So, it turns out now that the husband of the American woman who drove on the wrong side of the road and killed the motorcyclist Harry Dunn was technically NOT a diplomat as he hadn't presented his papers to the Court of St James.
Then this woman Anne Sacoolas fled the UK illegally and should now be standing in an English court facing manslaughter charges, otherwise there is no justice. F**k what Trump has to say about it.
Bloody disgrace. 
Quote: Hercules Grytpype Thynne @ 13th October 2019, 9:22 AMF**k what Trump has to say about it.
Quite right.
It's not like we have to cow-tow to him for post-Brexit trade deals or anything.
Oh...
Quote: Lazzard @ 13th October 2019, 10:02 AMQuite right.
It's not like we have to cow-tow to him for post-Brexit trade deals or anything.
Oh...
Ever was the case - we're just a f**king glorified static aircraft carrier to them.
To be fair to Trump, he has been busy this week betraying the Kurds who helped in the fight against Isis, thus ensuring nobody ever wants to help America again.
Quote: chipolata @ 13th October 2019, 1:41 PMTo be fair to Trump, he has been busy this week betraying the Kurds who helped in the fight against Isis, thus ensuring nobody ever wants to help America again.
I take the point that Donald isn't everybody's idea of the perfect president but when it comes to wanting to help "America", I am mindful of the fact that England is a free country with a thriving Jewish community.
If America had not helped us in 1942/3/4/5, things would be very very very different today.
To my mind, that is a debt that can never adequately be repaid.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 11th October 2019, 1:52 PMGreta Thunberg has not been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
How dare you! Anyone who posts anything remotely critical of this courageous young heroine is clearly an old, white, privileged male, who would prefer that 16 year old Swedish girls should only be groomed for "barely legal porn". That's not just my opinion. It's fact, according to the fine folk at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Criticize Greta and you're a horrible old lazy, greedy, pedo: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-28/unpacking-twitter-tirades-why-are-we-triggered-by-greta-thunberg/11545952
Quote: Kenneth @ 13th October 2019, 1:51 PMCriticize Greta and you're a horrible old lazy, greedy, pedo: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-28/unpacking-twitter-tirades-why-are-we-triggered-by-greta-thunberg/11545952
The above article is written by Lauren Rosewarne, an Australian feminist and ardent supporter of the rights of girls, women and animals.
For that, I say "Good on you, Lauren."
I get the impression, however, that she's not a great fan of men. 
In her latest tweet (today) Lauren advises women not to put toothpaste into their vaginas.
Is that actually a thing? 
I think we need to bring back the Generation Game, that should bring us all together. First game is telling from a photo if Greta is constipated or just angry. Then stick someone old next to a conveyer belt to test their memory.
Quote: Firkin @ 13th October 2019, 3:00 PMI think we need to bring back the Generation Game, that should bring us all together. First game is telling from a photo if Greta is constipated or just angry. Then stick someone old next to a conveyer belt to test their memory.
Wow. A balanced post after my own heart. No one comes off well. I fear that Greta is more wok than cuddly toy but I would enjoy Wayne and Samantha from Dudley attempting to make one on the potter's wheel. A pottery Greta, that is. Not a real child. The Generation Game - 363 episodes. It's a Knockout (from memory, mainly Fridays) - 272 (BBC) plus 45 (S4C) plus 24 (Channel 5) equals 341 episodes and Strictly currently 338 episodes so the latter is all ready to overtake. (Number of series - Generation Game 23, It's a Knockout 17, Strictly 17 to date - so there's still some way to go there). As for Come Dancing - 424 episodes but across no less than 48 years : 1950-1998 which is truly astonishing and unique!
I don't really have any strong opinions on Greta but it is weird how many middle aged men seem to really hate her and indulge in some quite nasty personal attacks on her, especially when you consider some of the monsters out there in the world with genuine power that dererve criticism.
Greta comes in for a lot of criticism not just because she's female, not just because she's Swedish, not just because she's only 16 and not just because she's been diagnosed as suffering from Asberger's syndrome.
She's criticised in the main because, regardless of who she is or what she is, her critics think she's talking out of her rear end.
I have no doubt that Swedish women with Asberger's syndrome can talk a whole lot of sense about a whole lot of subjects.
I also have no doubt that some 16-year-olds can talk sense occasionally.
However, when it comes to politics, I've never in my life met a 16-year-old whose heartfelt opinions were expressed via any bodily opening other than the one mentioned above.
Quote: Rood Eye @ 13th October 2019, 6:35 PMGreta comes in for a lot of criticism not just because she's female, not just because she's Swedish, not just because she's only 16 and not just because she's been diagnosed as suffering from Asberger's syndrome.
She's criticised in the main because, regardless of who she is or what she is, her critics think she's talking out of her rear end.
I have no doubt that Swedish women with Asberger's syndrome can talk a whole lot of sense about a whole lot of subjects.
I also have no doubt that some 16-year-olds can talk sense occasionally.
However, when it comes to politics, I've never in my life met a 16-year-old whose heartfelt opinions were expressed via any bodily opening other than the one mentioned above.
Like I said, of all the people in the world to heap hate, she's low on the list. And her basic thesis that the environment is well f**ked is pretty spot on.
I have nothing against Miss Thunberg herself. We were all naively idealistic in our youth. My criticism would be of the world leaders, from the Pope downwards, who indulge her and listen to her every word. Nobody listened to my every word when I was 16 and thought I had all the answers.
Strangely, now that I have 51 years' more experience and consequently do now have all the answers, still nobody listens to me.
Quote: chipolata @ 13th October 2019, 7:11 PMLike I said, of all the people in the world to heap hate, she's low on the list. And her basic thesis that the environment is well f**ked is pretty spot on.
Yes. I think there are a lot of jealous old bastards about who haven't as much intelligence as she has in their tiny pinkie toes.
Quote: Billy Bunter @ 13th October 2019, 7:14 PMStrangely, now that I have 51 years' more experience and consequently do now have all the answers, still nobody listens to me.
Why doesn't that surprise me?
Quote: Billy Bunter @ 13th October 2019, 7:14 PMI have nothing against Miss Thunberg herself. We were all naively idealistic in our youth. My criticism would be of the world leaders, from the Pope downwards, who indulge her and listen to her every word. Nobody listened to my every word when I was 16 and thought I had all the answers.
Strangely, now that I have 51 years' more experience and consequently do now have all the answers, still nobody listens to me.
I identify closely with these comments.
Obviously I can't speak for females as I never was one and will never be one but I know how it was for us males in the 1970s. We were at the tail end of the post war era when no one was allowed to talk back even to a dead-end teacher, let alone lecture to world powers, and if he did he would be given a thrashing. I was about as compliant as it comes - too much so for a boy really : easily intimidated - and yet I still managed to find my backside on the end of a 60 year old head master's slipper at 7 at my state junior school. When on my free pass to the posh fee paying school I saw many fingers bloodied. In woodwork/metalwork class, barely a week went by at 12 and 13 without a razor like metal ruler being smashed through someone's fingers though thankfully not my own. Many years later, I did on the way home from work regularly bump into someone who had been there. We swapped memory notes. He confirmed that I had not imagined it.
The state sector senior school I would have attended had it not been for passing my exams was the last place in the country to retain caning. It was on the front page of the Mail in 1979 for having the highest caning figures in the UK and most parents loved it. When the head left - he had undertaken every one including on students who had seen smoking a fag on a Sunday - many Mums were in tears. That is, even though he persisted with it long after it was made illegal. No one, obviously, spoke about the inevitability that it gave him an erection as sex was in the day to day deemed culturally non-existent. That was especially true of the homosexuality in married men with families which often took a sadistic turn.
Bear in mind this was post hippy and even just post punk so society had seen huge changes but in a sense those movements arose as an alternative outlet for opposing deference. It was why people wore leather jackets, big boots and pins through their noses and got into aggro with each other. It was the only perceived route towards the beginnings of having any adult clout. Not that I did it. I guess I was more like a V-necked jumper Undertone. Feargal Sharkey is currently doing brilliant stuff on the devastation of our water courses which he describes as our equivalent to the destruction of the Amazon but he is doing it in a quiet, genuine and experienced way. There is no showiness and no winding up of the law.
Where I was, there was by 16 a lot of cheek meted out from the students towards teachers and some liberal teachers actively encouraged its "normal laddishness" but it was done in a way in which everyone knew what the boundaries were. All of that cheek was essentially powerless although there were the brief moments when I witnessed a kind of Bullingdon thing at first hand against the drippiest teachers. One was locked inside a first floor classroom for a lunchtime just because he was nice-ish but weak. He ended up almost jumping to his death from a window. I didn't like him but was appalled.
I was not the norm, though. As someone who almost certainly lived with something diagnosable although I kept it to myself so it was never diagnosed, I could hardly look at anyone in the eye between 11 and 16 if we weren't talking and regularly shook wherever I sensed that others had power which was almost everywhere. People would read the writing which could be unusually fiery and say "I can't believe this is the same bloke" and while overcome it never fully goes away.
Personally, I'd say that was more of an autistic thing than being able to travel round the globe telling Presidents and Prime Ministers what to do or otherwise I'll sulk. I don't actually see real pain in her. The pain of environmental concern. I don't see youthful joy. I don't even see elected leadership. In what was a very ordinary and yet strange background in me, I was elected Class Captain three years out of four between 7 and 11 - it was counter-intutive and I wore it lightly on my sleeve - and the kind of respect I got at that time was never ever matched. In fact, quite the opposite, I had to learn to be the victim shortly afterwards. And I can only put this down to the fickleness of human nature. You win some. You lose most.
So, no, I don't see in her the glory of sunsets and lions and bluebells and rainbows. All I see is a hectoring over-inflated miserable so-and-so. As for middle aged men's criticism being the equivalent to chjld sex abuse, for god sake. She is a woman. There is nothing of obvious sexuality in her. She demands to be received as someone who is 75 and not even an average 75 year old but one who knows how Governments work. She doesn't. She can't possibly do,. No one does. I didn't at 16 or even 40 and by then I had had 18 years of experience working to Ministers including on environmental policy.
What I do see is that kind of bullying thing where clout is casually tossed by someone who is too large in any playground - and most playgrounds are supposedly adult - and will then on receiving any sort of criticism and especially a put down expect her supporters to slur her critics viciously. I think we can deal with brats in the main. They have always been with us and are becoming bigger in number as too many people who are older indulge them. The overall message? Yep. I think she is totally right but she's just not the one to deliver paradise for all. First, she needs to be helped to get the clouds out of her own gullet. I suggest a 10 year course on how to acquire exuberant loving radiance. Depending on how successful that is given it should be held purely in Stockholm, she can come back at 26 to rule the world, subject to referendum. The thing that really makes me sick is not her but the sort of people of my generation who are robbing her of a life through their influence. Far from being the big ogre, I probably care for her as a human being more than most in my attitudes.
As a footnote, I am actually rather protective of very gifted children. I think they are often vulnerable. I sense it. I love that violin girl who has just completed her first concerto. Much to everyone's ridicule, and I was prepared to withstand it. I loved Lena Zavaroni when she became a woman as she was an exceptional lovely person who was deeply troubled by her own early rise. Young artists are easier to support though than young politicos. They are not finger wagging. Lena's ice cap sadly melted as did Jackson's and Wilson's and Garland's and adults are fools if they can't see that the Grets is being used by them possibly to devastating effect. Not by her so-called opponents. That in truth is real borderline child abuse, however headstrong she may appear. Michael was outstanding throughout the 1970s after which he was sadly shite.
Michael Jackson - Rock With You........from what was the last outstanding album; it was with the help of Hull UK's Rod Temperton a beautiful, beautiful album : by Thriller he had through no fault of his own so sadly become very peculiar:
Mick Jackson - Rock With You (from Yorkshire, UK's Off The Wall) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5X-Mrc2l1d0
The Undertones - Teenage Kicks -: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjkHrdU8HCs - and where IS that NI icon? 
Lena Zavaroni, at 18 - the great Neil Sedaka's Going Nowhere - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8sewohu2qI
(She was born 11 months after me and died 20 years ago this month and that's tragic : there have been no tributes whatsoever in the media so this is my small bit to address that : it's one of Sedaka's best : she did it proud in her own way : the child star business was not to my taste but I listened to her later interviews closely : I really loved her as a woman)