threegee

There's a faint Spanish influence in the mainland, but not i think as much as in Sicily; you'd do better with Greek here. They sort of like the Spanish and refer to them as our Spanish cousins, but Spaniards don't seem that keen on visiting. So, it would be reasonable to assume that your Spanish might do a bit better there, in some places at least. The French aren't desperately liked here - one wonders why! With Germans there's more ambivalence, but in parts of Northern Italy they really can't make their mind up if the are German/Austrian or Italian, so that's sort of understandable. I could do you a pamphlet about "The English", but in private it is generally confided that "The English: they drink too much!" - so, please don't reinforce the stereotype, unless you can pass for Scandinavian!

Been?!! We'll yes I have, but it has changed a tiny bit since. I'm still waiting for the Messina Bridge (local joke)! Just at the moment it's pretty warm (for Northern Europeans) in the Southern Med but the temperatures fall fairly rapidly after sunset when the skies are clear - which is mostly. Take something warmer for night time. The real ramp up in temperatures isn't really until late'ish June. The winter has been far far wetter than average so things look a lot greener to a local eye than usual, but the farmers like this a lot. First crop of the year of citrus is doing nicely (there are two growing seasons for a lot of things and even the cacti can struggle in August). I hope you like seafood! If not you'll get by nicely providing you make this very clear: "niente mare". The town you are staying in will warn you that theirs is the only one not run by the Mafia, you should smile and thank them because all towns actually believe this, and believe the worst about their neighbours. They do not speak Italian in the South so it's pretty pointless trying to learn anything but the basics from locals. English will do just fine unless you are addressing someone over 40 or not in trade or authority. Never ask "Parla Inglese" though as the answer will almost always be a frightened stare (it's standing up in class time all over again) or a non; just speak very slowly; they may respond in dialect but they will generally understand you or have enough English to say what they don't understand. Failing that it's generally phone a friend time (for them)! Don't forget to bring plenty of your visiting cards to hand out to (illegal) immigranti. It's now a lucrative industry because Merkelville is paying generous allowances - with UK money! Privately locals will tell you their deep worries, and that they've never seen anything like it in scale; publicly they've been bought-off, for now. And, whilst you are there you'll notice something else. It may not hit you in the face but it becomes evident to any travelled sentient person. I'm talking about the huge deficit of children and younger people generally. In large part the EU and the Euro has done this; unless you have really good "connections" it's impossible for anyone to get work. The only option is to leave for the North, and up there it's not too much better these days. So, let's all hold hands and make Europe a better place - for Germans! https://www.walksofitaly.com/blog/sicily/sicilian-cuisine-cannoli-arancini

Yes, we know! It's due to today's software/security update having killed our indexes. They will rebuild automatically, so don't panic.

Boris on UK Steel: Pity the Port Talbot workers – their country is powerless to help them

It has been suggested that Tata doesn't actually want to sell Port Talbot, but wants it to fold. Why would this be? Well... sold, it would offer competition to its other plants, and quite amazingly it is in negotiations to actually buy German steel provider Thyssen. So much for Tata being a friend of the UK! One thing is very clear though, EU Dave is only offering platitudes, and is quite content to see a closure. To the posh-boys-playing-games it's just a temporary embarrassment, and nothing must get in the way of Dave's spell as Chairman of the EU Council of Ministers next year. Even if he loses the referendum he intends to hang on in there for his EU pension and perks. He's never held down a real job in his entire life; can't relate to industry, let alone working people, and has absolutely no sense of country. He thinks life entirely revolves around spin and presentation. There are dozens of competent people in the Tory party, yet they have to foist off this Etonian prat onto us! To top it all, there's now panic setting in that he's left the Falklands completely unprotected. Time to remove the two tinkering posh boys Tory Party - before the electorate does it for you.

Ah "Funny French": French plumbing, and lifts that you can only go up in - yes, I remember it well. I knew that Hong Kong used our 13A but I never realised how many other countries adopted them: To that you can add countries - like South Africa - that still use our old British Standard round pin plugs. That was in the days when we looked outward and led the world in innovation (and democracy). A tragedy our kids are never taught this, to apologise for the past, and are fed all this inward-looking EU bilge.

Yup, it's a smaller 5A one - I thought the prongs looked far too small to be the 15/13A size. And, with a fuse in it, then it's a Wylex 5A side-entry ring-main plug. You'd be hard pressed to find one of those here even 60 years ago. The thought strikes me that if anyone bought a non-ring main one and used it on a ring main they could be in big trouble - unless there was a design difference to prevent that. That's something H & S would make a song and dance about these days, but in those days most people had a thing called common sense, and the very very few who didn't helped improve the gene pool. The horrible fuse-pin ones BUDC fitted were I think branded DS - probably. I've no idea what DS stood for. There must be lots of those still lying around Bedlington in sheds and attics.

Hmm.. looks like there may also have been 5A and even 2A variants of the Wylex, to match the normal round-pin (British Standard?) range that everyone of an age will remember. And top and side entry versions of every one too - a true collectors cornucopia! Never knew that, though chances are I've come across at least one other at some time! On this subject: how about our 13A plug being the envy of the world? Something to remember when you are cursing that they don't fit into the bag, box or suitcase. Though, there's likely some overpaid Eurocrat in Brussels drafting a directive to standardise us on German Shuko's as I write this. http://www.fastcodesign.com/3032807/why-england-has-the-best-wall-sockets-on-earth

It's known as a Wylex plug and they came in two types: ring main (13A) and non-ring main (15A). Looks like that's a "non" one (without a fuse). I think there were probably other manufacturers of the design, but that seems to be a genuine Wylex one. They're a collectors item, though not that rare - so don't throw it away. It would be interesting to know which local builder/electrician fitted them. The BUDC had a thing about those terrible fused pin ones which frequently fell to bits. Everybody was surely glad to see the back of those! They became ridiculously expensive, and the fused pins hard to get hold of, which brought on their rapid demise in the late 1960's. The Wylex design probably failed in the 1950's, or maybe just post-war.

Ah, yes, I think you've just identified your own problems: a logical space limit that only you with your larger uploads (and maybe an odd few others) were hitting. Well, good to see that this has been (inadvertently) fixed - the pain had a bit of gain.

I’m not really sure to which of my many previous, as yet unanswered, questions you refer. Please repeat the question. However, I’m quite happy to accommodate your trying again with the following. I agree, the answers are important and I’ve already responded to this part of your enquiry (see above). Your responses overlap mine which only results in confusion Go a little more slowly. And - if you don't get a reply on a particular thread then - bump that thread. No they were not suicide bombers and perhaps they didn’t use machine guns (I personally don’t know) but they did have other methods of killing and torturing innocent people (this I do personally know). So let’s call a spade a spade shall we. It is killing we are talking about not the methods used. Well, we are getting somewhere. The IRA used measured violence to create political pressure. They make mistakes, and admit to, even apologise for those mistakes. Their objective isn't the genocide of any people. Go tell that to anybody working in the casualty departments of the major hospitals at the time! Believe me, it was the not knowing that it was about to happen which caused the most disruption. Though I do remember one warning about a planned attack in London and when all resources were nicely concentrated in London they detonated a bomb in … Manchester, I believe it was. Didn’t greatly reduce the number of casualties that warning! And another warning issued 90 minutes before the bomb detonated. What good was that? How long do you think it takes to get a bomb squad in place? Once in place, how long does it take to find and defuse the bomb? That warning didn’t reduce the number of casualties either. No, I won't do that because it would be crass. If you saying that what we are facing through the scourge of Islam is in any way on a similar scale to our own past local difficulties you are totally deluded. The IRA, as far as my memory serves me, had one purpose – the reunification of Ireland. Good, and to do that they had to take all the people's of that Island with them. In their own way they saw this as possible. They weren't aiming for total world domination, and slaughter on a previously unimaginable scale. At some point in their agenda was an element of compromise, and their territorial ambitions were piffling. IS, to whom I think you refer when speaking of Islamic terrorism, would also appear to have only one purpose – the reunification of Islam, by establishing a new Islamic caliphate across the middle east. At least that’s how I’ve understood it. Perhaps you have understood something else? No its not just IS, that's a front. It's there in the Quaran, 97 times if I remember correctly, and it's world domination. Perhaps you have missed something? “Behind every IRA terrorist stood thousands on republicans from whom the terrorists were drawn, most of these people made no bones about their support- they sheltered the terrorists. Are you saying that this is an entirely different phenomenon here??” I’m not really sure what you mean here. I think that behind the IS terrorists there are supporters, maybe not thousands behind each one but supporters never the less. I haven’t seen anything in news reports or media which would make me believe that IS terrorists are not sheltered by their supporters. If you could clarify your question maybe I can give you a more substantial answer. I mean that the entire catholic community there was behind the IRA - some more and some less, but when it came to the crunch there would be no doubt as to exactly where they would all take their cue from - it was right there in the voting records. This "none of my business" doesn't wash with most people. Our country and entire continent need to hear a lot more than "none of my business" if we are to truly believe we don't now have a houseful of sleeping vipers. Anyone who follows the Quaran has to face up to issues that this raises; this is not OUR problem it is THEIR problem, and this needs to be made plain. The longer this is delayed the more the extremists will take encouragement from what they see as our terminal stupidity. Or, as The Guardian puts it: ..and, you know what? I think that in many cases they could be dead right!

Most of my harmless muslim friends didn’t choose to come to a (nominally Christian) Europe. They were born in Europe as were most of their harmless parents. Some of my muslim colleagues, also harmless, did choose to come to a (nominally Christian) Europe. They’d heard that Britain was a democracy that there were equal rights for men and women and that the Brits were a friendly race. So.. they continue to practise a belief set where there is anything but "equal rights for men and women", and set up courts which impose a law which is anything but democratically derived? For some of those who did come to Europe it was a case of any port in a storm. They fled from war and oppression and were placed in Europe as refugees. They didn’t ask to come to Europe. They only asked to be taken to a place of safety. There goes that some again! And did they really? The compass has eight principal directions and Europe is only one, and are you sure that it wasn't them actually doing the persecution (of Christians). Why can't the oil-rich Muslin nations do something for them - they have the space, they have the money, and Arab hospitality is legendary. And, why don't the persecuted Christians in those regions come here in volume? They choose to stick it out for better times - well those who have survived Islamic persecution. Yes, some of them are brilliant: the ones who have confronted the scourge of Islam. http://ex-muslim.org.uk/ Some of them were fleeing from Islamic fundamentalists who were deemed, by the majority of harmless muslims, to be anything but harmless. They couldn’t, and still don’t, accept the fundamentalist interpretation of the holy book. Much the same way as I (and I suspect you) don't accept the Jehovah's Witness interpretation of the Christian holy book. I can see exactly where Jehovah's Witness are coming from, and I haven't noticed them ghettoising in our cities or altering or architecture, or setting up a parallel justice system, or any terrorist acts in the name of Christ. In fact I'm open to persuasion on this Armageddon thing of theirs; maybe Armageddon starts around Dabiq? A couple of them came because they were invited by the British Government in 1947. Now there’s a surprise! A couple of them was never a problem. In fact 30,000 immigrants per year wasn't too much of a problem. This is twenty times that and more, and it threatens our culture. And, on this score, I'm not even singling out the scourge of Islam: these levels of immigration are truly crazy! In all cases they, like me, couldn’t give a jot about what religion other people have. They, like me, know that everybody in Britain has the right to choose and follow their own belief. The law says so. Which law would you be talking about there? We aren't talking about a religion as we've come to know religion; we are talking about a medieval belief set that doesn't broker any dissent. http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1023001/pg1 Even culture hasn’t been a problem. They accept us as we are – warts and all. They respect our culture and, like me and most other immigrants, they adopt those bits of it which suit and stay away from those bits that don’t. The key words there are "hasn't been".. well if you ignore the few minor misunderstandings like Brussels. So they are going to stop building shining monstrosities in our cities and do what other religions do? That's great, and it's really nice that they accept us in our own country! Supplementary questions: Why did you choose to go to a (predominantly) Catholic Italy? What is so special about Italy to you that you had to go to such trouble and expense compared with settling in one of the other countries who share your religious beliefs, closer to where you come from and with a similar climate/culture? (I’m thinking first and foremost of Northern Ireland but I could stretch it to Byker or Blagdon). This is easy, and in fact I get asked this all the time! And, as far as I know, no one has been arrested for asking me. It's the climate, the food, and the health aspects. But underlying this is the fact that I can relate to the locals Romano-Judaic belief set. I'm not a churchgoer (and neither are many here), but if the community were in any way threatened I'd be there in a local church showing my support, and indeed I do modestly help the local church charities. Of course the reverse question is also valid: why would anyone want to move to the UK climate if it wasn't on purely economic grounds, as there are those other points-of-the-compass? Why make a tiny crowded island any more crowded? Our own civilisation broke out of here for more living space, and generally did rather well by that.

The answer (from a random hijab in the street) has already been supplied to the man who ended up being arrested for asking the question. The answer is a standard "nothing to do with me". Technically and legally it's a faultless answer, because it is all to do with my mindset and the people I slavishly obey (including my father/husband). It's perfectly managed duplicity! Mosque leader who condemned Brussels attacks sent messages calling extremist ‘true Muslim’ Duplicitous Dave - who is off on a solo trip to Lanzarotte (after heading up a publicity campaign urging us proles to holiday in flood-torn Northern England) has gone for some thinking time, away from the family and the unprecedented revolt in his party - must be eating his heart out at how easily it comes to the religion of peace. Odds on that George had better watch his back, as Dave has a long record of throwing his friends to the wolves in a most un-eatonian fashion.

I regularly failed my English Language because I spent a lot of time standing in the corridor having been thrown out of class. Though, what really gutted the English master was that I was the only one in the form who got anywhere near top marks in GCE Literature without turning in any class (or homework) that he in any way rated. I think he thought I must have had pre-exam tuition, but the reality was I actually enjoyed many of the set books and studied them in MY way; whereas the rest of the kids looked on them as a chore - because he was such a p'poor teacher, and taught by prescription and wrote! I will skip the first question because you've worn me down, and I'm not prepared to wade through the above to examine the possibility of my quoting you out of context. BUT - in true Paxo fashion - I'm going to try again on: Now, the answers to these questions are actually important, so let's skip the obfuscation this time. And, if I've failed to answer any of your questions on other threads, then simply link me to the tread and I will answer there - no more waiting! And... the Sky link (which certainly doesn't look like a load of rubbish): http://news.sky.com/story/1656777/is-documents-identify-thousands-of-jihadis

OK thanks for the extensive syntactical analysis, but how about expending a lot lot less time in actually answering my questions - thus not massively obfuscating. This tiny majority of radicalised Muslims of yours now seems to be in the tens of thousands (Sky is claiming to have received a USB stick with the detailed ISIL database. It's understandable why Sky should come up with this intelligence as Europol is currently far too busy trying to sell the mythical security benefits of being in the EU to actually do anything positive, or indeed even read the warning about the named individual Turkey sent). Of course this database doesn't include the up-and-coming ones, like those school classes cheering at news of the Brussels slaughter - they haven't been cheering in your classes, I hope? Funny that the guy who tweeted this observation was visited by the police and told to keep his mouth shut; I wonder what the authorities were fearing?!

Worth a mention I think, as it illustrates that our antipodean cousins are just as unimpressed by the so-called "progressive" politicos they elected as many of us are ours. Making a statement with your nation's symbol should be approached with great caution, as it's a bit permanent (unless you relish spectacular and damaging climb-downs), and may not quite make the statement you intended. The referendum angle on this is that we could view it as an invitation to renew traditional ties. Now that WOULD be a really nice 90th birthday present for Her Mag - but, I suspect, not so valued a present as a decisive OUT vote.

Oh, I think they are! There's a lot of "Ad Hominen" stuff going the rounds at the moment because the Remain side have very transparent arguments. We don't have a resident troll here, so it's a bit disappointing to find that you aren't actually one. Being the world language has its price, but we've always been proud of raiding other languages; so why is a tiny bit of help from our transatlantic cousins that bad? Maybe you should start your own thread on this? I don't like certain Victorianisms, but maybe that's because they are German. The "end of" was a logical end of, not a grammatical or textual one, and certainly not an attempt to shut down debate. It would have taken a whole sentence to convey another way, and I'm a lazy typist. Sorry if this upset you.

Question to CL: If the things like clothing and religion are "silly and subjective" then why are they such an enormously big deal to Muslims? Supplementary questions: Why did your harmless Muslim friends choose to come to a (nominally Christian) Europe? What is so special about Europe to them that they had to go to such trouble and expense compared with settling in one of the many Muslim countries closer to where they came and with a similar climate/culture? You mention the IRA, though the IRA were not suicide bombers and generally warned about bombs in order to create maximum disruption and reduce casualties, and certainly didn't machine gun innocent people. The IRA had a clearly stated purpose to their bombing (a point at which they were pledged to stop) and were operating on "home territory"; what is the clearly stated purpose of Islamic terrorism on "away" territory? Behind every IRA terrorist stood thousands on republicans from whom the terrorists were drawn, most of these people made no bones about their support - they sheltered the terrorists. Are you telling us that this is an entirely different phenomenon here?

It gets worse than that moe! Croydon man arrested after confronting Muslim woman and telling her to 'explain Brussels' Some of the current slanted BBC output makes my blood boil, but just occasional they lose control, and it can get interesting - like tonight's Moral Maze where they took a really unexpected broadside!

My point is made by saying that he won't mention his father-in-law. Please tell me how I'm meant to put that argument without mention of said father-in-law, and why I'd need to obfuscate anyway? There are many skeleton's in Juckner's cupboard, but I'm not going to repeat them here as if you are interested enough you can research them for yourself. He's an archetypal eurocrat who couldn't run a successful whelk stall, and matters don't end there, yet he wants to tell us how to run our country. Yes, I find your frequent pernicktyness irritating too, happy? No one forces you to debate here, but when you lapse into personal attacks - as you so often do - then it tends to indicate that you've lost the argument. This is sad because you do sometimes make a good on-topic point, and your contributions are valued.

The marriage was a personal choice, and we tend to group with like-minded people, but actually you entirely miss the point. I'm not saying he is necessarily tainted by his relations, I'm saying that his refusal to come clean on the matter raises very serious issues. This is a man who is bidding to control the armed forces of a newly created superstate, not someone who is applying for a licence to run a hot dog stand! The rest of this discussion is starting to sound like Mr Corbyn wanting to have a cup of tea with Islamic State to sort out the tiny few misunderstandings. Always amazing how the bleeding heart left is so ready to label and condemn ideologies that they don't accept should have any place in the world, but so ready to make excuses for fashion-of-the-decade ones. We are seeing this moral wrong-headedness today in an underlying anti-Semitism in the Labour Party. CL, the Quaran is entirely incompatible with the modern world - end of! Saying that it is a matter of shade or interpretation is hokum. It's not a story book from a bygone age to be interpreted to provide moral guidance like The Bible, it's a manual for life and it does not accept that there can be any other view. It repeatedly urges followers to violence to enforce this. That there are two sects that are slaughtering each other - to most reasonable people - would tend to show the inherent intolerance, and not offer a good Muslim bad Muslim dichotomy.

A good question. Try though we may we are all part of our history. I will avoid quoting the Bible, but we are all part of our genetic and cultural make-up. To deny this is to deny our very existence. Juncker needs to fully fess up to the deeds of his forebears and associates not try to conceal them. I'm not talking about the current fad for apologising, grovelling, rewriting history, and reparations/restitution as evidenced in the current Cambridge student lunacy. I'm talking about simple intellectual honesty, and placing things in historic context. If Junker won't acknowledge his Nazi heritage then he's not a rounded human, and can't be trusted in any position of power.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/654528/Terrorism-fears-after-explosion-Brussels-airport I think Mrs threegee is in for an interesting flight tomorrow. If the estimates of the number of terrorist already in Europe are only partly correct we are in for terrible times. These times won't be over until Germany comes to its senses and stops being controlled by Frau Merkel's massive guilt complex. The recent elections offered some hope here, but one has to wonder about Frauke Petry too, she certainly frightens the German left. If we really had any of that mythical influence stuff in Brussels we'd be putting our foot down about issuing fast track visas to 77 million Turkish Muslims as part of Turkey's blackmail deal. But - like everything else EU - Dave is going along with it. And, as for Dave's worthless promise that UK funds wouldn't be used: well... £500M of our money says he lied again!

Last year Herr Juncker (the guy who refuses to discuss what his father-in-law did in the war) called for an EU Army so's he could have a pop at Vladimir. Our politicos assured us that no such force was being contemplated and that the UK would resist any such calls (yes, we have so much of that mythical influence stuff in Brussels). But, um... hang on, what's this? Mali hotel attack: Gunmen 'storm EU military training base in Bamako' So, there are six hundred besieged EU military personnel in Mali? Well, Herr Junker better send some more then; a thousand. maybe two thousand! But, hang on again, the EU doesn't have an army, how could this even be possible? In the wonderfully democratic EU our representatives must have had a vote on this, no?! Our own PM was stymied in his military ambitions quite recently by democratic process, so how could something like this be being done in our name, and without our knowledge? A cynic might claim that this is the usual salami-slicing EU commission tactics at work here, and before we know it we'll be considered to have agreed to a military force - one only answerable to Brussels - on British soil. But, sleep soundly in your beds my friends as there's no way we could unwittingly be dragged into a nuclear war with Russia over matters (like Ukraine) which are none of our concern. That's because no government of ours would allow Herr Juncker control of OUR nuclear weapons - would they?! I'm sure we have Dave's cast iron promise on this one too, call-me-Dave's not at all like that other lying PM we had: "remote and unmanageable workings of the Community" - whatever could those anonymous civil servants have meant all those years ago?

Tony, sadly you never seem to read what is written: I don't support Boris, and I'm not even a Tory voter. But at least he's one of a select group of establishment politicos who aren't actually trying to sell their country to The Fourth Reich, or to completely Islamise it. He's by far the least of the current evils from establishment parties - the sort you blindly support! I'm not in Bedlington, but where I am I can tell you that there are a lot more on the way to you, and it's not just Syria, it's most of Africa and the Middle East. Most of them are decent people who are only trying to better themselves and their families, but a significant proportion of them spell major trouble for Europe. Whatever they are, our small island can't even cope right now. The numbers are ever growing, and our own rulers are clueless and naive. Send me some visiting cards and I will hand them out for you. Enjoy the future: it has magnificent minarets, and women are hardly even second class citizens! Give my regards to comrade Len, and tell him that if he manages to stay awake at the next LPC he might discover that he supports the entirely the wrong party to further the interests of his members and his country.