The Coffee House Wall – 3rd/9th April

Posted on April 3, 2017

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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198 thoughts on “The Coffee House Wall – 3rd/9th April”

  2. And the first Muslim state meeting:

    “CAIRO (Reuters) – Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi left Cairo for Washington on Saturday where both sides will seek a renewed relationship after tensions over Sisi’s crackdown on opponents.
    As well as meeting President Donald Trump, Sisi will see the top officials at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, where he will pitch for help with his country’s’ ailing economy.

    The trip will be Sisi’s first U.S. state visit since being elected president in 2014 as former U.S. President Barack Obama had never extended an invitation. Sisi was elected a year after leading the military’s ousting of the Muslim Brotherhood’s president Mohamed Mursi after mass protests”

  4. Noa 2353
    At least that beats Geoffrey Howe’s single dead sheep.
    Which turned out to give his PM an Exocet.

  5. @Romano Verdi 2nd – 13:05

    “I love it when feminazi’s get their comeuppance.”

    When, inadvertently, an image of that quivering lump of lard appears before my minces, the thought crosses my mind, “If you can’t even maintain proper control of your body, let alone your mind, why should I listen to you at all?

  6. @Frank P 2nd – 14:17

    “the last refuge of Englishness, Narfuck,”

    In the distant past, when tootling freely down the east coast of the USA, passing Virginia, we might seek to place a VHF call through Norfolk radio. Since 99% percent of their traffic was jolly weekend sailors in their ‘pleasure’ craft the operator would then have to root out their idiot sheet of protocols for dealing with ‘furrin’ vessels. On completion of the call she would then run through her closing spiel, finishing off with, “Norfolk off”. In a Virginia accent?

  8. Ostrich (occasionally) – 10:46

    If that is anecdotally true, its very funny and well worth ECs 🙂 :-). If, however, you contrived it, I’ll add a third.

  10. Frank P 3rd – 11:34

    “Ostrich (occasionally) – 10:46
    If that is anecdotally true,”

    Yup, it’s true. It was quite famous among Brit merchant ships trading down the east coast; when other ships were making calls we on the bridge would earwig it, as much as anything to try and work out from the tone of her voice whether the radio operator had any inkling how her sign-off sounded to other people.

  11. Marshall Roberts,

    “So what then? Leave the Baltic states to Putin.”

    Does he want them, really? Like Scotland, and all those half-arsed wannabe states formerly Yugoslavian regions , it’s not as if they’ve ever been proper viable countries. Tribal fiefdoms at best. The Baltic States’ former landlords have included Germany, Sweden, Poland, Tsarist Russia etc. They have been a massive drain on their current landlords, the EU, with enough money per capita having been expended to buy everyone their a Bentley and a villa with swimming pool in Provence.

    Does cash strapped Putin want the Baltic states? Nah, not even my old pal Nicholas Van Hoogstraten(*) would touch ’em with a bargepole!
    (* bar Cloughie, the best football manager that England never had)

  12. Marshal Roberts – 09:34

    “Malfleur 0608
    Conrad Black, that fount of honesty and moral rectitude.”

    Oo-er, you let your slip show there a bit, luv.

  17. But must not slate the man.
    He is sitting in St Petersburg having a tutorial on ROP.

  19. You will have heard of a young refugee being attacked by a gang in south London.
    To begin with he is called a *Kurd* from *Iran* and hence probably a *She-ite*.
    This should have set of warnings…..Some of us will be aware that the tribal grievances of the Kurds/Turks/ Iranians are being fought out on our streets.

    The Met Police `Service`have issued photos of wanted suspects : all of whom are darkies.

    Things go deeper down.This maybe an example of our multi-cultural / multi-racial society in practice which can not be understood by the Guardianisters in that a gang of `whites` and `blacks` are involved.

    Now there are claims that it started out about an arguament over a cigarette.And a lot of other things are coming up over the i-net.

    You will have also noted that Diane Abbott and others immediently jumped into this : the faux idea ( as opposed to fake news ) that it was nasty white people involved and it was connected to Brexit.

  20. If anyone here missed Jonathan Meades: The Joy of Essex, first time round, it’s repeated at 01:30 tonight/tomorrow. Set your recorders. A joy indeed in the hands of a master piss-taker.

  21. Bad news for Putin, what you don’t know is the Right (communist cum Liberals) are having talks about fielding a joint candidate in the next year’s presidential election, that will seriously threaten him, the Russians have been told security in the country surpasses that of any western nations, atrocities of the Paris or London kind are unlikely, this has been shown to be both wrong is a sense one can never ensure against terror completely, also politically naive, he now looks a fool saying it only a short time ago.

    Recently, the opposition to Putin’s policies from the ‘forces of the dark’ has been increasingly more blatant (not the Navalny organised demonstrations, these are a pinprick affair), blaming him for his ‘lukewarm’ response to Islamic terrorism, co-operation with the Americans in Syria (no mention of it in the MSM here), overtures to the Donald, they want more aggressive stance everywhere, the Russian blogosphere is reflecting it, many are blaming Putin for ‘taking it rather than dishing it out’.

    The Western MSM are already saying it was the FSB ‘what did it’, comparing it to an explosion in a Moscow building before the Chechnya offensive, that doesn’t add up, it was a suicide bomber, they already know his name, as far as the barbarian knows no FSB agent hasn’t yet reached a stage of self-destruction (although there’s always the first time).

  22. If you are within easy reach of Ely Cathedral, have six quid to spare, the time to travel there you may like to visit an exhibition of pictures taken by Peter Marlow (now sadly deceased), these are of 42 England’s Anglican cathedrals, an impressive show, each picture of the nave taken at sunrise, varied architecture, serious craftsmanship, affecting spirituality.

    The barbarian is telling you this because, who knows, these gems of the country’s illustrious history may be converted, in not that distant future, into places of worship for our newly arriving Allah worshipping friends.

    The exhibition ends on Wednesday, the barbarian has seen it twice, enjoyed it on both occasions alot.

  23. Frank P @ 18:32

    Big land, America, Frank, one would think it would be hard for one to vanish in East Anglia, but not so, e.g. the Bury St Edmunds airman.

  24. EC @ 15:50

    Quite, EC, if he wanted to take over the largely depopulated lands he would have done so before our (other NATO) boys and girls arrived there, today, he would have to destroy them if he moved, a certainty of a full scale military conflict, he is smart enough to know that, no?

    It amazes Baron anyone with a pinch of common sense not spotting it, a malady as yet undiagnosed, but quite common amongst the BBC brainwashed.

  25. Frank P @ 14:17

    Nice tale that, Frank, you should seriously consider writing down stuff like this, the barbarian has told you many times it would be of interest not only here but to a wide audience, also a nice supplement to your largesse of a pension, no?

    Btw, it’s Bangladeshi folks who rule there today, all very friendly but for the few who give Baron a look, or behave as passive bullies do (not the youngest or oldest, the 25-40 age bracket).

  28. Frank P @ 01:48

    Doesn’t he know about the 2nd law of thermodynamics, Frank? That tells him why decay is built into any system that ticks on energy, like humans, he, he, he.

    The Chartres medieval structure is indeed magnificent, built only because the original one burnt down, business that centred on pilgrims coming to see Mary’s scarf would have suffered, it was, still is famous for the Chartres blue (this the barbarian knows only from his job, it’s bloody hard to produce blue in LEDs (that’s light emitting diodes), some guy got even a Nobel trinket for cracking it, it seems progress cannot have everything instantly).

    The famous French Corsican, the one who ended his life at St Helena, remarked that the Chartres Cathedral wasn’t really the place to be visited by the non-believers. In our days, it’s mostly they who come. Go figure.

    He’s so against progress when it was it that not only got him to see the magnificent example of architecture of the past by car in hours, but also keeps him and the other 7bn of us living probably twice as long as the men and women who built it.

  33. Well spotted, EC, if we had a competition for the best spotted event you would get the top spot (no pun intended, it just typed itself), it’s made the day for the barbarian, and he hasn’t yet open his eyes fully.

    Three things should happen immediately: The courageous Scottish woman should be pronounced national treasure up north, her picture put on a banknote (preferably avoiding the Bank of Scotland that’s in deep shite), a new permanent hashtag should be set up #piss over Scotland for free.

    Could there be more to celebrate this act national pride, you ask? Of course, the wimin movement could start a pissing day worldwide, celebrities attend a pissing marathon organised by the Scottish Government, the fishmongers woman could open it with a quick but distinctly Scottish smelling piss, a famous female rapper (sadly, the barbarian knows no rapper at all, but there must be many around) can a rap rhyming piss, miss, kiss, hiss … (see link below)

    http://www.rhymezone.com/r/rhyme.cgi?typeofrhyme=perfect&Word=piss&loc=spellmap3

    On a gently more serious note, the woman may indeed have a medical problem, the need to go relieve herself may have been unavoidable, the need to go to the law was, the case should have been settled there and then, perhaps the time has come to let the northerners who love pissing in the wild go, free them from the teat of the UK Treasury, allow them to munch haggis, drink whisky pissing themselves as a fart whenever and wherever they feel like it.

  35. EC @ 09:21

    Come on, EC, stop taking a Mickey, the barbarian knows next to FA about the thermothing, only taaht it exists or rather is theorised to exist, turn your attention to the compliment paid to you by the humble, still half al eep blue veined barbarian from the East at 09:33.

  40. Noa (13:16)

    Don’t dwell too much on it, buddy. There is always a danger, if you do, of becoming like this mad old sod:

    https://youtu.be/VsWOa9U1Qxk

    Become a determinst like me, blame it all on the Big Bang and patiently wait for the next one, while enjoying the kaleidoscopic aftermath as it unfolds. It’s fun if you don’t take it seriouslly – like Lionel and Pat Buchanan.

    This one’s attempts at satire are beginning to look a little manic, too:

    https://youtu.be/SABhUn-_7bE

  43. Pat Condell – Islam deserves no accommodation in any civilized society

    Just keep watching the follow-on from the end of my previous post.

  46. Malfleur @ 14:48

    Lovely place, Malfleur, calming, peaceful, gracious. What would we have to be proud of if it were not for the religious hold on the society? (also pointed arches throughout, just like at Chartres).

    (The Marlow’s pictures are almost identical, also of the nave, i.e. facing east, all 42 of the Anglican cathedrals still standing).

  47. Frank P – 13:47

    I’ve never been able to watch “Lionel Nation.” A YouTube channel too far, for me.

    Stefan Molyneaux’s nod to April got a little weird. It was a least 7 minutes longer than it needed to be but, as you have observed in the past, “Prolix” is his middle name.
    He’s great Fisker of the MSM’s false narratives though. He certainly did his bit for Donald in 2015/16, although I’m not certain how many of his 600K subscribers actually had a vote.

  48. Malfleur.
    My favourite cathedral.
    Especially with the changes made by Benjamin Ferry a couple of centuries ago.

  49. You should also visit Gloucester Cathedral to see the powerful effect of guilt.
    Edward II was buried there after his Queen Isabella had a red hot poker stuck up his fundus.
    As pennance his son granted unlimited money to rebuild the East end of the Cathedral in glorious perpendicular style.
    And insert a magnificent tennis court size East window making it light and airy – not dark and gloomy like Chartres, Baron.

  50. And while we are on Kyrgyzstan, what happened to Putin’s vow to stop terrorism.
    Is this Navalny’s chance?

  51. Frank P 13.47

    Thanks for the warning Frank, and a nod of recognition for the links to the sort of clinically insane and boring barstewards and their pre-washed management cliches I often had to listen to during my working days. At least I got paid for it then. WGAF!
    In truth don’t get worked up about much these days, the right eyebrow is raised in ironic detachment rather than as a result of unhinged, knife-plunging mania. I thought old Pat Buchanan’s argument for a general US withdrawal from world involvement reflected in the macro my own view for self defence to take due priority in more personal matters.
    Of course that doesn’t’ mean that I don’t form and express caustic views on the many malign actions and utterances of inane idiots from the liber-ratii who infest the country like nits in a first year’s hair.
    It’s just that I don’t think that, as I continue to take the statins and anti-coagulants until I turn into a lab rat in some gigantic, unmonitored NHS experiment, that I can do much about it.

  53. From the TV station the Rain:

    One of the guys who fronts the Rain’s news desk did exactly what the terrorist is said to have done, in a rucksack he put two pounds of nails, a massive hammer, a smaller one, and a packet of chemicals that may have been used by the suicide bomber (altogether 12 pounds), went through seven detecting gates which one has to go through to reach the Underground station, (it was all filmed secretly by a cameraman who accompanied him), a guard who stands behind the detector gates paid no attention to him, neither did the dogs that are supposed to smell chemicals.

    On the Underground train, the presenter talked over wi-fi using his mobile, put the rucksack down, moved away from it, nobody paid any attention to his movements, although all other passengers had their bags, rucksacks or whatever on their laps. The obvious question is how come the terrorist (and the Rain presenter) managed to fool the elaborate system.

    The suicide bomber was granted Russian citizenship six years ago, arrived from Kyrgyzstan together with his farther, had ten friends (who are all refusing the talk to the Rain), was a normal young man, never interested in any religion (worked as an auto mechanic or in a sushi bar, nobody’s sure), had only one skirmish with the law (driving offence), two years ago went to his home country, came back a changed man, talked little.

    An expert on Islamic terrorism said over 850 people from Kyrgyzstan went to fight for iSIL in Iraq and Syria, mostly young men, some 20% of the number went with families.

    (That’s about all the barbarian remembers from the Rain programme, on other channels it’s just experts ranting about everything, the Rain’s experiment was a departure from the debating, the barbarian thought you may be interested, too).

  55. Two more pieces of news on the St Petersburg’s atrocity:

    The investigators are looking into the possibility the blast was an accident, the bomb wasn’t intended to go off on the underground (no reason given).

    A week before the blast, a man approached a policeman patrolling the Underground at the station of the terror act, told him a young man was crouching at a spot where the 4th carriage of the Underground train stops, taking pictures, he found it suspicious. The policeman told him to talk to the district police station (nothing whether he did, the police took it further, not even an explanation why taking pictures should raise suspicion).

  56. Noa @ 19:22

    One can never be sure of anything, Noa, but even the Rain analysts are leaning to the view it’s bad for Putin, he promised to protect the people, failed, to counterbalance the fallout in public support he will use it to crack down on social platforms exactly what the dark forces have been asking for some time.

    A correspondent from the Rain visited a part of the St P city that houses stalls and small shops operated mainly by immigrants (the stuff they sell is the equivalent of the goods sold by market traders here, includes also cheap clothing, trainers) talked to some, they’re all afraid the police will ask them questions, harass them, make their lives hard (so far it hasn’t happened, they all said). The men (all Muslims, or looking like Muslims) have shaved their beards overnight. A Russian girl who also works at the place said when she asked them ‘why’ they said ‘it’s safer that way’.

  57. Another seminal report by Daniel Greenfield:

    http://sultanknish.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/the-new-civil-war.html

    All the current hoo-hah about the venal wheeling-dealing and covert lobbying of the Russian and Turkish red herrings, pales into insignificance beside the conclusions drawn in this perspicacious analysis. It encapsulates all the components that we Wallsters have been laying out for years about the organised treason of the inimical ideology of the Leftist cabal that took over the American government for the previous two terms, but also comprehensively infiltrated our own government since the end of WW2 and eventually handed it over to the the EUSSR.

    Whether the Trump movement, which itself is riddled with venal chancers, and the Brexit movement, which is disjointed and riddled with quislings, can reverse the Long March remains to be seen. But the inherent political pig-ignorance of hoi polloi on both sides of the Atlantic, after over half a century of leftist brainwashing through the infiltrated ‘educational’ institutions makes it unlikely that the civil war will be won by ‘our side’. ‘We’ are outnumbered. Moreover, as I look around I wonder who the fuck are ‘we’. Are we sure we know?

    And that lament has not even factored in the insurgent muslim jihad!

  59. MIKE CERNOVICH breaks the story in the separate section of the Alex Jones Show (the 3RD HOUR) which follows the Monckton interview as to how the deep state are blocking Trump staff appointments or ensuring that security clearances are only given to compromised nominees.

    Cernovich’s website, Danger & Play, is found at https://www.dangerandplay.com/

  60. Why do they not leave him alone and concentrate on the issues:

    “Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch copied the structure and language used by several authors and failed to cite source material in his book and an academic article, according to documents provided to POLITICO.

    The documents show that several passages from the tenth chapter of his 2006 book, “The Future of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia,” read nearly verbatim to a 1984 article in the Indiana Law Journal. In several other instances in that book and an academic article published in 2000, Gorsuch borrowed from the ideas, quotes and structures of scholarly and legal works without citing them.”

    http://www.politico.com/story/2017/04/gorsuch-writings-supreme-court-236891

  61. Anyone watch the French Presidential debate last night. The other leave candidate stuck it to Marine Le Pen, but has a credibility problem:

    “In the European chapter, the most significant moment was when François Asselineau, a candidate of the Republican People’s Union – credited with 0.5% in the polls – affirmed his determination to leave the European Union by activating, Article 50 of the EU Treaty. The President of the National Front, for her part, gave herself six months to start a negotiation with Brussels, before consulting the French by referendum. For Asselineau, it is clear, the candidate of the National Front plays with the words. Contrary to what it says, it will never abandon the euro, since a clear majority of French remains attached to it. ”

    http://www.lemonde.fr/election-presidentielle-2017/article/2017/04/05/debat-un-mauvais-moment-pour-marine-le-pen_5106029_4854003.html

  62. Douglas Murray needs to train his guns on the Chechens or even Putin himself:

    “Simultaneously Putin’s Chechen stooge and occasional hitman Kadyrov launched a massive campaign of rounding up homosexuals, arresting hundreds and murdering dozens. No doubt all our ‘conservatives’ who applaud Putin for upholding traditional values are rejoicing. The real conservatives among us are more likely to recoil in horror.”

    http://www.alexanderboot.com/blog/

  63. Yall still there?
    Is it true that May has now gone soft on immigration?
    News feeds tell us that she will tolerate large influxes long after you leave.
    So what was it all for?

    Love to Andy.

  64. Noa, April 4th, 2017 – 09:36
    “Good old George. I used to give him stick over at the Speccie.”

    “George Laird‏ (@GeoLaird4Pollok)

    “Canadian Department Of National Defence (131.137.245.209) stopped by my blog to read my witty take on Nicola Sturgeon’s Tartan Week as well”

    I’d say “keep on truckin'”, George, but that exhortation has taken on some negative connotations in recent times.

  65. John Jefferson Burns – 08:48

    Have you been up all night with the wind down there in Georgia, or are you back over here in Polperro, checking on your inheritance er… aunty’s health?

  66. Baron 00.36

    Not exactly a refutation of Das Boot’s admittedly partial argument that it was Putin himself ‘wot did it guv’.
    But of course, who knows the truth in these matters, or ever will?
    And as an emigre yourself, one always needs to be aware of the possibility, however faint, of a nasty poke from a jabbed umbrella at King Cross, or a polonium sweetener in the tea from the samovar.

  67. Frank P, April 3rd, 2017 – 22:53

    Many thanks for the heads up on Jonathan Meades’ “The Joy of Essex.”

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qfr95/jonathan-meades-the-joy-of-essex

    Excellent locations, beautiful photography. An eclectic commentary on the architecture and social history of the region delivered in Meades’ unique, absorbing style.

    As with all Meades’ works I found it very “accessible” and so therefore I must stand condemned by that admission! 🙂

  68. Noa – 10:27

    “And as an emigre yourself, one always needs to be aware of the possibility, however faint, of a nasty poke from a jabbed umbrella at King Cross, or a polonium sweetener in the tea from the samovar.”

    For that very reason I would expect Mr Boot to be very careful when sipping his next glasses of grand vin Château Mouton Rothschild Pauillac!

    File under: Russian Roulette, Vlad the Defenestrator, Polonium Cocktail, Lucrezia Borgia, Pan Galactic Gargle-Blaster etc.

  69. Frank P – 01:13

    But the inherent political pig-ignorance of hoi polloi on both sides of the Atlantic, after over half a century of leftist brainwashing through the infiltrated ‘educational’ institutions makes it unlikely that the civil war will be won by ‘our side’. ‘We’ are outnumbered. Moreover, as I look around I wonder who the fuck are ‘we’. Are we sure we know?

    A very pertinent question. It’s not as if “we” weren’t forewarned by people like Joe McCarthy, and even in popular culture at the time. eg. The Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (1956)

    “Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies” by M Stanton Evans.

    https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blacklisted-History-Senator-McCarthy-Americas/dp/1400081068/r

    The regressive “left” is now the establishment and “we” are now the resistance, I suppose. As Paul Joseph Watson says “Populism is the new punk, conservatism is the new counter-culture.” For some reason that “triggers” the hell out of the lefties!

    There has to be some hope in that the younger generation has always rebelled against the prevailing establishment, in Britain at any rate?

  71. h/t James Delingpole‏ (@JamesDelingpole)

    “This is the best thing you will read on the Russian conspiracy to steal the presidential election”

    “Their alternate version of You Stole My Morons! is that the release of the damning facts contained in John Podesta and Felonia von Pantsuit’s emails made people think she was terrible. People thought that because those emails showed, beyond any doubt, that she is terrible, and that her Democrat Party is less a political organization than a disorganized crime ring. Remember that when the media gets angry about the emails, the reason is that you got accurate information about the media’s partisan pals that the media wanted hidden from you. Democracy dies in darkness all right; the media is trying to strangle it in an unlit alley.”
    Kurt Schlichter

    https://townhall.com/columnists/kurtschlichter/2017/04/03/the-russiagate-scam-will-blow-up-in-the-democrats-smug-faces-n2307707

  72. EC – 11:28

    Mentioned here already, Diane West has been doing some digging in this area and has said that she has hardly scratched the surface.

  73. Another candidate for Saint Petersburg responsibility, it might be argued, would be an émigré in the USA with a working knowledge of Russian who is embedded in operations of the Council on Foreign Relations with a line in virulent globalist propaganda and an appetite for war with Russia allied to a deep knowledge of the world history of guerrilla warfare.

  74. 🙂 🙂 🙂

    How we were hoodwinked by a green zealot: Ideologist behind the dash for diesel called C02 ‘worse than terror’
    * The Prime Minister Theresa May stepped in as diesel owners face a nightmare of increased congestion charges, hikes in road tax and poor resale values
    * Their anger intensified when Tony Blair’s former chief scientist admitted officials knew how dangerous diesel engines were but did nothing about it
    * In a stunning admission, Sir David King said scientists were aware that diesel was a ‘dirty’ fuel which belched out more dangerous fumes than petrol engines
    * Car manufacturers were developing technology which could ‘manage problem’
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4380806/Man-dash-diesel-called-C02-worse-terror.html

    Next, we have the windmills, bio-gas, bio-diesel, solar panels, batteries, lagoon barriers, river barriers, bio-fuel, hydroelectric, French nuclear …. anything but coal and gas!

  75. RobertRetyred – 12:15

    I almost forgot the 100W light bulbs that would have caused the sky to fall in, and then we have the ‘less powerful’ kettles and vacuum cleaners that we might just avoid by ensuring Brexit happens!

  77. So Barry Manilow is a shirtlifter, that’s about as much of a shock as it gets dark at night time.

  79. John Birch (15:36)

    “… it gets dark at night time.”

    Not when the moon’s out. And he is the mooner-in-chief. 🙂

  80. @EC 5th – 11:28

    “after over half a century of leftist brainwashing through the infiltrated ‘educational’ institutions makes it unlikely that the civil war will be won by ‘our side’.”

    It astonished me, even at the time, that once Maggie had sorted the unions and miners and got her bum properly settled into her seat, she didn’t decide, “Right, time to take on the teachers.” After all, as Heath’s Minister of Education, nobody had gained a better knowledge of quite how appalling they were(are).

  82. Ostrich (occasionally) – 16:51

    Those were Frank P’s words I quoted, but you ask an interesting question. I think that by the time that Mrs Thatcher became Secretary of State for Education in 1970 the destruction of the Grammar Schools set in motion by Antony Crossland had gone past the point of no return. The most she could do was end the compulsion on local authorities to convert to Comprehensives. By the time she became PM in 1979 it was too late?

  83. Ostrich (occasionally)16:51

    “… as Heath’s Minister of Education” she would have indeed be exposed to the wiles of the most infiltrated segment of the COP. Might I suggest another case of Stockholm syndrome?

    Perhaps there a clue here:

    http://www.margaretthatcher.org/archive/heath.asp

    …but perhaps not. Her whole four years there seems to have been about funding and angling for other jobs – notably, his.

  84. EC – 17:24

    Yes, it was/is convention not to roll back the previous government’s laws, unless in the current manifesto; and she was only a Secretary of State, not the PM.

    At the time, the public believed the experts and, as the ‘experts’ were the teachers and as the Left Wing nature of them had not been exposed, there was little that could be done. The aspiring wanted their children to get O’Levels, which meant a Grammar School, a forerunner of wanting their children to get to university. So, we now have graduates doing the jobs they could have done after leaving school, but with a large graduate debt to pay back, or not! And many still can’t spell or do mental arithmetic.

  86. An interesting debate from a decade ago to mark the 25th Anniversary of the New Criterion Magazine. The speakers were Roger Kimball, Judge Robert Bork, Anthony Daniels (aka Theodore Dalrymple), Eric Ormsby and Mark Steyn.

    https://youtu.be/MDIA6Suhfns

    Viewed through the prism of today’s hindsight, it is a fascinating study of the prescience of at least four of the participants. The fifth appears to have been ‘outnumbered’ and his silence during the QA session following the individual dissertations spoke volumes. One has to wonder whether he ever recovered. He had obviously never met Bill Warner. 🙂

    It’s lengthy, but well worth viewing to the close.

  89. By the way, at the end of the foregoing link includes Roger Stone commenting on the role of the liberal Democrat son-in-law in Bannon’s loss of power.

    …..

    Roger Stone comments on Trump and North Korea and today’s meeting with China at the start of the 2ND HOUR at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlUQYhNuIBI

  90. Doug Hagmann continues at that link after Stone to discuss “Islamic penetration at the highest level of our Congress” and other branches of the US government by the Pakistani Awan brothers and other globalist elements compromising the USA.

  91. Joel Skousen then follows on Bannon,, North Korea, centres of globalism and Russia.

    He says the “Syrian chemical attack” has all the hallmarks of a false flag.

  95. Boris Johnson‏
    Verified account
     
    @BorisJohnson
    Follow

    More
    Urge all countries to support UK & France in condemning the horrific chemical weapons attack in Idlib #Syria at the #UNSC this afternoon

    YES,BORIS – BUT WHO DUNNIT?

  96. EC 0906
    You are clearly a stand up guy.
    Yes I am over seeing my aunt who is in Clovelly.
    Polperro is in Cornwall, Aunt Cecily lives in Devonshire.
    She is in rude health and has willed her farm to your National Trust.

    Love to Andy & Donald.

  99. Noa

    Peter Hitchens is a national treasure. His final paragraph in your cited article is first rate.

    There are also many excellent comments appended. I googled the reference to this operation from one of them:

    http://www.mintpressnews.com/operation-timber-sycamore-washingtons-secret-war-syria/222692/

    “Operation Timber Sycamore And Washington’s Secret War On Syria
    To start this conflict and then keep its fires burning the US and its Satellites have spent billions of dollars. “

  102. Someone here expressed a dissenting voice on Lionel the other day. I like him. I like wordsmiths; and, although I know he hails (I believe) from Florida or some such, Manhattan wordsmiths, and with a double topping please and a side order of whimsy, Manhattan-wordsmith lawyers.

    So here he is on Susan Rice AND on Syrian gas attacks, and ‘the level of refraction’ – April 5th.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ovazwEwZVZo

  104. Noa/EC

    The Last Post of Empire? Certainly the last gasp of literacy. Whether the error occured in the drafting, the transcrption, or the signwriter’s thickery, where was the supervisory function at any level. In any event, we’re well and truly bugled.

    What next? ” Look art! Dare’s a feef abart, ennit?”

    Less Operation Bumblebee than Operation Bumbledon.

  105. Fuck only knows what the Morse code at the top signifies. Because there is no group spacing it could be any one of several combinations: KBA and TANIA just two possibilties. And what’s Indonesia got to do with it?

    Still, it makes a change from figuring out what the Deep State are up to.
    OTOH it could have been the Deep State who composed the wording of the sign with a special encrypted message for their agents in Sarf Londonistanski. A call to arms? Perhaps Lionel can tell us. No belay that! It might tempt me to watch/listen to the barmy old sod, which is too much to expect of any eavesdropper. Way over and above the call of duty.

  110. Nigel Farage addresses the EU Parliament in Strasbourg : 5 April 2017.

    “We didn’t join the EU in 1973 ; we joined the EEC.”

    “You ( tell ) us we have to pay £20 billion , a figure clearly plucked out of the air…..a form of ransom demand.”

    “We’ve put £200 billion into this project….we are shareholders in this building and the rest of the assets…”

    “( We are told ) we can not negotiate trade deals with anyone else until lwe’ve left the EU.That has no basis in treaty law ; it’s like saying you can’t guarantee yourself a dwelling for when you leave prison.”

    “You are behaving like the mafia.”

    [ Chairman interrupts : “…..that is unacceptable .”

    https://youtu.be/FnOUSYu2Tz0

  111. John Birch

    “….that question was unequivocally answered, with the judges ruling that unless a child is sick, absent due to religious observance reasons, or unable to attend because their school transport did not arrive, they must attend school.”

    I am told that the commonest reason in our borough for unauthorised absence is a visit to Pakistan.

    Is this “absent due to religious observance reasons”

  112. Boris Johnson seems to have pulled himself together on the Syrian murders after a short lapse into gullibility, though I am not sure that the United Nations is the right organization to conduct an investigation, notwithstanding its interest in children.

    “The foreign secretary said that passing a United Nations resolution to investigate a suspected regime chemical attack which killed 86 people and left hundreds injured and complementary peace talks should be the top priority – not rushing into a new confrontation.”

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/04/06/boris-johnson-not-rush-war-against-assad-syria/

  114. A country struggling to re-assert its sovereignty might be better advised to pass its own resolution on Syria, again, before rushing into a new UN investigation.

    Anyhow, I thought that this was all meant to be about a pipeline?

    Whatever happened to useful classical maxims to set us back on track/

    Like cui bono.

  116. John birch @ 18:58

    With whom does the ultimate responsibility for one’s children rest, with the parents or the State?

    That was the question the Supreme Court have answered, it answered in favour of the State, the nanny State, one not that far from the State the communist thugs had preside over in the East. The PC virus has obviously infected the judiciary, too.

    The two courageous parents should set up a fund (the barbarian would chip in), keep on fighting, we’re still in the European Court of Justice, they should take the case there, with luck the European judges may find in their favour just to show us what we’re going to miss.

  117. Malfleur @ 11:22

    It seems the Donald wants to get a place at the table on Syria, too, but we have to wait for the Turkish referendum results, when the tinpot Sultan gets his pot gilded, a new phase of the Syrian tragedy will begin to unfold, it’s unlikely he’ll buy the Kurdish settlement without a tantrum.

  118. Noa @ 10:32

    The CIA or its proxies (the White Helmets, the ‘democratic forces’ in ISIS) outsmarted the man in the Kremlin, the false flag operation couldn’t have been more transparent, even al-Jazeera commented that the video of the scenes after the attack shows plenty of rescue workers, not many of the victims, only the Western governments, their MSM poodles are convinced it was Assad.

    The one aspect of it nobody has yet commented on is why would Assad use chemical weapons on civilians when the Syrian opposition at the peace conference (scheduled few days after the attack) were to accept him as the legitimate Syrian leader until a new election is held. Could he be that stupid?

    Peter’s right, it’s the repeat of the ‘WMD certainty’ again, although this time the consequences could be by far more serious as the fighting will pitch against each other more balanced adversaries than was the case of the Iraqi war. Madness.

  120. EC 12.55 An echo, in fact! 😉

    That’s it folks, I’m off to the Melrose 7’s for some fresh air and a J2O or two.

    Let’s hope the Donald stops shooting from the lip and reacting to every piece of fake news on Fox Hat.

  122. Noa – 22:38

    Melrose 7s: Do they play in kilts, or would that prove too much of distraction in the scrummage? (do they have scrum downs in 7’s?)

  124. EC
    As you may know the height at which a player can tackle has been lowered recently. This is for reasons of safety. However, trews on or no, in averting the danger of concussion there may well be an increased possibility of rectal dysfunction in the ruck.

  125. EC @ 22:48

    If it were the other way round, EC, Tommy were to post a tweet encouraging people to murder the young man, would the police have acted?

    Where is blind justice in today’s Britain?

  126. Yankee Imperialist Aggressors make unprovoked attack against the Arab Socialist Republic of Syria . Without the consent of the UN Security Council this is an illegal act of aggression . How will America’s running-dogs in Britain respond to this?
    It will clearly split opinion on both sides of the Atlantic. Pamella Gellar for one writes against Trump.

  127. The last time Parliament , taking notice of the hostility of their electors , voted against Cameron’ attempt to bomb Syria.

    Pamela Gellar’s page at :
    http://dlvr.it/NqQtdW

    Nobody else around to comment yet.

  128. Syrian strike – possible points to the tactical advantage of the Trump camp besieged as it is by globalist forces
    1. Should put a further damper on the talk of Trump’s collusion with Russia.
    2. Sends an Easter message of some kind to North Korea that the Americans now have their own unpredictable madman.
    3. Gives Xi and his staff something to mull over before discussions with Trump on the Chinese nine-dot South China Sea encroachments.
    4. Weakens the UN and NATO.
    5. Strking against materiel rather than personnel and avoiding so far as possible civilian and Russian casualties minimizes unfavourable propaganda and may leave the door open to taking up again the broken rapprochement with the Syrian and Russian governments that was tentatively broached since Trump’s inauguration.
    6. An opportunity (1) for the MIC to win a contract for a state of the art, fully-equipped air base; and,
    (2) to offer aid for the construction of a safe space in Syria for displaced Syrian Christians.

  129. After a massive article in yesterday’s Colchester gazette ( two pages and the entire gazette comment column)
    about what a wonderful thing Islam is and all the benefits it brings to our town I sent them this spoof letter which they printed today.
    They must have children from schools on work experience putting local papers together.
    Copy of letter.
    Sir / madam.
    What a heartwarming article about the faith of mr Goni and as you say it’s a fantastic idea for people to discover more about Islam.
    I spent quite a lot of time a few years ago in Saudi Arabia and was welcomed into all their holy places and what a joy it was.
    As mr Goni will confirm I was welcomed into Mecca to join in with their celebrations with them.
    More westerners should make the effort to visit Mecca to view the Christian churches that flourish alongside the mosques in a truly multicultural paradise.
    It’s wonderful when we can all come together regardless of our beliefs as brothers and sisters of the world.

  132. Baron,

    Re: Thomas Bata of Zlin [ he’s one of yours? 😉 ]

    After watching Jonathan Meades’ “The Joy of Essex” the other night (h/t Frank P)

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01qfr95/jonathan-meades-the-joy-of-essex

    … i was following up local connections and visited the following webpage, amongst many others, which I thought you might find of interest:

    https://retrograd.org.uk/2015/09/05/workers-playground-essexs-czech-functionalist-utopia/

    In fact the whole website is quite fascinating, providing hours of distraction!

  133. EC.
    Thanks for that link, the fatuous bloody woman must be off her trolley. Seeding Wales with immigrants? not a cat in Hells chance, in Cardiff perhaps but out in the wilds, which is most of the country, never. Plaid Cymru has never been anything other than a joke, they are the local version of Homo Islingtonensis, they speak only for themselves and only to themselves, and if they persist in this lunacy they will go the same way as UKIP. By the way I live in Tower Hamlets, I’m the local wog.

  134. Before the Americans went stomping in to Syria, they would have been well advised to get an accurate report on what actually happened. I rather suspect that Trump or those advising him grabbed the opportunity to shake a fist under the nose of the Russians, if only to detract attention from the rumours surrounding trumps relations with Putin. Stranger things have happened. I do not think the Government of Syria droped chemical missiles on its own people, it is a brutal institution but is not stupid and would have realised the consequence of such actions.

  137. stephen maybery @ 14:59

    The barbarian is tuned to a similar wavelength to you, stephen, something is not quite right.

    The Donald has been cornered because of his alleged closeness to Russia, labelled Putin’s puppet, a stooge of the Russians, he couldn’t make any move on the issue of relations with the Russians because of this, the strike may have lifted some of the burden of such accusations, there are a number of things that would support such reading of the missile attack.

    The Russians were warned, may have warned the Syrians. too, the main runway didn’t get damaged, the hit parts can be repaired in weeks if not days, Tillerson’s next week visit to Moscow hasn’t been cancelled.

    Virtually every commentary on the US strike was predicated on the chemical attack being carried out by the Assad regime (some even suggested a roque forces within his command went mad), which makes no sense at all, what possible benefit could Assad derive from it, none whatsoever, then why go ahead killing the people he wants to vote for him, moreover killing them with chemicals, a weapon that makes the Western elites see red, in few months of even weeks we’re going to learn it wasn’t Assad at all, the MSM lapdogs will scarcely acknowledge it, it will be too late anyway.

    The Saudis are killing tens of thousands in Yemen, nobody pays any attention to it, the Americans are openly aiding the slaughter, in Syria where a planned peace conference offered some hope the tragedy may come to an end the death of 80, most likely staged by the proxies of the Western forces, causes an uproar.

    What has actually the strike achieved over and above the destruction of some dwellings, half a dozen aircraft? The reality on the battlefield remains the same, Assad controls almost all of the major urban areas, ISIL is holed up in the rural districts up north-east and south, the opposition to Assad is hopelessly divided, in fact, they hate each other more than they hate Assad (in the preparation of the conference they would talk to Assad people, not to each other), unless the Americans are willing to put boots on the ground, commit, do a Sisi, the strike has done nothing at all to speed up a political settlement. Lunacy.

  138. EC @ 10:09

    That’s not new to the barbarian, EC, the boss’s farther was one of the Bata’s model human creations, he had nothing but praise for the man who indeed copied the production line model of manufacture from Ford, Bata had plants in many countries, all based on the same idea, including one South Africa and, wait for it, the barbarian was offered a job there, refused because he figured he wouldn’t be able to cope with apartheid. Funny world, he?

  139. John birch. @ 08:51

    Nice letter, polite and to the point, John.

    The paper may get some correspondence on it, pass it to you, let us know if anything warms your heart.

  142. Baron
    April 7th – 17:38

    I agree with your resonance with Stephen Maybery that something is not right in the picture presented us and I had already linked to Ron Paul’s skeptical observations that Assad would hardly choose just that moment to use chemical weapons on his own people, which by the way no one had proved him to have done previously despite assertions to the contrary by discredited media mavens.

    But “Lunacy”? I do not think President Trump’s missile strike against the Homs airbase can for a moment be characterised in this way. My list at 08:12 yesterday are positive outcomes of calculations that would have had to have been made based on the options for action or inaction.

    As you may be aware, I do not dismiss the possibility of false flags from the armoury of states. Fox News was reporting a few hours ago that a hospital to which victims of the strike had been taken was hit by bombs from Syrian planes supposedly to conceal evidence, though evidence of what was not clear. Earlier, “survivors being treated in a hospital on the Turkish side of the border told a CNN team they saw chemical bombs dropped from the air”. Just now I read on Zero Hedge that the “former UK ambassador to Syria, Peter Ford, has joined the chorus of folks implying that the chemical attack in Syria wreaks of a ‘false flag’ operation”. 
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-07/ex-uk-ambassador-syria-questions-chemical-attack-it-doesnt-make-sense-assad-not-mad

    Wallsters will remember that a year or two ago an article by Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books was linked here which disclosed the cooperation between the Russian and the American military to thwart the plans of the Obama administration to add Syria to the list of regimes in the Middle East which had been earmarked for destruction by globalists. We should perhaps at least speculate that that cooperation did not abruptly terminate on January 20th.

    Lunacy? I don’t think so. Fog of battle? Yes.

    In the meantime, the spokesman for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has told everyone to “calm down”.

  144. Malfleur @ 04:40

    Good spiel, Malfleur, only a blind, brainless, war eager mesomorph could swallow the ‘Assad did it’ explanation, as the great Joseph says ‘he would have to be insane to carry out a chemical attack days after Tillerson said he could stay, the Syrian people will decide’.

    There’s another broader aspect of the affair the barbarian has talked about before, it’s that we as humans respond to events (or initiate them) from two sources – we either think or we feel about them, it’s rational sagacity or emotions that drive how act, it’s seldom that decisions based on the latter is right, more often than not it leads to disastrous consequences.

    Take the example of the refugee crisis, the response to it by Mutti who saw a poor dead child curled up on a beach, opened her arms to all, has created, is still creating, a crisis in Europe we haven’t seen the end of yet.

    The Australians must have seen the same child, or another, children’s casualties have there been aplenty, but instead of feeling bad about it, they thought about it, used their brains, cool logic, decided to turn the boats back.

    The barbarian fears the bombing decision by the Donald is similarly infected by feelings, this is what he said: “….the attack on children yesterday was a horrible, horrible thing, and I’ve been watching it, and seeing it ….”, it was the unfortunate kids caught up in the attack that changed his mind on Assad, as if before the Assad’s forces haven’t killed, maimed, disabled any children.

    It’s not often the barbarian disagrees with the great Mark Steyn, but he, too, has been bitten by the bug of emotion saying (in the clip below) ‘he (the Donald) was moved by the pictures of dead babies, acted on it”.

    The emotions’ takeover of our decisions, the degrading of rational thinking to an also-run will be the end of the West, the barbarian predicts, it weakens us to a point that even a bunch of camel herders with AK-47s, trucks, or sharp implements of sufficient length and strength will subdue us.

  146. Apologies, the barbarian forgot to attach the great Mark’s clip, the one below is different from the one where he quotes the sentence, but the barbarian cant find it for some reason (the ‘history’ drawer on his gadget doesn’t seem to record all sites visited), if you are interested it was also on the Fox news, three people sitting around plus the great Mark, but trust Baron that Mark said the Donald had been moved by pictures of dead babies ….

    http://insider.foxnews.com/2017/04/06/mark-steyn-syria-trump-should-learn-democrats-mistake-gaddafi-libya

  147. Telegraph.
    Sweden has reinforced its borders with immediate effect, Stefan Löfven, the Swedish Prime Minister said.
    Describing the attack as a tragedy for the families involved, he added that he would do “whatever it takes” to ensure people felt safe.

  148. John birch -10:13

    Shutting the door, after the horse has bolted, or after fox has entered the chicken coop 🙂

  149. Baron – 07:55

    If the recent attack was on a makeshift site from where the attack took place and with few civilians then, there may have been less political damage. However, there is much we don’t know.
    It has split the political groupings, so they probably don’t know much either. Trump plays a long game and so it will be some time before we know whether to laugh, cry, or both. I find the media so biased (yesterday’s Times Finklestein article was dreadful – even worse than The News Quiz), I am not that bothered, as in, I shall wait and see.
    When Sir David King can be such a prat …
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-4392220/Green-initiatives-disasters-says-Christopher-Booker.html

  150. Wry comment on Syria in this interview by Lionel with RT journalist, Caleb Maupin. In particular, it is noted that the missile strike was against an airfield used as a primary base by Syrian and Russian government forces for operations against Al Nusra/ISIS.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfyacCdR3Ak

  151. TRUMP’S WAR AGAINST THE WAR MACHINE – “WE JUST HELPED ISIS.”
    Michael Savage,still banned from the United Kingdom by our vassal government, presents an argument on his Friday show that this was not even a sarin gas attack and that this was a complete gigantic false flag:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTZI2lS6MYo

  154. Malfleur @ 15:34

    Of course, the pipeline was a large part of the US decision to start an uprising in Syria, Malfleur, Qatar’s money, Saudi’s gear, Turkey’s services (roughly), the barbarian has said it few times before, nobody reacted to it. This piece, a couple of years old, is still valid, long term goals change little in years, it gives an objective picture of all the players in the ME.

    http://www.passionforliberty.com/2013/09/14/the-destabilization-of-syria-who-gains/

  155. RobertRetyred @ 10:38

    Excellent exposure of the fallout from the policies of the delusional wankers that the ecochondriacs are, Robert, the barbarian has just been told his electricity bill will go up by a whooping 20%, even more, a cool £200, mostly because of the free fugging subsidies. A project is in the pipeline by Baron to switch to a more affordable system, even if it means burning wood or coal.

  156. Virtually every pundit seems pleased the attack on the Syrian airbase was happening when the Donald was meeting with with Chinese President Xi Jinping, almost everyone sees it as a signal to the Chinese leader that if he does nothing on North Korea, the Americans will go it alone, sort the North Korean nutter themselves.

    This ‘signal’ may not be the smartest move by the Donald, the Chinese are no longer a country that takes signals from anyone, gone are the days the Americans flew over the Chinese territory at will, the Chinese were issuing the 345th warning and more, only the numbers went up.

    The Americans are as dependent on the Mandarin speakers as are the Chinese on the American consumer, annual trade runs at half a trillion dollar level, a massive number of American companies have manufacturing facilities in China, or sub-contract there.

    The issue of the undervaluation of the Chinese currency should have been at the top of the talk, together with the openness of the Chinese market for services, it would help us, too.

  157. Baron 2252
    North Korea is a whole different kettle of fish to Syria.
    China does not want the US or surrogate (Seoul) on its borders.
    It seems to me fairly certain that China will not tolerate US aggression against North Korea.

  160. Baron (22:29)

    Just two questions:

    Who is “Greg” and why?

    A lot has happened since that somewhat convoluted and often contradictory analysis. It would be interesting to know who funds him.
    Canadian; libertarian; anti-‘Zionist’. Hmmnn. Further and better particulars, please.

  162. Marshal Roberts @ 05:46
    Marshal Roberts @ 05:46

    Indeed, Marshal, if not the greatest than at least sharing the top spot with the king.

    That was the time to be American, the country was as vibrant as his songs, just look at the youngsters compare them to today’s drug fuelled crowds at pop concerts, it also shows that true talent knew no colour, sadly it wasn’t the same for the majority of the black people who possess, as we all do, little of the genius that makes some of us excel, reached stardom.

    Btw, the song you’ve picked is Baron’s favourite, but one could go for any other, it’s joy to listen to them, one genuinely perks up, and more, one can bloody get the lyrics, they make sense, hum the songs. Here’s another one he did with Keith R, another favourite of Born’s:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5madtiLf7DI

  163. Frank P @ 10:01

    As quick an answer as he can manage, Frank: No idea, and why what?

    It’s quite informative, at least Baron finds it so, deals with oil in as objective manner as one can hope for if he’s funded by some progressive outfit, but most of all seems to be treating all the players equally, no?

    You tell Baron what you find contradictory, we can have a chat.

  165. Frank P @ 09:31

    The great Mark has become the loudest cheerleader of the Donald’s raid at the Syrian airbase, Frank, which surprises Baron (Ann Coulter, the great Joseph amongst others are in the opposite camp with Baron).

    The raid was illegal, broke every international law one can think of, you may think ‘so what’, well, when the Germans get their EU Armed Forces going, they may decide to finish the job Adolf failed to deliver on, come over, false flag operations are dozen to a penny, would that make everyone here happy? (only half joking).

    Still, the Americans (coupled to us thanks to the ghastly Blair) got away with another legal bombing in 1999, Serbia was pummelled, ten of thousands killed, a chunk of the country carved up for the Kosovo Muslims, and the biggest American airbase in Europe (virtually nobody knows about it). No one said or did anything because about it, both Russia and China were just finishing the first decade of life after de-coupling from the yoke of dictatorship (the latter just in things economic).

    Today ain’t 1999, but more importantly, the Donald may like to ponder it, those who applaud him today for what he did may use the raid to get him out of the Oval Office later.

  166. “What is happening in the 300-mile stretch of sea between Sicily and Libya, day in and day out — in other words, what ‘we’ are doing there — is beyond reasonable doubt insane”.

    So begins Nicholas Farrell’s story below, when Baron’s finished reading it, he was more than tempted to agree with Frank, that we indeed are fugged, totally, unquestionably, irrevocably in or out of the Brussels’ monstrosity, or whatever we might or mightn’t do.

    It truly beggars believe it’s happening under your noses, and the deluded German wankers are the top villains in it. The Donald bombed the wrong place.

    “A sane person would assume that the 181,436 migrants (a new record) who made it by sea to Italy last year had done so under their own steam in flimsy fishing boats and dinghies at least some of the way across the Mediterranean. This, after all, is the message aid agencies and governments put out.

    In fact, every one of those 181,436 was picked up by EU and non-government aid-agency vessels off the Libyan coast just outside the 12-mile territorial limit, then ferried across to Europe. The people-smuggler boats — more often than not these days dangerously unseaworthy rubber dinghies — chug out towards the 12-mile limit, send out a distress signal, and Bob’s your uncle.

    Nearly all the migrants arriving in Italy are young men from West Africa, not refugees. They have the cash for a ticket on a smuggler boat (€1,500, give or take) so are not destitute. That’s getting on for £300 million in ticket sales last year. West African migrants are big business.

    The justification for the presence of the EU and aid-agency fleets in the southern Mediterranean is to save lives, and in the case of the EU’s Operation Sophia to arrest people smugglers and destroy their boats. If the fleets did not patrol, there would be far fewer deaths, because far fewer migrants would dare to put to sea. There would be far fewer people smugglers. Yet thanks to this enormous rescue fleet, the Italian interior ministry expects 250,000 more migrant boat people.

    The madness does not end here. There’s reason to suspect that the people smugglers are actually in direct contact with aid agencies, which is why they are so often first on the scene to rescue migrant boats — and this is a criminal offence.

    Last week, the chief prosecutor in Catania, Carmelo Zuccaro, revealed details of an investigation he has just begun amid growing suspicions of collusion between the agencies and the people smugglers. Where is the line, he asked, between aid and facilitation?

    He told Italian MPs: ‘The NGOs often work near to the coast and territory of Libya. We have calculated that in the last four months of 2016, 30 per cent of the rescues which landed at Catania were carried out by these organisations. In the first months of 2017, that percentage has grown to at least 50 per cent.’

    This Sicilian judge said the country with the most aid agencies operating in the central Mediterranean was Germany, with five organisations and six vessels (one costing £350,000 per month to keep at sea — over £4 million a year).

    ‘We must solve the problem of where the money comes from to sustain such high costs — who are the sources of this finance? We shall be doing checks on the NGOs who bring migrants into our jurisdiction. It is notable that the NGO ships are nearly always the nearest to the location of the emergency.

    ‘It’s not a crime to invade the waters of a foreign country to pick them up. What is punishable is bringing them to Italy without respecting the rules of engagement… vessels should take migrants to the nearest port, which is certainly not Italy.’ The nearest safe port, in fact, would be in Tunisia.

    Last month the EU’s border agency, Frontex, also accused aid agencies of activities which ‘help criminals achieve their objectives at minimum cost, strengthen their business model by increasing the chances of success’.

    Its annual report says the smugglers now hardly bother to telephone the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre in Rome to be picked up, preferring to call aid-agency vessels directly. The reason is obvious: these people will not arrest them or confiscate their vessels.

    Since June 2016, many boats have been rescued near the Libyan coast by aid-agency vessels ‘without any prior distress call’, suggesting the rendezvous has been pre-arranged. In Italy, the lynch-mob principle of ‘he must have done it’ is enough to secure convictions, so prosecutions are a distinct possibility.

    But the only way to solve the migrant crisis — as the Frontex report says — is to stop all these West Africans getting to Libya. This would ensure too that the aid-agency humanitarians are not led into further temptation”.

    Are you weeping?

  167. Baron

    Happenstance fucks up all grand conspiracies; combined with internecine and intra-factional disputes. Individual greed and the fact that the kalaidoscope is shaken several times a day makes the matrix a mess.
    Rabbie Burns summed it up in his inimitable way: “The best laid plans o’ mice an’ men, gang aft agley.”

    I see his posts petered out in 2013.

  168. Btw, the story of our insanity on the issue of immigration is from the last week’s Spectator, the barbarian hopes that by acknowledging the source the rag won’t harm him.

    Could they go after someone who copies what they publish? Anyone knows?

  169. Frank P @ 11:33

    Hard to disagree, Frank, but why the heck it’s people like John Steinbeck, Rabbie, you who could come up using few liners like that, not the poorly educate d Slav?

  170. In the latest Spectator, Rod Liddle has an enjoyable piece in which he castigates the BBC for insisting it’s staff avoid eating meat on Friday to help to save the planet, a kind of obvious idiocy one would expect from the wankers.

    In the postings below someone called ‘damocles’ says: “In the interests of balance should not the BBC canteen force vegetarians (of which I suspect there are many in the organisation) to eat meat – say on a Wednesday?” Priceless.

  171. Yesterday a friend asked me what I thought ofTrump, full of kindness and generosity as usual, I replied, the new face of the old guard. OK perhaps not as emollient as I usually am but my leg was giving me gyp.

  172. One is left with only hope and prayer that the Donald (or his foreign affairs advisor Ivanka) leave the north Korean nutter without a surprise attack of any kind, this isn’t Syria, it’s a serious enemy of some strength with alot of conventional gear dispersed throughout the country, including 70 subs, not all tracked by the Americans.

    The wart of North Korea is akin to a net of hornets, the insects inhabiting them are unsettling, unpredictable, but only potentially dangerous, better left undisturbed, poke into the net, and nobody can say what the result will be, for victims suffering from allergy a stink could be fatal.

    In his youth, the barbarian knew of boy who did bit of hornet poking, got a stink in his little willy, an operation was arranged, whether it went ahead or not Baron doesn’t know, the boy never confessed, what he knows is the boy, having grow into a handsome man, had no sex life (Baron will leave you guessing how he knows, and why had to go without the pleasure of bonking).

    The Americans – beware.

    http://thehill.com/policy/defense/327983-navy-strike-group-moving-toward-korean-peninsula-report

  173. stephen maybery @ 12:36

    Never judge a bowl of pudding before you’ve had a mouth full of it, stephen.

  176. Frank P – 11:33

    “Happenstance fucks up all grand conspiracies”

    By that, do you mean the “cock up theory” of history?
    eg. Do Di and die; JFK & Marilyn; Jeremy, Norman & Rinka etc.

  179. Frank P – 17:18

    So some even managed to get their families out of the area, but several soldiers were killed. Were they the ‘expendible’ or the slow soldiers?

    Wierd.

  181. RR (17:38)

    Given the ‘fog of war’ and the propaganda machines of all participants in this nexus of the current shenannigans, HTF do we know that ANY soldiers were killed? I’m even begininning to wonder whether Don Trumpo is just a figment of our collective maginations.

  182. Frank P – 17:47

    “Not just a pretty face, this gal.”

    Yerrrs, but how far does the saccharin YouTube persona extend into reality?

    Remember the fairly recent internet meme – in the American vernacular

    “I don’t matter how hot she look, someone, somewhere is sick of her shit!”
    😉

  186. EC – 19:09″Decoys”

    I must remember, if I ever join the Army, which is unlikely given my age, but whatever, I must remember that I must never, ever, gain the rank of ‘Decoy’. Not if I want to live a little longer.

  187. Frank P – 17:56
    ‘Decoys’

    Do you remember those Kodak Girls that used to stand outside chemist shops?

  188. EC (19:06)

    Yeh … but with You Tube replete with Lionel, Stephan and Styxhexxanhammer666 … ??? 🙂

    Anyway, blondes get dirty quicker, I’m told. Not keen on that Dana Perino from the Five on Fox, though. Her pooch is a ringer for her.

  189. RobertRetyred – 20:49

    You got it. Since no bugger wants to join the British Army these days for fear of being court marshalled for shooting at the enemy, then our last line of defence will be cardboard cutout squaddies. Also inflatable aircraft carriers and, if the MOD budget permits, some inflatable WRENs/WRAFs for the top brass.

  190. Frank P – 22:45

    Fox’s blondes all seem to turn a bit psychotic once they are past their ‘sell by’ date.
    As for the Blonde vs Brunette thing you’d have to ask Roger Ailes or now, reportedly, Bill O’Reilly!

    Stephan Molyneaux is instant Mogadon! Styxhexxanhammer666 looks like one of Fraser’s backroom gimps at OQS.

  191. US INVASION OF SYRIA READY; SOME SAY ‘BEGUN’ – political target Turkey, North Korea, China

    It looks as though the troops now in Syria have been under preparation for the last 80 days.

    Alex Jones tries to figure out what’s happening in this 1ST HOUR of his Palm Sunday show when he gives President Trump the benefit of the doubt

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGnkRYBd1O0

  194. Malfleur – 05:08

    EC- STAY AWAKE AT THE BACK!
    “Stephan Molyneaux is instant Mogadon!”

    Thanks, that worked a treat. I was ‘out like a light’ from 2am until 8am!
    😉

  196. He should read:

    Business Efficiency and Ethics: Values and Strategic Decision Making,
    by D. Chorafas.

  197. @Frank P 9th – 22:45

    “Anyway, blondes get dirty quicker,”

    Dirty blondes? Rrowrrr!

    “Down, boy!”

  198. Fragments of Pieces of the Emmanuel Macron Jigsaw Puzzle

    “Emmanuel Macron a participé au Groupe Bilderberg du 29 mai au 1er juin 2014. À ce moment précis, Emmanuel Macron était secrétaire général adjoint de la présidence de la République. Il était le conseiller économique et financier de François Hollande. Deux mois après la réunion du Groupe Bilderberg, il est nommé ministre de l’Economie.”

    ” Macron worked as an Inspector of Finances in the French Ministry of Economy between 2004 and 2008. In 2007, he served as deputy rapporteur for the Commission to improve French economic growth headed by Jacques Attali.[8] Macron paid €50,000 to buy himself out of his government contract in 2008,[11] and left to work as an investment banker at a highly-paid position at Rothschild & Cie Banque.[”

    “…L’ami d’Emmanuel Macron, Henri de Castries, patron d’AXA, est président du comité de direction du Groupe Bilderberg. ….”

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