Any relation to Mrs Todd who had the wet fish shop on Front Street West until the mid/late 1960's?  Pretty much the left hand side of where the TSB is today.

Thanks for the compliment Merk, even if it was a tad backhanded!

It would have sparked mass civil disobedience. The targets would have been obvious, and included the political classes.  There's a very good chance that the military would have become involved, and it wouldn't have been on the side of the politicos.  We've been a lot closer to a military takeover in our lifetimes than a lot of people would care to admit.  As the revolution would have been on behalf of the monarchy and country, the Queen would have had no alternative but to suspend parliament and (after lots of consultation) appoint people who would command public respect.  Basically our political system would have finally exceeded all former cronyism, and made itself redundant.  Not too many people would have shed tears about that.

The ruling classes know this, and that their tenure isn't as firm as they pretend; hence why the referendum result could have be nothing other than binding.  Large numbers of them still believe they can hoodwink the public though.  Blair and Osborne are not alone!

Catalonia will be overstamping Euro notes, as the Greeks should have done.  It really doesn't matter if it's accepted outside Catalonia at the moment as long as local trade proceeds.  Official acceptance at the local level is all that is required.  What is the Euro backed by?  The answer to that is nothing but promises the German taxpayer isn't really aware of - yet!  What happens when the German taxpayer wakes up and says enough?  Merkel is already struggling to form another government, and is going to have to make major compromises in order to cling on to power.

On NATO: Just because there's mutual interest in one sphere don't run away with the idea that this extends to others.The EU doesn't actually want any part in NATO (hence they don't pay their dues), and NATO wouldn't become involved.  Our mutual friend Mr Trump would make sure of this.  As the snowflakes are told it's the EU that has maintained peace in Europe since 1945 why would "Europe" need an Anglo Saxon dominated and controlled body?   The EU is busting a gut to form its own army and a beefed up civil intervention force. But this has to be done by stealth, or even more people will smell the Juncker rat.  Spain doesn't present them with the desire excuse - quite yet.  They'd actually want a total mess in Spain, so they could step in and compartmentalise it into EU regions.

Rather than the little local difficulty we've been fed by the media it rather looks like the second spanish civil war is about to break out.  A complete mishandling of the matter by Madrid being the major factor.  What we are seeing in Spain is what we've always been careful to avoid in the UK.  It's also what could easily have happened if there had been an EU-style attempt to ignore or overturn the referendum result.

The Catalans seem to be going about it in the right way in launching their own currency.  If only the Greeks had had this much sense, or at least the sense to ignore the ECB and let the printing presses run whilst they still had the ability.  Spain's plot to use Brexit to enslave the Gibraltarians is now looking like a silly joke, as yet another plank of the remainer case (the allegedly sensitive Gibraltar issue) is kicked away.

Will the Basques seize this opportunity, or will the EU's mounting problems surface somewhere else first?  The Leave campaign said we needed to be clear of the EU as soon as possible to avoid getting dragged into the looming mess with British forces becoming involved - we are not clear yet!

2 hours ago, mercuryg said:

"You deride your own country"

What utter nonsense. Furthermore, it's not my country, I never owned it and never will, and it would be great to see others recognise this. 

"Glad it was you who raised the shocking increase in crime.  "

What, you, cherry-picking? I am amazed! The 'shocking' increase in crime is but one solitary figure in a broad and comprehensive report. I draw your attention to the comment from the spokesman for the Office for National Statistics, the body that released the report, who says:

""The recent increases in recorded crime need to be seen in the context of the overall decline in crime indicated by the Crime Survey for England and Wales,"

Decline means fall, by the way (and no, I make no apology about being factious towards someone who, in accusing me of deriding 'my' country - which isn't mine - is equally so towards me).

Like most, I can see both sides of the coin here: I see the pros and cons of Brexit - and have drawn the conclusion that there are equal measures of each (hence my sympathy with my turnip-picking friends) and also accept - along with Eggy - that I cast my vote, and it wasn't the result I wanted. That's life, it's how it goes. It doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. Although, to be honest, I'm pretty ambivalent, as I'm sensible enough to see that I shouldn't really worry too much about it, as has also been pointed out on here.

So, to reiterate - it's not your country, and it's not mine, and it never will be. It's a chunk of land that we happen to live on, and so do many other people. Crime is not spiralling at an alarming rate because of Muslims (oh, sorry, you didn't say that, did you? That was Mr Trump) and we are not all doomed to live in a society that is broken and failing, thanks to the immigrant population. The world is not about to end, and life goes on.

Incidentally, and for the record, I live in a region with a low crime rate, and a high proportion of immigrants. Make of that what you will.

So... the result is no longer "advisory" and to be ignored in typical anti-democratic EU fashion?  Ah, well, at least we've made some progress there!

It's easy to see why you - as an inveterate socialist - have a problem with the word "my".  It's a declaration of belonging and duty (particularly duty to past and future generations), not an expression of property rights.

Guess what's happened here since the sub-saharan invasion got really industralised?  Yes, crime has shot up and the loony lefties are making all sorts of excuses for what's obvious to ordinary thinking people.  We help illegals on an individual basis because they are all human (and thankfully MOST of them are Christian at the moment), but it's got to stop.  It's a matter of numbers, and socialists simply can't count (hello Diane!).   Their even more delusory assertion that Islam is benign is very dangerous denial of reality.  The socialist that has caused most of Europe's current problems - our dear Frau Merkel - has now admitted that multiculturalism doesn't work, and was a mistake. Unfortunately we've still not heard these words from the dysfunctional UK Labour Party, that quietly imposed it on our own country.

I leave the matter of whether you regularly attempt to diminish and deride your own country up to others to judge.

7 hours ago, mercuryg said:

"I just demand my country back"

This has always amused me: who took it? I looked at a map just now, and it's still there. I know it's quite small - China could probably tuck it away in her handbag and nobody would notice - but I'm sure nobody has taken it yet.

Pretty much says it all about how remonians view our country.  Pity it got so depleted of its more worthy citizens during two world wars liberating a Europe that has now totally forgotten their sacrifice (or in the case of some of them actually resenting it).

As you mention maps: here's the SS map of the European Union (yes, they did coin the name).

Do you notice the subtle difference from the similar EU regional map?  The difference is that at least the Nazi founders of the EU didn't actually seek to erase all cultural differences.

You deride your own country, and in doing so deride the hundreds of millions of others around Europe who wish to leave a failing socialist experiment whose anti-democratic nature denies them any opportunity to express this.  We can all work very happily together, respecting our own and other nation's cultures, without having every aspect of our lives controlled and regulated by a political class that contributes absolutely nothing of substance.

Glad it was you who raised the shocking increase in crime.  This is what happens when societies break down because they no longer share common values.  A major element in those common values is the nationhood you are so keen to deride.  Size only matters to people who lust for power.

Not the 38degrees petition, and frustrated by the General Election (why I didn't post earlier), but we've finally secured a parliamentary debate on the matter. (It got over 125,000 signatures):

Quote

You recently signed the petition “Abolish the tv licence, it shouldn't be a legal requirement.”:
https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/170931

We've had to change the date of the debate on this petition. The petition will now be debated on Monday 20 November at 4.30pm.

You'll be able to watch the debate online at www.parliamentlive.tv

We're really sorry if this change causes you any inconvenience.

This will be an interesting debate to follow.

Only a modest 100,000 needed this time around Eggs!

Which money would that be? The Brussels Broadcasting Corporation is part of the plot, and Merc's exchange rate is against the USD not the new Deutschmark - so he's obviously rooting for Mr Trump and not the EU-krauts (or.. maybe not?)

Me, I just demand my country back; how about you?  If you are still singing in the rain then you must at least change into dry socks! 

Quote

Leave the EU immediately

The Government should walk away from the Article 50 negotiations and leave the EU immediately with no deal. The EU looks set to offer us a punishment deal out of spite. Why wait another 18 months when we could leave right away and fully take back control of our country, lawmaking powers and borders?

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/200165

48,963 signatures so far.

Well, he's the closest thing to Max Headroom to grace our screens for a while, but here's a hilarious example of a genuine EU bot at work (len Eldritch simply thinks he is being EU trolled):

Quote

==============
Alex DD 18 Oct 2017 12:53AM
Deployment of the Army. Absolute proof that the "they need us more than we need them" lies were true. Perhaps the Army will also provide the £350m extra a week to the NHS...? And the DCFTA in two years....? Time to for BoJo, Farage, Davis and Fox to face a court-martial.

==============
len Eldritch 18 Oct 2017 12:57AM
@Alex DD  ..conducted by Momentum after the revolution of course. How is the Tooting Popular Front these days?

==============
Alex DD 18 Oct 2017 1:00AM
@len Eldritch @Alex DD Tooting Popular Front is supported by the CBI, IOD, EEF, FSB, BCC and TUC. No business or trade union organisation supports hard brexit. 

==============
len Eldritch 18 Oct 2017 1:10AM
@Alex DD @len Eldritch  There is no Tooting Popular Front you stupid troll; it was from a comedy show about a failed 1970's Marxist agitator.  Just like you lamebrain..

More work needed on the code I think.  Yes, this is how a sizeable chunk of our EU contributions are being spent, and where money they blackmail May into handing over will find its way toward!   Please remember this when a politico tells you there is no money for something important in our own community.

There's a recent Guardian article about social media bots here.

A prominent Telegraph reader writes:-

Quote

SIR – Theresa May’s announcement that the Government is  prepared to stay in the EU until 2021  is a betrayal on a par with Chamberlain’s sell-out to Hitler and a betrayal of the “will of the people”, who in 2016 voted to get out of the EU and back into the world.

Britain is stuck for at least four years with free movement, the customs union, the single market and control by an unelected body in Brussels.

The British people voted to leave the EU, not to continue paying £10 billion a year, with a trade deficit of £60 billion a year. Mrs May should resign for her act of treachery. The British people will never forgive her.

Arthur Scargill

Leader, Socialist Labour Party
Barnsley, West Yorkshire

Whilst I agree with you 100% here Arthur aren't you a latecomer to this democracy thing?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/12/newsid_2843000/2843003.stm

Not at all what we voted for, and approaching a complete sellout.  In fact she has compounded earlier mistakes and allowed room for even more subterfuge.  Why on earth should British taxpayers shore up the anti-democratic EU for several more years?  Further proof - if any were needed - that our country is run for the benefit of London-based international bankers and not British citizens. 

The climbdown is becoming less subtle now, but carefully geared not to jeopardise those research budgets and "scientist's" international jollies:

Climate change not as threatening to planet as previously thought, new research suggests

Quote

According to the models used to draw up the agreement, the world ought now to be 1.3 degrees above the mid-19th-Century average, whereas the most recent observations suggest it is actually between 0.9 to 1 degree above.

We're in the midst of an energy revolution and it's happening faster than we thoughtProfessor Michael Grubb, University College London

The discrepancy means nations could continue emitting carbon dioxide at the current rate for another 20 years before the target was breached, instead of the three to five predicted by the previous model.

“When you are talking about a budget of 1.5 degrees, then a 0.3 degree difference is a big deal”, said Professor Myles Allen, of Oxford University and one of the authors of the new study.

Published in the journal Nature Geoscience, it suggests that if polluting peaks and then declines to below current levels before 2030 and then continue to drop more sharply, there is a 66 per cent chance of global average temperatures staying below 1.5 degrees.

The goal was yesterday described as “very ambitious” but “physically possible”.

Remember that $100Bn a year of other people's money that Global Gordon thought wasn't enough to throw at the problem?

And remember the more recent self-congratulatory, back-slapping charade that was the 2015 Paris Climate Change Accord?

In plain language what the above means is that the "challenging targets" are likely to be met without anyone doing/spending anything.  Can someone please dream up another pending global catastrophe so that the junketing of the grandstanding ruling elites can continue - the AGW one is now being carefully and steadily buried in the pages of history.  Simply keep the retreat a bit ahead of the calendar, and we scientists and politicos will all be comfortably retired long before any serious historical review emerges.

...your "State of the Union" (now where have we heard that one before?) speech has gone down amazingly well in the UK.  It confirms everything the Leave campaign said about where the EU was surely headed.  I've now lost count of the number of if-only-we-had-known newspaper articles, and forum posts from people who voted Remain.  You've provided them with a admirable rationalisation for their change of mind.

There never was a "Remain" status quo to vote for, as it was always your way or no way!  I suspect ever-increasing numbers of our continental cousins will be telling you "no way!" from now on.  The reactions to TM's speech in Florence on 22nd September are going to be... er.. interesting!

10 minutes ago, moe19 said:

The 'rebels' who defied Jeremy Corbyn and backed the EU Withdrawal Bill tonight

Dennis Skinner

Ronnie Campbell

Frank Field

Kate Hoey

Kelvin Hopkins

John Mann

Graham Stringer

A fairly predictable list of traditional non-Blairite, non-Marxist socialists who feel they are there to serve the needs of their constituents and their country.  Quite unlike our own self-serving idiot who will go along with international capitalist liberals or screaming marxist loonies, according to the direction of the wind - in fact anything but the place and people foolishly funding his lifestyle.

Wake up Wansbeck - you are living in the 21st Century now.  Lavery is cruel joke, and Wansbeck voters are the butt of that joke.

1 minute ago, mercuryg said:

Interesting. My PAYG deal is the cheapest I've ever had. I mean, peanuts cost. Are they more expensive on the continent?

 

Used to be very competitive with the UK here but prices are moving up sharply.  The point is that after ten whole years of discussion with the networks and much crowing the EU has achieved precisely nothing, or at least nothing positive. They've now made it impossible to obtain a SIM without a heavy monthly commitment, most of which you'll never use.

I suspect the rate of investment in 4G has been scaled back too. Yes, we do have 4G services in town here now, but it's often only token 4G, and when I go out on bike rides there are areas where even GSM drops out.  This isn't some third world backwater, as I believe there WERE more mobiles per head here than anywhere else in the world.

Yes, another of the flagship promises to the gullible has bitten the dust.  What they were told would happen is now happening with a vengeance.

Now that the honeymoon period is over mobile charges are shooting up to compensate for the loss of revenue, so the only people to now benefit are a highly select number of highly mobile people, and you can guess what social group they are over represented in.

Personally I've seen my monthly PAYG charges bumped on both my continental SIMs.  But it's worse: you used to be able to buy a SIM card without a costly monthly contract, but when I walked into a phone shop recently expecting to be able to buy one for occasional calls on a new smartwatch, I was practically told to take a walk.  that's despite having all the necessary documents, ID cards, and tax certificates that continental bureaucracy require.  I eventually acquired one by reading loads of foreign smallprint on a double up scheme. This involved several trips to two shops, and an over the counter confrontation which involved calls to the network for permission - in fact the card was practically thrown at me.  It's still not enabled though!

You can't believe a word of EU propaganda, and in particular you can't believe a word of what is appearing in the EU compliant continental press. People have been led to believe that the UK is in total crisis, and Brits are deeply regretting their mistake.  This really is Orwellian in its implications. 

As someone who lived directly across the street from it as a child (in the 1950's), and so could have seen it every day, I severely doubt that it was ever used for this purpose.  That doesn't mean there wasn't an intention for it to be so purposed at some point in history though.

The siren on the old police station was frequently tested and was easy to hear from the Market Place, so why place another so close?  And where is the actual motor supposed to go?  The electric motor and side vanes on the old police station one were always plainly visible.  Here there is a shuttered core which looks to be an integral part of the construction.  I would have expected a clear platform to bolt the electric motor to.  This is sounding  to me like a recently invented "urban myth".

3 hours ago, mercuryg said:

"If you look at the history it came straight off a high and is now pretty much exactly where it was in 2009/10. "?

I'm not sure where you get your figures from here (and hope the rest of those you quote are not quite as inaccurate!). In 2009/2010 I could get an average, across the two years, of around 66/67p on the dollar; since the brexit vote, It's been around 74/76p. That's a major difference, and hardly 'pretty much exactly' the same, as I'm sure you'll agree.

No I don't agree.  The base figure the Remonians cling on to is actually a year or so long rise caused by the market's belief that Cameron was going to win.  We were/are still in fact in a recovery phase from Global Gordon's seriously bad mistiming of the normal economic cycle.  He convinced himself that the good times were bad times, and that he'd ended "stop go economics" when in fact things were still in the warm shadow of previous market reforms, and about to turn down again.

Real economists were telling him that he was wrong for several years, but a lecturer at a second rate polly clung on to the religious belief that he knew better.  His excuse was that he was the victim of an unforeseeable "Global" economic turn down, when in fact he was the trigger through failure to regulate our very own economic numbskulls at Northern Rock (please search back on my postings at that time).

There is no POSITIVE correlation between the value of our currency and our future prospects like you wish to imply, but there is almost certainly a negative one. Having an overvalued currency is fatal.  The huge boost in UK stock market values and surge in inward investment IS indicative though, as is the record low unemployment levels.  Wages will be forced up after a decade of complete stagnation caused by our far too close relationship with the moribund Eurozone - that's EXACTLY what the Leavers intended!

Now please answer my question as to "why you think the EU is an economically viable construct?"

6 hours ago, mercuryg said:

I meant we're not actually out yet. So we have to wait a few years to see the results. I'm still loving the exchange rate, btw.

Curious that the Remainers predicted the economy would tank at even the hint of a OUT majority?  Cable predicted a stock market crash of -30% whereas it's now +30%.  So where do you want the place goal posts on this major economic setback?  You can have your pick, but "somewhere over there" isn't going to get written into the rules.

Someday sometime is also the problem with socialist politicos and their sunny uplands; they attempt to string generation after generation along whilst ensuring that everything is working well for their class IN THE NOW.  The USSR's apparatchiks ran out of excuses after 70 years, but in the Internet age the EUSSR simply hasn't got that long.  Anyway, I'm very curious to know exactly why you think the EU is an economically viable construct?

I'm delighted that the the exchange rate is working well for you. If you look at the history it came straight off a high and is now pretty much exactly where it was in 2009/10.  I know a few British ex-pats who are having to alter their lifestyles, and we are conscious that our own money goes nothing like as far, but there are several neat compensations.  What has reduced the general impact for Brits is that "weak hands" left during the last downer and the long-termers are preconditioned to wild exchange rate swings.  If you bought eurozone property in the early 2000's at going on for €1.60 : £1 - as most did here - your property is notionally worth far more in Sterling terms, and you can console yourself that you probably couldn't consider it now.  That's until you come to sell it and discover that there is mostly a huge difference between estate agent and real world prices, and that it's very much a buyer's market.

1 hour ago, mercuryg said:

"I'm now beginning to appreciate that you Remainers were right about several things Merk.  "

You need to give that a few years. we haven't gone yet.

 

I gave Wim Duisenberg (former Eurobank supremo) twenty years, and he still hasn't delivered on his "the UK economy will tank in months if it doesn't join my Euro" strictures.  Wasn't just him of course - the whole EUphile establishment were at it at the time.  You'd almost have thought they had a vested interest in talking our economy down, but "our European partners" would never ever do a thing like that!

I hope the EU-SSR has a few more years, but from where I sit it's looking increasingly unlikely.  If we can get past becoming a Caliphate (no bets on that one) the UK is now good for another 1000 years, and some of the best ones lie ahead of us.

Even more UK chickens hatching:

Quote

The world’s biggest sovereign wealth fund has issued a resounding vote of confidence in the UK economy and the long-term prospects for the pound, raising its target for sterling bonds to 8pc of its global benchmark fund.

Norway’s $1 trillion oil fund has advised its government to concentrate core holdings of debt into dollars, euros, and sterling, dropping Japanese and emerging market bonds altogether.

“This is a very significant move. It is extraordinary that they have opted for the UK as world number three for investment ahead of China and Japan,” said Stephen Jen, a currency expert at EurizonSLJ Capital and an advisor to Asian sovereign wealth funds.

The shift in strategy came as the vast Norwegian fund – now known as the Government Pension Fund – said it is stepping up its expansion into London commercial property,..

5 hours ago, mercuryg said:

There's the old joke about the builder and his estimates, which are always much more attractive than the final cost. Might be wise not to count your chickens yet.

I'm now beginning to appreciate that you Remainers were right about several things Merk.  Take for instance those three million unemployed: we'll.. I've found them!  They're right here in Southern Europe, bravely propping up the value of the New Deutchmark.
And, Frau Merkel's desperate refugees are still coming in ever increasing numbers - the bitter civil war in Nigeria is particularly relevant at this moment.  We really must let a few million more in to help in the NHS - as per the free-movement directive from the fatherland!

Chickens?  As you've probably noticed, so many were hatching that I gave up counting them months ago!  Tip: try exporting British chickens to the EU, and discover just what this "single market" thing amounts to in reality.

More news we won't hear reported on the Brussels Broadcasting Corporation (or their chums at EU-funded propaganda machine C4):-

Quote

Britain's poorest households will be the biggest beneficiaries of Britain's departure from the European Union, according to a report published by a prominent Labour group.

A paper co-authored by Labour Leave and a group of economists estimates that Brexit will bring a reduction in prices and immigration that will save the most deprived families £36 per week.

The group also warns that a "soft Brexit" would "leave us worse off and in danger of remaining in the EU in all but name."

John Mills, a prominent party donor who chairs Labour Leave, said the calculations in the report show that working class Labour voters "were right to back quitting the EU" because "they will see a boost to incomes that have been heavily depressed over the last decade".

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/03/poorest-will-gain-brexit-says-labour-report/

Meanwhile Blair - having failed at every other machiavellian ploy - is doing everything he can to ensure a "Soft Brexit" - a term created to pretend that democratic process is being followed whilst ensuring that nothing actually changes.  The French euro-elies got away with this by creating Merkron (no, not a typo!), and the French people have woken up the fact that they've been had in record time.

Yes, you guessed it!

Quote

England's most obese region is the North East, which has an obesity rate of 27.1 per cent and a further 41.5 per cent of its people overweight.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/0/englands-obesity-hotspots-does-area-compare/