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.

Now why would that possibly be so Max?

You know full well Stan.

Corbyn should be arrested and tried as a traitor.

The Turkish fans sang Allahu akbar and booed during the minutes silence in the game against Greece last night . And there's our friend Merkel coseying up to Erdogen a week ago she wants Turkey in the EU nice lady eh .

The ironic thing though is he wouldn't have got that close to a terrorist to do that would he .

please mister terrorist, why don't you put down that nasty gun and give me those grenades
what will i do if you don't?
well, you'll get two hours detention and have to write out a thousand times, "i must not be a naughty terrorist and frighten people"

===========

spiffing idea fred, as is your promotion of reintroducing the open-doors policy to uk

BBC News

Armed police have raided a flat in the north Paris suburb of Saint Denis in an operation linked to Friday's attacks.
A woman blew herself up with a suicide belt, a prosecutor says. Some reports suggested two suspects died. Several explosions and gunfire were heard. The operation is said to be ongoing.
Five people have also been arrested.
The focus of the operation is reported to be Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of the Islamic State-claimed attacks that killed 129 people.

Max,


That cartoon is interesting,

Reminds me of :

The Carnation Revolution (Portuguese: Revolução dos Cravos), also referred to as the 25 April (Portuguese: 25 de Abril), was initially a military coup in Lisbon, Portugal, on 25 April 1974 which overthrew the regime of the Estado Novo.[1] The revolution started as a military coup organized by the Armed Forces Movement (Portuguese: Movimento das Forças Armadas (MFA)), composed of military officers who opposed the regime, but the movement was soon coupled with an unanticipated and popular campaign of civil resistance. This movement would lead to the fall of the Estado Novo and the withdrawal of Portugal from its African colonies and East Timor.

The name "Carnation Revolution" comes from the fact that almost no shots were fired and when the population took to the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship and war in the colonies, carnations were put into the muzzles of rifles and on the uniforms of the army men. In Portugal, the 25th of April is a national holiday, known as Freedom Day (Portuguese: Dia da Liberdade), to celebrate the event.


A friend was in Portugal during that period and was amazed how the "problem" was resolved.

Reminds me of somebody's antecedents:

Ability to reject one's own history:

Will this be in the Budget:

But the cartoon in the Independent to-day could be said to sum up the Hazy Manuel Brigade and runners.

But probably they wouldn't understand the message:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices#gallery

See U-turn Wacky Dave is running away again on a HP vote once again.

He does look strong when he is more afraid of his own back benchers who show some sense, than the opposition.

If it wasn't serious it would be laughable.

But the cartoon in the Independent to-day could be said to sum up the Hazy Manuel Brigade and runners.

But probably they wouldn't understand the message:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices#gallery

Max.

You wish may come true.

In Russia.


The article is too brief, but

UmHHHHHH.

He may be wishing to donate.

>Putin sets up commission to combat terrorism financing



http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/11/18/uk-mideast-crisis-russia-financing-idUKKCN0T70WV20151118?feedType=nl&feedName=ukmorningdigest


-=====-==

But it is strange to be cosying up to Putin after "extended" Russia recently shot a plane down in the Ukraine.

Sometimes, it is birds of a feather.

--=-=-

as i said several days ago ......

it is very likely that there will be an uncomfortable alliance between the west (usa, europe and the gulf states) and russia

russia will provide the boots on the ground and, in due course, will "facilitate" the removal of assad, his replacement being "chosen"

for its part, the west will provide air support and intelligence

russia's price for the above will be the softening of sanctions against them

==============

it's called pragmatism and like it or not, it is the necessary way of the world
the strong moral stance in such circumstances is for those who live in cloud-cuckoo land

That is what Chamberlain attempted to practice in the 30s.

-====--

I suppose you can boost Putin position by giving him back the Ukraine and bits of Poland.

-=-==

But, perhaps, the Russian Military may have learnt from their mission in Afghanistan and advise Putin differently.

==-==-


Perhaps, we can then bomb some of the African state Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger Chad, Yemen. Somalia, Kenya etc. etc. etc.

Nice places for safe havens.
-=-===-=-=

Mind we could bomb the hell out of Paris as they seem to have a hell of a lot of terrorists there.

=======

Dave will sort it our for me!

Thank God for St Crispin.

I think I will go back to playing chess.


Simpler than politics and war games.

An account of Corbyn's performance yesterday during the Prime Minister's statement

Contempt scented the air, deadly as poison: QUENTIN LETTS sees a leader humbled

Labour backbenchers gave Jeremy Corbyn a frightful kicking in the Commons Chamber.

Their lusty disrespect electrified the House, setting off whispering, cluckings and low-key laughter.

Loyalty to party leader was thrown aside.

Labour rebels did not even try to look doleful as they set about him. Piranhas razoring into an angler’s shin might have shown daintier manners – a greater sense of ‘no, Clarence, after you’.

Yesterday lunchtime’s session, a Prime Ministerial statement about the Paris terror attacks, thus became unexpectedly significant.

Though it may be too early to announce the Corbyn death spiral, his travails yesterday allowed Mr Cameron to nudge the notion of an imminent Commons vote on bombing Syria.

The PM artfully weighted this with modest acknowledgements that of course the House would decide, the House would be the ultimate arbiter, it would be the House, not he, the peachy Etonian, that took us to war. They liked that.

Beside Mr Corbyn sat Hilary Benn, shadow foreign secretary, who plainly thinks Mr Corbyn’s endorsement of the Stop the War lobby is barmy.

During his speech Mr Corbyn kept fluffing words and managed to called President Hollande ‘Francoise’.

He dawdled, losing both his thread and the House. He developed a frog in his throat, like Iain Duncan Smith in the most dog days as Opposition leader.

Around the Chamber, Hon Members started talking to their neighbours. Contempt, which in Parliament can be as fatal as vaporised arsenic, scented the air. A few disbelieving grins.

Mr Benn remembered some urgent matter demanding his presence elsewhere. Exit. Andy Burnham, Chris Bryant and Rosie Winterton were all summoned to unknown engagements.

Exeunt. Behind Mr Corbyn sat his critic John Mann (Lab, Bassetlaw), scowling with such magnifying-glass ferocity, the nape of the Corbyn neck must have burned. Some Labour MPs stared in agony at the ceiling. Geraint Davies (Swansea W) shielded his eyes, as though watching Dr Who. Ann Coffey (Stockport) dug into her right ear’s seam of wax. Pain displacement?

During Mr Corbyn’s speech, the Labour silence was sticky, sullen. But when Mr Cameron was speaking, they nodded and often mooed their approval.

Mr Corbyn slumped in his seat, one glum beardie in his trademark oatmeal jacket. He looked amateur. Hapless. Hopeless.

Mr Cameron’s own awkward squad was comparatively muted. Crispin Blunt (Reigate), John Baron (Billericay) and Mark Field (Westminster) kept their scepticism polite.

When Ulster’s Nigel Dodds (Belfast N) said that politicians who tried to excuse terrorism should be ‘ashamed of themselves’, he glowered at Mr Corbyn.

Widespread agreement among Labour MPs was undeniable.

Chris Leslie (Nottingham E) said it should be ‘immediately obvious to everyone – to everyone’ that the police should be allowed to kill marauding terrorist lunatics.

That repeated ‘to everyone’ was delivered with a heavy gesture towards Mr Corbyn. The Labour leader busied himself with his BlackBerry.

Emma Reynolds (Wolverhampton NE), sitting near Mr Leslie and Streatham’s Chuka Umunna, said people who accused the West of bringing troubles on its own people were ‘wrong and disgraceful’.

Her words thudded into their intended target, who was still pretending to be gripped by some email message on his BlackBerry.

And so it continued: blatant attacks on Mr Corbyn, varying in severity, from the likes of Pat McFadden, David Hanson, Ian Austin. I saw Yvette Cooper make a face at her friend Mr McFadden.

Her discreet expression had ‘ye gods’ written all over it.

Mr Cameron stroked the Labour benches, complimenting MPs there, telling usual opponents that he agreed with them ‘100 per cent’. Mr Corbyn sank a little lower in his seat. At one point he was alone on the front bench save for Diane Abbott and, er, Barry Gardiner, who is a good Christian.

When even Barry scarpered, he was replaced by that stateswoman de nos jours, Nia Griffith.

Labour’s deputy chief whip appeared at the back door and sent forward a few human shields to sit near the isolated Corbyn. But by then the day, and possibly more, had been lost.

seems to me that fred's solution would just be nice cosy chats with IS (with coffee and sandwiches of course), asking them not to be naughty boys and what nice pressie would they like to persuade them to agree

I may not know what is the most appropriate action is in Syria, but I do know that it is stupid to pour water on boiling oil.

If it is on fire try to think of a way of smothering it, or choking it oxygen supply.

That is what Corbyn and Blunt are saying to me.