threegee

In Bedlington no one gets a statue except for laying a sewer - and even then they sideline it!

I'm not the near sole beneficiary of a government tax; I don't have a statutory obligation to be impartial; I'm not a former state monopoly, and I don't pretend to be politically neutral. The real problem with the BBC is that it's totally lost in an increasingly commercial world. The extent to which they are lost is vividly illustrated by Lord Hall's current moan that "We can't win against deep pockets of Netflix". Has Lord Hall even considered that the BBC shouldn't ever be in the same market as Netflix? How about "Nation shall deliver Hollywood movies unto nation." Lord Hall?

No, I'm not talking about the EU, I'm talking about the BBC's undertaking to be good during the referendum campaign, and give fair voice to both sides. This time it's not the "Fruitcakes and Swivel-eyed Loonies" complaining, it's Labour Grassroots Out. Well, what took you so long to notice Kate, Ronnie, etc?! It's entirely unhealthy to have our publicly funded state broadcaster using a minority interest, dwindling circulation, left-of-center, newspaper as a recruitment ground, and manual for its political direction. When the BBC starts spreading its recruitment advertising revenue across the entire press spectrum we'll of have a positive indication that the British public can consider holding the BBC in the universal respect it once earned. Just at the moment, it remains the mouthpiece of an unholy alliance of Blairite socialist and international big-business interests, and has little right to use the British moniker. A declaration that it will not accept any more money laundered through the EU graft machine would also go a long way to restoring confidence.

You can sum that up in one word: post-democracy. And, all the above is designed to make the EU as obscure as possible, so that even those who try to understand what is going on simply give up, and delegate the whole thing to the elites, who - it almost goes without saying - are ...ahem... always looking after our best interests and not their own. They were able to get this far by stealth, downright lies, and salami-slicing at our democracy. But, the main strategy is exploiting the generation gap by presenting their post-democracy to newer generations as the status quo; desirable, and inevitable. Older folk know a Europe without the EU, and it was a Europe that was heading toward a genuinely competitive cooperation and friendship with EFTA, and under the NATO security umbrella. A Europe that had learned that one nation should not be permitted to dominate, and that we should keep out of each other's politics. We had no desire to replicate the top-down diktat driven Soviet Union, but this is exactly where we are now arriving at by stealth. EFTA is still there, due to the tenacity of level-headed Europeans who and still waiting for us to rejoin, and once again lead it as a genuine free trade area, not a politically driven cartel pandering to international corporations, and depressing wages by moving people around to remove the bargaining power of local peoples. The elites won't even mention EFTA, because they want no alternative to their post-democracy ever considered. When you mention EFTA they laugh and say it is small beer and doesn't suit a nation with so large an economy as ours (the 5th largest in the world), but the very same people will denigrate that large economy when you suggest we can once again stand on our own feet in the world. All paths lead to the EU, and the solution to an obviously failing EU is more EU - just like the solution to the failing Soviet Union was always one more push to reach nirvana. Like the Soviet Union the EU will collapse under the weight of its own economic and political drag, but likely not before a lot of blood has been shed. If we are dumb enough to stay in, then, at best it will be an entirely wasted generation until a generation comes along that has more sense than this one. A clean break now will not only be good for us, but it will be good for the rest of Europe, as it will set the example they desperately need. That's not something I just made up, I can see this first hand where I live, and believe me when I say they've had quite enough of the EU too!

http://www.saynotoeu.com/live?utm_campaign=stream_bath&utm_medium=email&utm_source=ukip From right in the heart of Torydom, and not a single murmur of support for Call-Me-Dave. If you watch nothing else the bit about the EU Tampon Tax @25:10 is worth a giggle!

...search a desk for forgotten items?

Here's some more political sleight of hand: You know that much vaunted Budget Responsibility and National Audit Act 2011 and how we were going to be totally financially responsible from now on? Well, goodness, no one ever told us that the Chancellor is allowed to abandon it because of "lower than expected growth", did they? And... at its first real test, guess what?! This is the Tory analogue of Gordon Brown's entirely unforeseen "global problem". But, at least Gordon didn't waste acres of bureaucrat, lawyer, and parliamentary time setting up his pretence. No, Gordon was simply an economics lecturer from a second-rate polytechnic practising self-delusion; this lot are posh boys playing games with the future of our Country.

With great power comes great responsibility! (It's only in a backup set, and the time to retrieve it would be quite significant, and likely best applied to other improvements. But... it's not much of a job to take a snapshot of the backup set to stop it being automatically overwritten in a few days.)

The tickets for the Circus and that bread is on a credit card that we'll never be able to repay. What's more (and unlike an actual credit card) the final bill with accumulated interest and other charges will be presented to our grandchildren and their children to pay. Visit Malcolm's link, if you dare, to see the size of the demand today! Enjoy your circus, but appreciate that when someone reads your posts a generation or two hence (and advanced search technology will ensure that they are easily found) they aren't going to go down too well. Blaming other people (the Labour way) will not contribute a penny to the bill, and this Tory government is actually no better because it is playing Tony Blair / Gordon Brown's game from only a slightly different angle. Tiny Norway has shown us the way to put our affairs in order and neuter our politicos. We need to take a few lessons from those very wise people and - for a very good start - tell the EU apparatchiks to get out of our hair (and our fishing grounds). That's not "isolationism", it's squarely facing up to world markets, and not trying to hide under the skirts of a doomed cartel. Come on UK, and wake up England!

The thing is due to leaks everyone now knows that he was about to make a massive attack on pensions. He was persuaded that this would not be a good idea before the referendum, so we know this isn't really a full budget. Once again politics is being put before the national interest, and the public are being treated as fools. Supposing you were shareholders in a company and two posh boys from Eaton turned up and said we apply for the jobs of MD & Finance Director. You ask them what business experience they have had, and they say oh, that's all old thinking, we've never had one of those business job things, but we've both done this great uni course on politics and economics, and so we know it all. Besides, we know loads of people on the same course, and there's our other posh school friends too, who we'll place in all the key company positions. It will all work out fine, and we'll all have a absolutely ripping time - you can take our word for that. Then, for lack of real and experienced applicants, the other shareholders appoint them to run the company. The only sane thing to do would be to ring a broker and tell him to sell all your shares as fast as possible and for anything he can get! Is it any wonder that Donald Trump is now getting huge support, and US voters are rejecting candidates approved of by the Republican Party? If a party here were to select any business leader with a decent track record they'd get elected by a landslide. They wouldn't of course, because he'd ignore all their pet theories, would refuse to appoint any of their chummies, and all that party's political hacks and hangers-on would get the sack.

Unfortunately a lot of the jokes are at the expense of important people of the time now semi-forgotten like Eamonn Andrews (not Archie!), and it's hard to convey just how formal and respectful things were in those days. Of course RTH went too far, and had to be reigned in when they started to lampoon non-entertainment figures. Those were the days when you didn't ask politicians awkward questions even though you knew exactly what those awkward questions were. Everyone "knew their place" and the boundaries - as epitomised by the TWTWTW class sketch.

You may not have followed Round the Horne then! It's just that the innuendo in those days went right over way the heads of the sfuffed-shirt establishment and was so much more hilarious for this! Those in the establishment who did get it - clearly not Mary Whitehouse - had the good sense to keep their mouths shut. In fact it was so cutting edge that you got gems like this: Try that sort of thing in these PC days you luvvies; especially if you are one of those threatened with prison (Kenneth Williams)! Fanny was brilliantly lampooned by the late great Betty Marsden (as Fanny Haddock), at a time women weren't supposed to do that sort of thing. This has recently been revived by Kate Brown in Round the Horn Revisited - a must-see for anyone that believes their more recent generation invented satire. ...and, yes, I do realise the irony in your post!

Some sleight of hand worthy of Gordo here. Once again he's wildly missed his debt targets. So, to make the books balance, he's moved £8BN of cuts forward into the next parliament. You only get to know this if you read the small print - no mention in the speech. This is rather like saying my company is insolvent, but it's OK because the next management will be making a huge profit to cover all my astonishing book losses - honest gov!

Interesting letter in the Torygraph: The answer, of course, was provided by the two defecting Tory MPs at the last election, and by many other senior Tories off the record: he was lying in his teeth then, and the lies are becoming ever more desperate.

Thank you for saying this so well Michael! Did I notice Ross Kemp lining-up for his gong by hyping Dave's miserable "reform deal"? And, Emma: if you don't like this "tiny cake-filled misery-laden island" why are you still taking its money? Try asking Jane Fonda what happens to actress' careers when luvvies come to think they are too big for their country and go meddling in politics! Just because you are good at mimicking people and delivering other's words, doesn't mean your own shallow thought process are worth anything.

It wouldn't matter too much if the tax from on-line transactions went straight back into the community from where the business comes from. If you'd set out to design a system which impoverished the areas which really need encouragement you couldn't have done a better job than our early 20th century system! There's no incentive for the establishment parties to do anything about it because of huge vested interest - in fact if the EU'ers get TTIP through things will become even worse. What's needed is an administration who can set a lead in free trade, and not be constantly caught out by change. Like in the US, sales taxes should go back to the region, and there should be some flexibility for local people to set the rate. We could go even further than the US though and put sales taxes into the very hands of the communities it comes from, right at a town level. This is not at all impractical these days, but vested interest will try to dismiss it on faux impracticability grounds. I've an idea which makes tax on all on-line purchases available to local communities as well as locally provided goods and services. Not only is this very practical in the Internet age, but it could add in locally controlled services which are of real value to local people, and provide some extra local employment. It would be an opt-in scheme where things would continue as before if a community chose not to go there, but the benefits of adopting it would mark out the sheep from the goats. The effect of the scheme would be regenerative too as the places that adopted it would undoubtedly see much more local enterprise. We should be using the information age to redress regional wealth differences, but what's now happening is that it's tending to enhance them. Maybe the town that launched the World's first universal postal service could set a lead?

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/119328 As Boris says: Americans wouldn't accept EU restrictions – so why should we?

Back to the subject of this thread. NIGHTMARE for Merkel: Leader humiliated as Germany sends a crushing message in polls

Haven't we had to stomach enough political projects parcelled up as commercially viable when they're clearly not? HS2 is following the well worn path of government promoted schemes which never deliver, and end up being an expensive national embarrassment. Time to cancel it before it becomes a huge burden to the taxpayer. If we are to do it with taxpayers money then we should be honest and recognise that it is a political project, start construction from an ill-served area of the country, or perhaps as a high speed connection between our two capital cities. Joining Edinburgh and Newcastle as an initial stage would be far less costly, and all the technical problems would be discovered before they become really burdensome and disruptive. Grand gesture politics should start with low-risk grand gestures, and not with deceptions.

And, one of the biggest of Dave's lies of omission is his doctored immigration figures:

Dave's grasp of British history:

Now that all rational argument has failed, Dave's sole strategy to bind us irrevocably to the evil empire seem to be to get as many "celebrity endorsements" as he can muster. This involves using all the levers of power to pressure the pressurable (that's easily 90% of the establishment sell-outs), and adding a sprinkling of names who've never even consented for luck. That voters can think for themselves and no longer need the elites to tell them what they must do, doesn't factor in his calculations. It is after all a numbers game, and his Oxford PPE course had that well covered. Come on - wasn't too big a lie I told for Dave! Boris didn't do PPE. Though he rubbed shoulders with Dave at Oxford he's a classics scholar. He can think a couple of moves ahead of Dave and proved that at Oxford where Dave was an also-ran. The buffoonery is all assumed - something that Guardianistas simply can't get their heads around - and he does not go in for spin. When the facts don't suit his argument Boris is sensible enough to keep his mouth shut; offer a distraction; or gently shape his argument more toward fact. In a word, he's a pragmatist against Dave's well earned "Flashman" moniker. Boris knows about patriotism, Dave has no sense of Country, little appreciation of history, and is clueless about how ordinary citizens feel. There is very little ground between Duplicitous Dave and Teflon Tony - they are essentially mirror images. Why do I offer the above insights? It's because someone rubbished an earlier statement that Boris would make an infinitely better PM than Dave. Once again I'd stress that I'm not a Boris supporter, but I am pragmatist too, and it's the art of the possible folks! Anyone who disagrees must offer an alternative leader who can nominally unite our country, and looking at the present crowd they are going to struggle badly there. In the mean time We Want Our Country Back, so the choice between someone who is perfectly happy to give it away to a historic enemy that has got every big decision in history terribly wrong, and someone who has some sense of history and his feet firmly planted on the ground is a total no-brainer.

Working now. I think it was killed by a software update.

It's around about this time the camera connection was scheduled to be transferred away from BT to ANOTHER. I will enquire. BT wouldn't provide a fixed IP without a ridiculous surcharge.

Well... I'm now outed - but It's her brain Malc, not her body. When she's had the operation to connect it to her mouth you'll be sorry!