threegee

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!

Cast your mind back to 1st January 2014 and those two Labour MPs standing at the airport to meet and greet the single Romanian "car washer" on the first flight in. A great PR stunt by Labour, but in the context of what has happened since the joke is on them, not on the people who accurately predicted a migrancy crisis, and were the subject of the mockery. There's some good jokes to be had about Turkey right now, but for some strange reason the left is no longer keen on striking at the empty goal.

Easy to see why she never uses her married name - far too adjectival! Anyway, conclusive proof that the good people of Morley must have far higher IQs than Pontefract folk. But... oh dear... that's somewhere us Wansbeck people shouldn't be venturing - just yet!

Here's a balanced explanation of why big business backs Remain, and most small to medium sided business doesn't, from a city economist who has no particular axe to grind either way. Five minutes reading this will likely be more illuminating than many hours of TV "debate". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/03/06/exactly-why-is-big-business-so-in-favourof-the-eu/ For those who have an aversion to links: the takeaway points are that the EU depresses wages, a fact already blurted out by Remain campaign boss Stuart Rose in one of his too-honest-for-his-own-campaign moments. Also, that the drop in Sterling is a blessing in disguise, and that it's what Dave's puppet, BoE Governor Mark Carney, should be trying to achieve - if only he wasn't so busy dancing to Dave's tune and issuing all sorts of idiotic warnings. Carney been wildly wrong in just about every other calculation so far, so has now set himself on course for an entirely unbroken record. All we need now is a rational explanation of why comrade Corbyn backs policies that indisputably force the wages of UK workers down. All his passionate speeches against the EU have recently been expunged from his website. I'm not going to waste anyone's time speculating precisely why, but feel free to offer your own explanation.

Of course, but that doesn't preclude an element of truth, and it's in the best tradition of Jewish humour. On the flipside the stoical denial of creeping Islamification - being equally absurd - also has an element of humour.

I think that once you are prepared to tolerate people losing their jobs for what they believe in you are creating a sick society. The left is very quick to point out intolerance in others but is always prepared to turn a blind eye whenever "the ends justify the means". Therein lies Stalinism. If you can't make your case by argument and have to resort to intrigue then you most probably have no case. Cameron has no case, and the same is now true for Corbyn - but just at the moment Corbyn is keeping very quiet and letting Cameron and his big business cronies do Labour's dirty work. It's dirty work because what they are all about is against the interests of the people who put them where they are, and is predicated on lies. You asked!

A year might not be deliverable Eggy! GERMANY BANS SAUSAGES: Pork banned in cafes and schools to 'not offend refugees'

The plot thickens! There's an "interesting" transcript of a phone call to Dave's lair on the Torygraph site. Thing is this is just one of very many favours Dave has been calling in in his increasing desperation. If the truth were known about what was being said (well, not actually said, these things are hinted at) the resulting scandal would shine so powerful a light on how this country is really run that calls for constitutional change would become deafening.

Hadn't you noticed Maggie? It's no longer about a "State of War between the parties" it's a State of War within the parties. It's a war between the Internationalist Elites with their hands on all the levers of power, propaganda and misinformation, and the Proles! Read the prophet of these sad times, George Orwell. Whoops, I feel a link coming on! No no, I'm resisting.... At the current time you can throw in fear, "uncertainty", and doubt (of our country's abilities and place in the world) as tools of that control.

It's looking like this is going to badly backfire on the do-anything claim-anything Eurofanatics! Longworth wasn't exactly a strong outer, but he's now concluded that it's the only way. Politico-speak: BoJo isn't sad about it at all. But the gifts to the OUT campaign just keep on coming. Every time IN campaign chairman Rose opens his mouth there's a gift too - Remain needs to replace him or completely gag him!

Ah, yes, it all comes back to me now. Queen Elizabeth fancied an Indian takeaway so Walt thought he'd try out a new short cut by going the other way around. He sailed up to Manhattan, and the silly fellow thought he'd arrived in India. When they inexplicably refused his credit card he had to trade beads for those strange looking chapatis and papadums. Without proper spices, well of course it would all be inedible when he got back! Easy to appreciate why she threw her glass of Coke over him; even the corgis turned their noses up at the stuff! Thus (without the royal endorsement) pizza took a good while to catch on. History is so interesting I don't know why they no longer do the real thing in schools these days.