Thought Id start this one going because its rather dead on this board at the moment and I suppose all my usual muckers are either at the Stella tennis event watching Dim Tim (lose again) or at Henly Regatta eating cucumber sandwiches (they wish,...NOT).

Anyway please feel free to just talk to yourself blast away and let it go on any company or subject you wish. Just wish Id thought of this one before.

cheers GF.

hilary - 08 Oct 2015 12:21 - 63699 of 63725

I learned all about Damascus at school. Apparently it kills 99% of all known germs. :o)



I remember learning that too I guess we must have done the same syllabus ... also remember the story about Popeye knocking out Jesus when he went to Mount Olive :-)

thanks for the support chris .... if i could actually work out where it was

meanwhile, an entertaining cartoon on JC and the queen in today's guardian

Trying to make mountains out of molehills.

at least it's amusing unlike the usually crap you post

Go back to bed and restart your medication!

Again attempts to make mountains out of molehills.


Somebody translate for Hazyone as he pops down to Party Central office for another Crosby briefing


"Thursday's Daily Telegraph

A member of the council claimed they were "appalled" at the move, calling it "deeply insulting" and "not grown up".

But there is quite a history of Conservative MPs who had done just the same thing as Corbyn.

Professor Dan Rebellato, an academic at Royal Holloway University, unearthed details of top Tories, some of whom still remain in the Cabinet, who also turned down an invitation to meet the Queen and join her Privy Council upon first invitation.

That includes:
Iain Duncan Smith, then newly-elected leader of his party now work and pensions secretary (19 September 2001)
Michael Fallon, former minister for business and enterprise now defence secretary, and justice minister Damien Green (10 September 2002)
David Lidington, minister for Europe, who "apparently had better things to do than show up and kiss hands" (15 December 2010)
Sir John Randall, deputy chief-whip (9 June and 21 July 2010)
Chris Grayling, Grant Shapps, Nick Herbert and Theresa Villiers, ministers for work & pensions, communities, justice, and transport, respectively (9 June 2010)
Last but not least, that list also includes, David Cameron.

When the Witney MP became leader himself in 2005, he also "snubbed" the Queen by not accepting his first invitation to a Privy Council meeting.

They were probably down at the Lodge rolling up the trouser legs.

A Queen lookalike, sent by a newspaper, turns up at Jeremy Corbyn's home in north London

Missing: one 66-year-old, grey-haired man with beard. Last seen in public on Monday evening in an agitated state, wearing a brown tweed jacket and green-striped shirt.

The hunt for Jeremy Corbyn is continuing amid growing concern he has disappeared. Albeit mainly in order to avoid meeting the Queen.

lol :-)

Max,

Is that your wife, or is it Hay's?

.

Dilbert,

I went to a very good school. The sign on the gate said it was approved.

Not surprised! )

refugees arriving in lesbos
good to see that it now seems to be properly organised and, as far as i can see, all have to properly register before going anywhere
indeed, as far as i can see, registration still does not permit onward travel to any other country and the registration only has a validity of 6 months
i'm not sure what then, but i guess the refugees will be formally processed and either permitted to stay - eg if they are genuine political refugees - or if just economic migrants, deported ..... not sure of this last bit

Opinion Formers: Half do not expect Jeremy Corbyn to be Labour leader by the next General Election

Undoubtedly, Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour Party has sent shockwaves through the politically engaged, simultaneously raising people’s greatest hopes and deepest fears. YouGov’s Opinion Formers - which draws leaders from the worlds of business, politics, the media, charities, public sector and academia among others – however do not expect his election as leader of the Opposition to boost the fortunes of his beleaguered party.

Half (51%) of Opinion Formers doubt that Jeremy Corbyn will still be Labour leader by the time of the next General Election, while a third (33%) expect a split within Labour that could see some Labour MPs leaving to start a new party or join another. A further 30% expect general support for Labour to fall across Britain as a result of Corbyn’s election

Rather than the banana split of the tory party.

Good old Theresa.

Tom Watson of the Nasty Party

'Vilest accusations'
Tory MP Nigel Evans, himself cleared of sexual abuse, earlier told the BBC that Mr Watson had "set himself up as judge and jury".
"Even when Leon had died, Tom Watson decided to repeat the allegations," Mr Evans said. "It is totally unfounded."
Former Chancellor Norman Lamont said police investigations into historical abuse risked becoming a "witch-hunt".

The dead sheep has snuffed it: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34495827

Revealed: Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell's close IRA links

The true extent of Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell’s links with the IRA is revealed by a Telegraph investigation.



It can be disclosed that for seven years running, while the IRA “armed struggle” was at its height, Mr Corbyn attended and spoke at official republican commemorations to honour dead IRA terrorists, IRA “prisoners of war” and the active “soldiers of the IRA.”

The official programme for the 1988 event, held one week after the IRA murdered three British servicemen in the Netherlands, states that “force of arms is the only method capable of bringing about a free and united Socialist Ireland.” Mr Corbyn used the event to attack the Anglo-Irish Agreement, the precursor of the peace process.

He said it had resulted in no improvement in the lives of the people of Northern Ireland, adding: “It strengthens rather than weakens the border between the six and the 26 counties, and those of us who wish to see a united Ireland oppose the agreement for that reason.”

The editorial board of a hard-Left magazine, of which Mr Corbyn was a member, wrote an article praising the Brighton bombing. In its article on the IRA attack, which almost wiped out Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet, the editorial board of London Labour Briefing said the atrocity showed that “the British only sit up and take notice [of Ireland] when they are bombed into it.”

According to an authoritative parliamentary reference work, Mr Corbyn was general secretary of the editorial board. He wrote the front-page story in the same issue of Briefing.

The same edition of Briefing, for December 1984, carried a reader’s letter praising the “audacity” of the IRA attack and stating: “What do you call four dead Tories? A start.”

It mocked Norman, now Lord, Tebbit, the trade secretary who was dug out of the rubble of the Grand Hotel, saying: “Try riding your bike now, Norman.”

It can also be revealed that in 2004 Mr McDonnell, now Labour’s shadow chancellor, was given a special award by Sinn Fein and another IRA-supporting body for the “unfailing political and personal support he has given to the republican community in the Six Counties over many years.”



The award was presented to him at a Sinn Fein fundraising dinner by Gerry Kelly, the IRA terrorist who bombed the Old Bailey, killing one and injuring almost 200.

Kelly, now a senior Sinn Fein politician, also led the 1983 breakout of IRA inmates from the Maze prison, during which he shot a prison officer in the head.

As has been widely reported, Mr McDonnell also honoured IRA terrorists, though in his case only after the ceasefire.

In his apology for the remarks last month, Mr McDonnell claimed he only made them to promote the peace process.

In fact, however, Mr McDonnell told the IRA’s official newspaper that he opposed the peace process negotiations to create a power-sharing assembly in what became the Good Friday Agreement.

He said: “An assembly is not what people have laid down their lives for over thirty years…the settlement must be for a united Ireland.”

The disclosures are made after research by the Telegraph in archives in London, Oxford and Belfast.

They come after the Prime Minister, David Cameron, attacked Mr Corbyn last week as “terrorist-sympathising” and “Britain-hating.”

The new revelations were greeted with shock and disgust by victims and opponents of the IRA.

Lord Tebbit, whose wife, Margaret, was permanently crippled by the Brighton bomb, said: "It’s hard to think how Corbyn could sink any lower. It’s the classic definition of the snake’s belly. He betrays his hatred of democracy and his love of violence, which survives to this day.”

Nigel Dodds, the Democratic Unionist MP for North Belfast, said: “Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell speak about honest politics and straight talking, but they should stop trying to pretend and tell lies that they were pro-peace. They were pro-terrorism. They were enemies of the peace process. They had a clear choice between the IRA and peaceful nationalism and they chose the IRA.”

Between 1986 and 1992, Mr Corbyn attended and spoke each year at the annual “Connolly/Sands” commemoration in London to honour dead IRA terrorists and support imprisoned IRA “prisoners of war.”

Programmes for the events have been obtained by the Telegraph.

The programme for the 1987 event, on May 16 of that year, praises the “soldiers of the IRA,” saying: “We are proud of our people and the revolutionaries who are an integral part of that people.”

The programme for the 1988 event, on May 8 of that year, states that “in this, the conclusive phase in the war to rid Ireland of the scourge of British imperialism… force of arms is the only method capable of bringing this about.”

The event took place the day after the funerals of the service personnel killed by the IRA in the Netherlands.

Each programme includes a list of IRA “prisoners of war” who are to be honoured that year, including the Brighton bomber, Patrick Magee, and sectarian murderers.

The lists include their prisons and birthdays, with IRA supporters in the UK encouraged to send them birthday cards in jail.

Mr Corbyn typically spoke alongside senior figures from Sinn Fein, including Gerry Adams at the 1991 event, at which he attacked “British imperialism” and praised Bobby Sands, the IRA terrorist who died on hunger-strike.

The events were organised by the Wolfe Tone Society, which describes itself in the programmes as an “Irish republican support group based in London. Its work consists of helping republican prisoners’ relatives and promoting the policies and publications of Sinn Fein.”

Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell “work closely” with the Wolfe Tone Society, according to its convenor, Dennis Grace, speaking at the 2006 event.

It was at the Wolfe Tone Society’s 2003 commemoration that Mr McDonnell made his now notorious comments calling for Sands and other terrorists to be “honoured,” adding: “It was the bombs and bullets and sacrifice made by the likes of Bobby Sands that brought Britain to the negotiating table.”

In his apology last month for the remarks, Mr McDonnell claimed that he made them to promote the peace process, saying: “I went out and argued for the peace process and I made this speech to a group of republicans because one of the problems we had is that if there was a feeling that they were defeated or humiliated they would not stand down.”

In fact, however, the Telegraph can disclose, Mr McDonnell initially opposed the peace process. In January 1998, during the negotiations for a new power-sharing assembly which three months later became the Good Friday agreement, he told the IRA’s official newspaper, An Phoblacht: “An assembly is not what people have laid down their lives for over thirty years. We want peace, but the settlement must be just and the settlement must be for an agreed and united Ireland.”

He changed his position when the IRA accepted the accord and supported the agreement, though he continued to attack the British government for their “failure of nerve in dealing with unionism.”

Mr Corbyn was also active in the Labour Committee on Ireland, another explicitly pro-republican pressure group, speaking at its Labour conference fringe meetings and signing LCI’s statement of objectives in 1984.

LCI regarded Northern Ireland as a colony and the Loyalist majority as a construct which should be ignored. It campaigned vitriolically against the peaceful, constitutional nationalist party, the SDLP, whose supporters it described as “cannon-fodder…manipulated and directed by a sophisticated management caucus.”

Much of the autumn 1985 edition of the LCI journal, Labour and Ireland, is devoted to a six-page personal attack on John Hume, the then SDLP leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner and key architect of the peace process.

The journal described him as “dogmatic,” “insecure,” and suffering from a “deeply-rooted need for adulation and recognition as an international statesman.”

Diane Abbott, the new shadow international development secretary, was also a strong supporter of LCI.

In a 1984 interview with Labour and Ireland, she attacked the Unionist population of Northern Ireland as an “enclave of white supremacist ideology” comparable to white settlers in Zimbabwe.

Mr Corbyn also strongly opposed a precursor to the peace process, the Anglo-Irish Agreement. He said on two occasions that the agreement “strengthens rather than weakens the border between the six and the 26 counties, and those of us who wish to see a united Ireland oppose the agreement for that reason.”

However, it is the explicit support for the Brighton bombing in London Labour Briefing magazine that may prove the most controversial.

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In its December 1984 leader, the editorial board “disassociated itself” from an article the previous month criticising the bombing, saying the criticism was a “serious political misjudgment.”

The board said it “reaffirmed its support for, and solidarity with, the Irish republican movement” and added that “the British only sit up and take notice [of Ireland] when they are bombed into it.”

Alongside its editorial, the board reprinted a speech by Gerry Adams describing the bombing as a "blow for democracy" and the "inevitable result of the British presence in [Ireland]."

Briefing earlier stated: “We refuse to parrot the ritual condemnation of ‘violence’ because we insist on placing responsibility where it lies…. Let our ‘Iron Lady’ know this: those who live by the sword shall die by it. If she wants violence, then violence she will certainly get.”

According to the authoritative reference work, Parliamentary Profiles, by the late Andrew Roth, Mr Corbyn was general secretary of the editorial board at the time. Other reference material describes him as a member of the board. Mr Corbyn ran Briefing’s mailing list and supporters’ register, according to an advert in the March 1983 issue.

He usually chaired its fringe meetings at Labour conferences and other events and was a keynote speaker at its annual general meeting in July 1985, after the Brighton articles appeared.

In a telephone interview during the recent leadership campaign, Mr Corbyn was repeatedly asked by a BBC interviewer whether he condemned the murders by the IRA.

He five times refused to answer the question directly, saying: “I condemn what was done by the British Army as well as the other sides” before the line went dead.

Mr Corbyn and Mr McDonnell did not respond to requests for comment.