighter vein, there is a well-known proverb: “To make a Romanian omelette, first steal three eggs.”

  200. Anne, I don’t think that such stereotypes are very helpful. They were applied to Jews with equally unfair consequences. I don’t know any Romanian thieves. I know only Romanians who have degrees, work hard, and are committed Christians.

  201. The French and British are prejudiced against the Roma and the French have just sent them all home. Are all those who don’t appreciate the Roma culture to be classified as Nazis?

  202. Peter from Maidstone
    March 8th, 2013 – 21:33
    The French and British are prejudiced against the Roma and the French have just sent them all home. Are all those who don’t appreciate the Roma culture to be classified as Nazis?
    =============
    Of course not. But if a country decided to place them in concentration camps and kill them, then they would be classed as Nazis’

  203. And none of those decent, intelligent Romanians I know were even alive during the war. Therefore it is as unfair to categorise them as Nazis as it is to categorise all modern Germans as Nazis.

  204. Peter from Maidstone
    Of course you are correct Peter. We nust not condemn the child for the sins of the father. But, and this is a big BUT, the prejudice of contemporary Romanians – at least those I have met, still inflicts itself upon the Roma. We have obviously met a different type of Romanian. Those that I knew were mainly workers in care homes and hospitals, and certainly not in professional positions. I am now off to bed, so will reply to any further postings on this in the morning. Good night.

  205. ZOWIE!!!! Rupert Murdoch hosted a lunch for Nigel!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    David Camoron is toast! Yaaaaaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bye bye, Call-me-Dave!!! You didn’t even have the wit to live up to Tony’s standards!

  206. Farewell to thee, Blancmange Face! I have to prop myself up from laughing! (And didn’t you write, in a note to Murdoch’s assistant, “Lol” under the impression that it meant “lots of love”?? How remote from the public can you be?

  207. The nearest most people have got to Romanians is to their horses:at least those who have been eating Findus beef lasagne;100% Romanian.

  208. Verity (9 Mar 00:31)

    I certainly hope that your optimism is justified. At any rate, the news has made me get a bottle of Australian white from the basement to drink their health at supper an hour or so from now.

    Matt the cartoonist has been on good form lately* so maybe he’ll come up with some suitable comment.

    *I rather enjoyed his recent one of two clergymen chatting about marriage. One says – “I’m a traditionalist. I still believe that when two people marry, one of them should be pregnant.”

  209. David Ossit and Verity.
    Foreign “aid” by the billion has been chucked at Africa and suchlike for as long as I can remember and the entire continent (with the possible exception of Namibia?) is still a complete basket case. Look at Haiti: the earthquake was what……….two years ago? Still no running water and most buildings still in ruins. I’m ransacking my archives for an article by an exceeding perceptive (black) author wondering why the rescue teams in Haiti were all from the West and none from black countries! Don’t even get me started about India, it’s billionaires, how they don’t pay tax, the starving millions and the hype about the next world power! Not buying it. I know, I know, Verity; clever people and all that but what about the infrastructure? The place is falling apart and they still blame “colonialism” seventy years later! Again, I’m with Verity, to all of them; they wanted independence, they got it, so be independent

  210. Herbert Thornton 01:11 – Ha ha ha!

    Cameron must be running scared, which will contribute to the jollity of the nation.

  212. Archie Ponsonby, India’s come an incredibly long way, but it’s jammed with islamics. Nehru relieved India of one huge tranche of them when he and Wossname created Pakistan. He probably wiped his brow in relief as so many tens of thousands vacated India for their new spiritual home.

    You write, “I know, I know, Verity; clever people and all that but …”, but all Indians … oh, let’s say the islamics … are not clever. The Hindus are very clever.

    So, as we know, not all sons of the prophet went to Pakiland. Some stayed behind, and continued to indulge their bad habits. Including, one assumes, under the radar, multiple wives and a haughty disregard for the laws of man when allah had already told them everything they needed to know.

    Was the black author you mentioned Thomas Sowell, an American journalist? I love his writing. He is a lucid political thinker and a talented wordsmith.

  213. Using boxing lingo, Cameron is really on the ropes. Now he needs a good punch on the jaw to have him down. Trouble is, too much dodgy cash/deals are changing hands, and until the towel is thrown in, we cannot rejoyce. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 , 2, 1 UKIP IS THE WINNER!

  214. AWK 13:12 – I do think Nigel and UKIP are on a roll, but I don’t want to jinx it by making any wishful assumption.

  216. Verity
    March 9th, 2013 – 14:08
    I agree.so will keep quiet and just hope. I wonder if the horrid pink blancmange is all wet and squashed today after all the media have had a go at him. I doubt it, as he is not only conceited but also very stupid.

  217. AWK – Good morning, my time, down Mexico way. I have said from Day One that the Rt Hon David Blancmange-Face was stupid. All his little publicity stunts were childish (and patronising at the same time). You only have to look at his vapid, line-free face to see he has not spent a great deal of time thinking.

    And he is not just stupid. He has more bows for his arrow. He is condescending and patronising “Call me Dave” indeed!! (He thought that “the little people” might be overawed by him (dream on, Bullingdon boy!) so invited them to call him by a name he imagined “the little people” would be more comfortable with. (We’d be more comfortable with a PM who had an IQ of over 120, Davey.) He and the ghastly Sam (bring back Cherie Blair!) thought that attending the Royal Wedding, “the little people” might be overawed if Sam wore a hat. To a Royal Wedding.

    So she came in an ordinary day dress and no hat … the only woman in Westminster Cathedral who was hatless. Davey lad and Sammy think that only posh people with titles and wind farms wear hats. Have they never been to a wedding other than among their own kind? Every British woman, when she receives a wedding invitation, immediately thinks, “I’ll need a hat. I’d better start trying on hats today.”

    Bullingdon Dave is not only not very bright, and not very nice, but he is tone deaf to the voters. So the two of them went to the Royal Wedding trying to look like chavs.

    I hated Cameron from the first minute I saw his stupid, sly, manipulative face.

  218. Meanwhile, David and Victoria Beckham were immaculately and stylishly turned out and she knew enough to be low key so as not to compete with the bride.

  220. Verity.

    I like many here would grany you much but ” (bring back Cherie Blair!) ”

    Never.

  221. Ps Sorry Typo should have read grant, I do not Know where the grany bit came from.

  222. Anne Wotana Kaye 1

    “we cannot rejoyce. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 , 2, 1 UKIP IS THE WINNER!”

    Did you see how the poisonous chairman on Question Time let that stupid woman in the audience get away with calling UKIP some very nasty names.

    By the buy did you also notice how he interrupted Melanie Phillips seven times whilst she attempted to answer the one question, the man is a disgrace.

    I used to think that his younger brother was a little better but whilst I have been in my shed I listened to the repeat of Any Questions from yesterday on radio4 and he is now just as bad, neither give any conservatives an honest break.

    As for the young Muslim woman who now chairs Any Answers, she is bloody awful.

  223. David Ossitt
    March 9th, 2013 – 15:29
    Forgive my crudeness, but the brothers are a pair of scumbags.
    That woman who kept interupting is a paid up Labour Party plant, her photo appears in Labour Party pamphlets and Dimbleby obviously knew.

  224. Diane Abbott (groan and thrice groan) has an article in the New Statesman (where else) under the strap ‘There must be no Right Turn on Immigration’ (what else) which elicited the comment below from ‘Suki’ which I think is worth setting out as it precisely describes the prinicipal problem with mass immigration:

    “Anti-immigrant fervour is actually a proxy for economic discontent and will inevitably rise in a recession”

    “I find this assertion presumptuous and demeaning. I think it’s convenient to label discontent as motivated by financial concerns because it makes it easier to talk about and easier to dismiss or make efforts to fix, but in my experience what actually concerns people is the cultural impact of large numbers of foreigners and the state’s reaction to them.

    British people are concerned by such things as their traditions, history, language, religion, values, countryside, architecture, music, art, humour, names, friendships, the relationship between the sexes, social norms, and so on. They protest about multiculturalism in festivals, in the media, in our schools, about the loss of local communities and traditions, the closure of churches, the introduction of gender segregation, the feeling of alienation from the past and present, so that home no longer feels like home and people retreat inside to watch tv. I don’t think people would regard plentiful housing or services or jobs as adequate compensation for those things.”

  225. Austin Barry – Hear, hear!!

    Cameron is a job in Bruxelles and is demonstrating what a good little team member he is.

    Britain has to leave the EU as soon as possible. EU creep (no, in this instance I am not referring to Dave) is terribly terribly dangerous and will eventually lead to Europe- and Britain-wide disorder and mayhem. None of the French like it. I don’t know about the rest of them, but the British (except the left) loathe it.

    The next PM will be the man or woman who promises the voters to dump the EU.

  226. Verity (9 March 16:22)

    “The next PM will be the man or woman who promises the voters to dump the EU.”

    I know what you mean, but knowing that Cameron himself is capable of making that sort of promise, I hope that voters will make sure that both the person and the party making the promise can be believed……

  227. Herbert Thornton
    March 9th, 2013 – 16:44
    Yes, Herbert,
    Didn’t that traitorous swine DC promise us a referendum?

  228. Icy rain,sleet and snow forecast.To add to the general pleasure,Herr Link-Mayor of Duisburg-warns Britain of the perils of migration from Romania and Bulgaria. [See todays Mail on line.]We learn I.D.Smith (his Dept.)is already paying-out large amounts.Under EU law migrants claiming to be self-employed (such as by selling the Big Issue) can claim housing/council tax benefits etc.;and receive money for their children .Things are worse in Britain as,unlike Germany,people aren’t allowed to buy tasers and pepper-sprays.

  229. There’s an annual contest at the Griffiths University, Australia, calling for the most appropriate definition of a contemporary term.

    This year’s term was “political correctness”.

    The winning student wrote:

    “Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rapidly promoted by mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of **** by the clean end.”

  230. I cannot see how the LibLabCon party can ignore what has happened in the German city of Duisburg.

    “My warning to Britain: Why the left-wing mayor of German town wants you to see what happened when Romanian migrants moved in”
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290480/Romanian-migrants-blamed-rise-crime-German-town-Duisburg.html

    “Many of the German city’s new residents are Roma gypsies who have travelled here together from the villages of Fântânele, in Romania, in search of a better life. Those villages are now deserted, while in Duisburg, flats designed for families of three or four have up to 15 people squeezed into them. For this, they pay £350-a-month — seemingly biding their time for the next ten months.”

    Quite appalling, and it could happen in any town!

    There may be trouble ahead … But while there’s music and moonlight. Sorry, wrong song!

  231. RobertC
    March 9th, 2013 – 17:43

    I cannot see how the LibLabCon party can ignore what has happened in the German city of Duisburg.
    =================
    Don’t act naive, Robert, we know you aren’t. The LibLabCon actively want this to happen here. It is all part of their Marxist/Fascist agenda.

  232. Teresa May says that if the Tory’s get in again they will scrap the EU Human Rights’ Bill. Believe that, and you will believe anything, but seems the Tory’s are running scared.

  233. Ostrich (occasionally) – Thanks for that definition! It is currently wending it’s way round the blogosphere!

  234. Verity: I seem to remember that the black author whom I mentioned had a French name, and alas my hard drive will not give up its secret. About Blancmange Boat and his hippie wife at the Royal Wedding: quite true about their inappropriate dress, even that Taffy Trot Prime Minister of Australia wore a hat!

  235. AWK 7:43 – D’accuerdo! It is so obvious to us that this is part of a controlling, One Worlder agenda … it is so blazingly clear … that it is astonishing that everyone doesn’t instantly dismiss it and jeer at those promoting it.

    Agreed about not believing a word Teresa May says. She wants to be party leader and will be dependent on Shamoron’s patronage when he slithers up to the top table in Bruxelles. (Why would they want a clown like Blancmange-Face in Brussels, though? I mean, the man is completely ineffective.)

    I really think the Tories are running scared, Ann, and it serves them right for promoting Shameron light years beyond his abilities, which would be doing PR for a failing TV station. Uh … wait a minute …

  236. Austin B @ 15.38

    The operative verb (the third word in you last para) should read ‘were’ rather than ‘are’, Baron’s afraid to say. If the tense were correct explain why did they allow the closure of Post Offices, the decimation of the old pub culture, the despoilment of the countryside with monstrosities that do FA to pump energy into the grid…. More to the point, why did they vote in the ghastly B&B pair three times n a row, will vote Labour in today if the count were called.

    Sadly, sir, the current generation of the British DNA seems to have lost it. And let me add, nobody regrets it more than Baron who fled a regime that this country seems to blindly walking into. Private Fraser got it right, we’re doomed.

  237. Archie Ponsonby – I don’t know any black French writers. Thomas Sowell is American. He joined the US armed forces as a young man, served his term, and used his bonus, or end of term payout or whatever it’s called, to register for, and pay his own way through, college.

    He is a very sound right wing thinker and a good read.

  238. Speaking of writers, the excellent British video-blogger Pat Condell has not had a video up for two months. I hope he is OK.

  239. Very bad item.In the latest` Mail on line ` an article saying The Queen is to sign a Commonwealth Charter promoting`diversity`;which is effectively what Cameron calls `The Project`.I regard this,if true, as great an outrage as when Charles Stuart –that man of blood–raised the banner of rebellion against his people.

  240. Radford Ng – The Queen has no authority to sign charters on behaf of the British people. That is the privilege of the elected government. She should not be signing charters! She is the Queen, and we all respect her, but she does not speak for the electorate. This is infuriating!

    Surely someone can point out that she has no legal right to speak on our behalf? Acually, I am sure she knows it and has been forced in some way. David Shambolic will stop at nothing to lick the EU’s arse.

  241. Baron – I’ve considered the point you make over and over and can come up with only one solution. The DNA that made Britain what it was has gone.

    Not swamped or outnumbered but simply left. To the benefit of Canada, Australia, Spain and other points across the globe. Those left, like the posters to this site, are insufficient in number to make any difference.

    Also explains why the UK has shits for politicians, whatever party they stand for.

  242. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 on March 9th, 2013 – 18:02 ‘Marxist/Fascist agenda’
    I keep forgetting that Cameron is on the same side as Brown!

    I suppose I was thinking, how can Cameron etc get away with it when the public can see it in the papers. I was walking around a Saturday market and there was a Daily Mail(R) open on one of the stalls; it was open at the article to which I had linked. So it was of some interest!

    And then I remembered how Blair was voted in three times. It is quite depressing!

  243. I have just noticed that the BBC is in fact an abbreviation of Blair, Brown & Cameron.

    I expect it has been noticed before, but I haven’t seen any mention of this useless piece of trivia at all.

  244. “We hear men speak for us of new laws strong and sweet,/Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street./It may be we rise the last as Frenchmen rose the first,/Our wrath come after Russia’s wrath and our wrath be the worst./It may be we are meant to mark with our riot and our rest/God’s scorn for all men governing.It may be beer is best./But we are the people of England;and we have not spoken yet./Smile at us,pay us, pass us. But do not quite forget.// (G.K. Chesterton;`The Secret People`.]

  245. Clear Memories, you have a strong point and I haven’t seen it made before. But I think you are right. Those with get-up-and-go got up and went.

    What is left are older people, largely no longer in the work force, and a sprinkling of clever people running businesses and … well … a gigantic welfare class and floods of destructive, largely stupid, greedy, immigrants before whom the government inexplicably, bends the knee, enabling them to succour on the taxes paid by the British taxpayer.

    This is an extraordinary, perhaps unique in the world, development.

    Meanwhile, vast tranches of intelligent and entrepreneurial people, as you suggest, got fed up and left. And, indeed, NZ, Australia, the US and Canada are the beneficiaries (and receivers of the immgrants’ taxes, thereby increasing the wealth of the aforementioned countries.)

    So Britain was felled not by an invasion, as so many of our brave people gave their lives to prevent, but by the people themselves. I wonder if this is a first in human history. Someone more familiar with world history may like to note any parallels for us.

    Where do we lay the blame? Well, Tony Blair revolted a lot of people who shrank from being governed by him and his greedy, bitter wife. Vut he prevailed. Cameron has revolted even more people because — in the eyes of some, anyway — Blair had some charisma and enough nous to know what to say to the aspirational voter (without cutting out the non-aspirational passengers) … he knew the promises to make while he used them as rungs on the ladder he was climbing to millions of pounds and a privileged life.

    Shamoron isn’t that bright.

  246. …..We are the people of England;AND WE HAVE NOT SPOKEN YET…..But time to engage with the latest recording of `Engrenages 4:State of Terror` [French noir police drama from BBC 4].

  248. Verity 9th, – 18:11

    “Thanks for that definition! It is currently wending it’s way round the blogosphere”

    I wonder what said student would have made of ‘Socialism’?

    Probably have got himself hounded out of university for daring to hold such views!

  249. Clear Memories 10th, – 00:44

    “The DNA that made Britain what it was has gone.”

    Not completely gone, but severely attenuated. A lot of it is spread on Flanders’ fields, and elsewhere.

  250. Ostrich (occasionally) @ 10:30

    Yes, but more important perhaps than the DNA, which can of course be recovered and in principle re-deployed, are the matters mentioned by Austin Barry in the final paragraph of his post on March 9th @ 15:38 which are unfortunately not stored in the double-helix and the specifics of which, once lost, can never be recovered. Furthermore, whose DNA and cultural legacies are replacing what is lost…? The people of England have not spoken, but may have lost the opportunity.

    Radford NG and Verity

    The monarch, as King John discovered, signs charters under duress.

  251. RobertC
    March 10th, 2013 – 01:02
    Brilliant! 😉
    I am ashamed at the boring and crude abbreviations I use for BBC, whereas yours is witty and completely apt.

  252. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/383143/Revenge-of-Jimmy-Savile-victim

    And why should anybody have to pay to support the Biased Bollox Corporation, the major contributor to the collapse of UK plc by its lies and cover-ups?

    This vile organisation of lying left-wing anti-semites, white-haters and republicans needs to be closed down. Starving it of funds is the right place to start. From Humphries to Dimbleby, via Paxman, Ross and all the other assorted anti-British shites UK licence fee payers have no choice but to support, begone. Try and see if you can make a living when people have a choice to pay to watch you or not.

    Want to win the next election Cameron? Guarantee the EU in-out referendum by a law (not if you win) and scrap the licence fee. Let the BBC survive on what it can make on real talent – like Clarkson et al.

  253. Ostrich above, quotes Clear Memories: “The DNA that made Britain what it was has gone.” and responds that it is not completed wiped out, “but a lot of it is spread on Flanders fields, and elsewhere.”

    Yes. God rest their souls.

    And greedy, out-of-touch, dim, ambitious-way-way-way-beyond his-capabilities, no-talent Cameron, is begging the Germans and French for a place for him personally at the vile EU top table. He feels it’s his natural habitat. In a gruesome sense, he is right. He and van Rumpoy and all the rest of them are in their natural habitat, at the centre of a dictatorship.

  254. Malfleur 12:05 – You are correct. Apologies.

    Clear Memories, I have been saying for years that the BBC is the enemy within. That is is supported, under force, by the people whose history and way of life it is set on destroying is surreal.

  256. Malfleur … I have been saying for 20 years that the BBC needs to be destroyed. I have suggested, in the past, removing the cleaners, canteen workers and security guards, then destroying it with a controlled explosion. It could lie as toxic waste and a graphic reminder for, oh, two or three years, then be converted into luxury flats for rich capitalists. And the British would be relieved of the burden of supporting the enemy within with the license fee.

  257. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2291037/Centre-Social-Justice-Teenage-sex-slave-raped-90-times-weekend-despite-authorities-saying-wasnt-risk.html#comments

    It doesn’t bear thinking of. Gosh, I wonder who the culprits could be.

    The crime of gang rape should carry the death penalty. They killed the soul of the little girl they raped. Actually, maybe they should be tied by the ankles, naked and bent over, in prison for, oh, 10 or 12 hours. Then hanged.

  259. But our electoral system doesn’t work like that. It depends entirely on where those votes are cast.

    And we are not doomed. We are just too lazy to do anything serious about the situation.

  260. Noa
    March 10th, 2013 – 17:55
    The show’s not over until the fat woman sings. The Lord being willing, there may be a lot of fat guzzler Labour and Lib Dems singing as the media reveals new scandals!

  261. Verity – (10 March 15:26) –

    Just as appalling as the multiple rapes is the obvious determination of the media and the Establishment to prevent the public disclosure of any description whatsoever of the men who committed the rapes.

    No names, nothing about where they live, what their citizenship is, what their ethnicity is, or what if any religion they follow.

    What else can be concluded but that the media and the Establishment believe, for some reason, that is important is to protect the criminals?

    It makes me suspect that Gordon Brown’s plan to “rub our noses in it” evinced a degree of subversive malevolence even more extreme than appeared at the time – and moreover one that is common to most of the Establishment.

    And the same forces are hysterically determined to ridicule UKIP and to demonise both the BNP and the EDL. The Establishment and the BBC and the rest of the media are so rotten that they make even the National Front look virtuous by comparison.

  262. Herbert Thornton
    March 10th, 2013 – 18:12
    Herbert, I actually sent a comment to the Idiot’s press, the “DM” asking whether the names Ahmed and Mohammed appeared with frequency for the names of abusers and rapists. I wrote that I believed that their Moderator would come down with a heavy hand on my posting. Guess what – I was right!!!!

  263. We don’t have enough misery in our lives. Not enough children being murdered, pensioners abused and people raped. The media, BBC TV and deplorably ITV have been running lengthy episodes of children being killed. Now a new horror is brought to us by the horrid BBC. Even the far shores of our land are not immune from this sickly fad, “Shetland” will deal with the slaughter of an elderly person for two nights in a row. Well at least we will be spared infantice, although somehow I think this victim didn’t have to bother to go to an NHS hospital and get placed on the Liverpool Care Plan!

  264. Verity: my sleuthing has finally paid off and a link to the Haiti article was posted – ironically – at the other place by a correspondent calling himself “daleman” in 2010, so there is a distinct possibility that you may already have read it! However, the article itself is by a gentleman going by the nom-de-plume of Loose Canon (sic) in the Sunday Standard newspaper in Botswana, and whose real name is Botsalo Ntuane (French indeed!).

    The link is: http://www.sundaystandard.info/article.php?NewsID=6788&GroupID=5

  265. If 47% of the electorate, the majority, is prepared to ratify the past and vote for the continued destruction of the United Kingdom by institutional socialism; the whilst we might delay it for a while, I really don’t see how we can ultimately avoid it.

    And anomalies, such as the one man one vote, the FPTP voting system and the selection and whipping of Party clone MPs militate against the dying embers of democracy.

  267. Noa, I am convinced that there is always everything to play for. The forces we are up against are spiritual ones, they simply use the greedy, the self-centred and the foolish to work their agenda. (Whether you view those forces as metaphorical or metaphysical). But they have been overcome in the past and can be overcome in the present.

  268. Verity 15:27

    The deliberate block on identification, of the perpetrators of this appalling rape of this little girl, is truly sinister. Similar occurrences have been witnessed by all of us recently.

    Do you think the Neathergaters are starting to lose control of their effluent? I suspect that they thought they’d brought in a vibrancy-diversity swarm who would be compliant, rub the right up the wrong way, guarantee a left-wing hegemony but who would be ever-dependent on their left-wing benefactors.
    How wrong these nancies are: there are enough of them, they are protected under a flotilla of “anti-racism” legislation and their contempt for white women is there for all to see.
    Next it will be more overt hostility towards gays, I can’t wait to see the Left’s tortured attempts to extricate themselves from that one: a gays vs. Religon of Peace square-go. It should be a doozie.

  269. I have to agree with Peter. I don’t think we are doomed although we are in a very bad place at the moment and we are a long way from having the forces of righteousness (as it were) galvanised via a new movement. But there are always grounds for optimism. And I am certainly not one to slag off the country in it’s entirety and do the Left’s job of consigning us to the dustbin of history.

    To coin a cliche ‘it’s always darkest before the dawn’ and IMHO we have some way to go before stark reality is allowed to elbow it’s way into everyone’s face. Cue the BBC. LibLabCon are fully paid up to their Hall of Mirrors project but, like the unannounced, camouflaged and denied millions who turned up under Labour, gigantic elephants in rooms, whether economic or demographic cannot be denied forever. How to deal with the BBC? Civil disobedience on a mass scale regarding the licence fee would seem a simple but very effective way to crowbar the bastards out from under their stones. I’ve not been able to find any definitive legal statements as to whether that nest of vipers are contravening the terms of their Charter. Prima face they are in constant contravention of Section 4, the Public Purposes paragraph d) re representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities. Senior figures in the BBC are open about the fact that they should not and will not represent the country but a leftist section of it. That surely is grounds for withholding the licence fee alone?

    More difficult is the issue of representation. Cue Scottish independence. I’m all for it. If that can be achieved the English body politic can then focus on itself and reorganise it’s constituencies should the Tories actually want to campaign for it (dave’s appetite seems somewhat muted considering it could easily be something to stir popular sentiment – is that why?). An English consciousness would, despite the best efforts of the BBC, start to focus on the dead hand of Labour, the Liberals, and dave’s client state. If the BBC were to feel at the same time the beginnings of revolt by a slow strangulation, perchance they would consider for a change reflecting England and its opinions more proportionally.

    I think there are also grounds for optimism via EU issues. UKIP are showing just how large the groundswell of discontent we have in this country at the moment regarding Europe as well as our domestic fare of lies evasion and contempt. Elections in 2014 will ensure that the LibLabConBeeb cabal will have to be a bit more circumspect in expressing their contempt for the English population which is A Very Good Thing.

    Another reason for optimism is the laziness PfM mentions. This works both ways. The Left have taken good and best advantage of this but it is not something that is exclusively theirs. Again, to use UKIP as an example, they are a small party but are starting to have a big effect and no-one is out on the streets against them. Attacking the BBC, Europe, and electoral issues (including an analysis of postal voting) will be a catalyst for fundamental change. I believe that these issues will be tackled but the motivation to do so in bigger more organised numbers is not quite there yet. But it will arrive because the pussyfooting irrelevancy of the LibLabCon policies, as sanctioned by the BBC, have and will continue to fail.

    What to do right now? Talk and talk and talk and not just here. Keep holding the Emperor’s New Clothes up to ridicule. Get out in the community and make your views known. Get volunteering and talk and talk and talk to everyone and dismantle the Big Lies we are all forced to endure. Bottoms up as it were because the @rseholes at the top aren’t in the business of changing one single thing anytime soon.

  270. Girl who attacked UKIP was at the Eastleigh count for Labourby Michael HeaverThe girl who went on an anti-UKIP rant last night on Question Time is a Labour activist. It was an unfortunate outburst from an obvious plant.

    This picture however points to more than that. Indeed it appears the girl was at the count of the Eastleigh by-election on behalf of the Labour Party, who were humiliated.

    It’s no wonder the girl has it in for UKIP after that embarrassing result. More disclosure of vested interests wouldn’t go amiss on shows like Question Time though. The girl was not representative of the general public in Eastleigh as was demonstrated by the numbers on the night.

    CAN’T SHOW PICTURE. IT IS ON A BLOGSITE CALLED THE UKIPIAN.

    «

  271. There are rumblings in Germany as well !!!

    Germany’s anti-euro party is a nasty shock for Angela Merkel
    Political revolt against the euro construct has spread to Germany.
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/9920666/Germanys-anti-euro-party-is-a-nasty-shock-for-Angela-Merkel.html

    ‘A new party led by economists, jurists, and Christian Democrat rebels will kick off this week, calling for the break-up of monetary union before it can do any more damage.
    “An end to this euro,” is the first line on the webpage of Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). “The introduction of the euro has proved to be a fatal mistake, that threatens the welfare of us all. The old parties are used up. They stubbornly refuse to admit their mistakes.”
    They propose German withdrawal from EMU and return to the D-Mark, or a breakaway currency with the Dutch, Austrians, Finns, and like-minded nations. The French are not among them. The borders run along the ancient line of cleavage dividing Latins from Germanic tribes.’

    I think the fact that the borders run along ‘the ancient line of cleavage’ is a sign that Continental Drift is present in Europe. It may be slow, but it is unstoppable. It is unstoppable because what has been tried, and has failed, has been so unnatural.

  273. RobertC
    March 10th, 2013 – 22:25

    Thanks Robert, this looks interesting.

    Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).
    Is a link-up with the disenchanted here possible?

  274. Another link about wood burning Drax:
    http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/christopher-booker-eco-madness/

    The trees must first be felled, then turned into wood chips in two dedicated plants that Drax is building in America. The chips have to be transported in huge ships thousands of miles across the ocean to Yorkshire ports, then ferried in huge railway trucks to the power station.

    Even then, before being pulverised into powder ready for use, the wood chips must be stored in giant purpose-built domes, where they need to be humidified in order to prevent spontaneous combustion — to which wood is 1,000 times more prone than coal.

    This has already given rise to disastrous fires in other power plants that have converted to biomass, such as one which recently caused millions of pounds’ worth of damage to Tilbury power station in London.

    As Drax admits, all this means that to generate nearly the same amount of power from wood as it does from coal will cost between two and three times as much, meaning that its fuel costs will double or treble — so that the only thing to make this possible will be that massive subsidy, which will eventually be worth over £1 billion a year.

    It just gets worse and worse! And it gets closer to the day when no one can ignore what is happening!

  275. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 – 22:53 ‘Alternative für Deutschland (AfD)’
    It is very early days!

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/9910159/Eurosceptic-party-aims-to-take-on-Angela-Merkel-in-Germany.html
    “The party will be launched next Monday in the town of Oberursel, north of Frankfurt, while its founding convention is planned for next month in Berlin. It must gather hundreds of signatures to be allowed to take part in Germany’s federal elections, in September.”

  276. RobertC 10th, – 23:08

    “As Drax admits, all this means that to generate nearly the same amount of power from wood as it does from coal will cost between two and three times as much, meaning that its fuel costs will double or treble — so that the only thing to make this possible will be that massive subsidy, which will eventually be worth over £1 billion a year.”

    Y’know, when you’re dealing with knuckleheads like LibDems and EU officials, with their Micawberish attitude that something will turn up to make the calculations right, sometimes the only way to get the stupid pillocks to admit they’re wrong (and even then it doesn’t always work) is to give their dumb idea your best shot, keep forensically detailed records and when it all falls in a heap, analyse the records and then show them every point at which they’re WRONG, WRONG, WRONG!!! But…they’re just as likely, I admit, to be looking at your data with their fingers in their ears and singing, “La-la-la” into the sunset.

  278. This is only a post, but I have heard of most of this news about ‘Oil in the Med’ before, but not about Gazprom’s deals:
    http://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2013/03/09/christopher-booker-eco-madness/comment-page-1/#comment-45915
    A new deal by Russia’s Gazprom energy giant to market Israeli liquefied natural gas puts Moscow firmly in the burgeoning and contentious east Mediterranean energy sector, and shows that it’s again emerging as a player in the strategic region. The deal, signed Feb. 26, is a direct consequence of a ground-breaking visit to Israel, the United States’ most valuable strategic ally in the region, by Russian President Vladimir Putin last June. With U.S. interest in the Middle East seemingly diminishing, in part because of vast shale oil and natural gas deposits that lessen dependence on Persian Gulf oil, Putin clearly has ambitions of filling the vacuum. –UPI, 9 March 2013

    The entire eastern Mediterranean is swimming in huge untapped oil and gas reserves. That discovery is having enormous political, geopolitical as well as economic consequences. It well may have potential military consequences too. Tulane University oil expert David Hynes told an audience in Athens recently that Greece could potentially solve its entire public debt crisis through development of its new-found gas and oil. He conservatively estimates that exploitation of the reserves already discovered could bring the country more than €302 billion over 25 years. –F. William Engdahl, Global Research, 3 March 2012

    I would expect the figures to be revenue, not tax receipts, as some politicians expect!

  279. Ostrich (occasionally) – 23:25 ‘knuckleheads etc etc etc!’

    But in the mean time fuel costs will increase, the ‘poor’ will need to be subsidised, and it is going to be f***ing cold for the rest of us!

    Futures in wooly jumpers will hit an all time high and knitting classes will be swamped.

    When the power cuts arrive, computer networks will be hit, electrically controlled gas central heating will fail, chickens will be half cooked, bread will be half baked, industry will move else where, to where fuel is cheaper or the weather is warmer!

    I hear that there are a lot of empty houses in Spain, where it is warm for much of the year!

  280. Anne Wotana Kaye 1 @ – 21:14

    This planting of unannounced Labour activists is a regular thing. That unlearned harridan has transported herself from Eastleigh to Dover. In a similar example of geographical relocation I recall about 4 years back a QT broadcast from Reading where a Labour party councillor from East London based at Leytonstone in Waltham Forest called Naz Sarkar was in the audience. That is not an easy journey but is explained by by Mr S’s aim at the time to be the Labour party candidate there. Someone or some cabal in the QT production team seems to be acting as a promotional facilitator for Labour party candidates.

    It would be impossible to look further into this phenomenon as the BBC has a catch all exemption from FoI requests on issues like this. And LibLabCon have absolutley no interested in rocking the BBC boat allegedly governed by a Charter requiring balance.

    Pfm quite rightly doesn’t want a lot of swearing on this blog, so I will rtestrict myslef to w*** a bunch o* f****** criminal c****

  282. just in case it’s removed from the Spec….
    or,

    Knock Knock

    Whose there?

    The Lib Dems.

    Oh.. is that them with the leader who is going to get one of his best cabinet ministers sent to jail and another senior member has been harassing female party members and who was pictured this week with another junior minister who was done for siphoning public funds to his gay lover in the guise of rent and who therefore have an appalling ratio of honest/dishonest parliamentarians?

    Aye – that’s us

    ..and who have an ex-leader whose drink problems cover somewhat deeper issues?

    YES!! I said.. that’s us

  285. Herbert Thornton

    And the more urgent question: how can we get our politicians to take these questions seriously and to discuss them freely and openly?

  286. One of the happiest videos I’ve ever seen … “Flashdance” at a hospital in Israel. A bunch of classical musicians just walk into a hospital and set up in the lobby and play … they are wonderful and a crowd gathers and, at the end, one couple starts dancing. It is wonderful. (AWK, please note, it’s in Israel.)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzwWskM4hN8

  287. Malfleur (11 March 01:19) –

    Unfortunately I think there’s an even more fundamental question than the one you posed. I say that because I don’t believe that there’s any possibility at all of our getting the current members of Parliament to put their minds to those things. Even if someone emerges from among them who has the far-sightedness and grasp of reality of an Enoch Powell, he will be treated in just the same way – as an outcast.

    The really fundamental question (I think) is – what will it take to persuade the electorate to face these questions and to vote for politicians who do have the qualities Britain needs?

    I don’t like to forecast this, but I believe that the electorate will not realise what is happening until events like the one I drew attention to (11 March 01:02) start to happen with increasing frequency in Britain.

    Sadly, the situation will then have become very grave indeed. Our fear should be that it will fester into a second civil war. What the outcome of that would be I’d rather not speculate about.

  288. Verity
    March 11th, 2013 – 04:03
    Dear Verity,
    Many, many thanks! Just climbed unwillingly out of bed, shivering as winter has returned. This truly wonderful video has made this grumpy woman smile. I feel I must stretch out my arms and dance too. 😉

  289. That philpott is a sexy guy. You can understand what a catch he would be for a young woman !

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