Virgil Caine

Nader’s got a worldwide paedo rap sheet going back to the 1980s yet he has somehow managed to inveigle his way into an unofficial position with every US administration from the Clinton era until now. How has he managed to do it ? Doubtless those British celebs who have had their careers destroyed for far less serious sexual indiscretions would like to know.

Such is the UKs decline that we can’t even top the housing ponzi and personal debt league anymore.

This is all just a warm up act as far as I can see. It is going to take something a lot bigger than hijacking oil tankers to create the reason for war than that some people are clearly trying to achieve.

Pretty much my view. I struggle to see how British national interests are served by overthrowing the Assad regime in Syria and replacing it with some Sunni fanatics who would inevitably want to kill us so why should we care whether Iranian oil is shipped there or not. Clearly, then our foreign policy is being driven by people who do not have this country’s best interests at heart ( no surprise there). I assume our recent posturing over the Iranian tanker was simply this country being used as a proxy to create enough incidents to create a casus belli that then can be used to create some sort of military coalition and then be flogged to the public as per the Iraq war. The problem for the war mongers is the Iranians are a lot tougher nut than Saddam militarily and geographically . Even with the latter it took two wars and years of sanctions to topple him. The other difficulty for the UK government is decades of botched policy and defence cuts means that it is not only almost impossible for the UK to sustain any sort of conflict but it is actually becoming very hard to set up the physical presence to indulge in even the preliminary sabre rattling. I very much doubt whether there is huge amount of popular enthusiasm for this sort of military adventure in the UK. The recent ramping up of the rhetoric about Corbyn might have something to do with what is going on. The Labour leader does not have much going for him but his anti war pedigree could actually turn out to be a vote winner here.

Because the only thing British about the tanker is it’s place of registration ?

As a one time trade union official I can only concur with that judgement. Our biggest problem was not the official side but the inertia and apathy of the membership. On a day to day basis just getting people to agree a time and location for evening drinks can be hard work.

Horse racing odds are usually over round ( ie add up to more than 100%):so with a balanced book the layers should always make a profit. This is usually done by trimming the odds of outsiders in a race ( ie offering true 50-1 shots at 33-1 etc). The problem for bookies is that they can’t guarantee to get enough bets on outsiders in most races to achieve that goal. That is why you occasionally here them lamenting when a heavily backed horse wins. In those cases they can wind up with a loss even though the overall odds offered suggests they should make a profit.

Surely you are not suggesting that there is a massive logical disconnect between the policies pursued by different parts of the UK government and that our political leaders like to will ends without actually providing the means.

That Stena Impero is not a very big oil tanker is it. https://www.vesselfinder.com/vessels/STENA-IMPERO-IMO-9797400-MMSI-232010294

A very pertinent point and one usually forgotten. It was German militarism not Hitlers racial ideology which was seen as the threat. Hitlers Foreign policy objectives as set out in Mein Kampf was not that different from the Weltpolitik of the Kaisar and it was that similarity which dominated people’s minds in 1939. The biggest mistake people make in judging the motivation and actions of people in the past is to assume they somehow knew what was going to happen in the future.

None of this is new. Child prostitution was not uncommon in Victorian England but that was far too mundane for more fervid imaginations so there were plenty of “penny dreadfuls” vying to outdo each other by adding new levels of sensation to the mix. So there were tales of innocent virgins being abducted and locked in sound proofed dungeons where they became the sexual playthings of decadent aristocrats etc. The rather more banal reality was that rich men simply used their money to procure poor young girls ( and boys) to do their sexual bidding. That is probably pretty much what Epstein and his chums have been doing but clearly it is too dull for some people who want something out of a Dennis Wheatley novel instead. And of course this reaction actually plays into the hands of these grubby sexual predators as their lawyers will have no trouble disproving the more lurid tales and they will then be able to use that fact to try to discredit real accounts of exploitation and abuse.

Back in the day kids knew how to rebel https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1797_Rugby_School_rebellion They literally had to read the Riot Act and call out the military to suppress it. Needless to say many of those involved went onto become pillars of society, including one who ended up a a bishop.

Why does the House of Lords still exist ?

Low investment, low productivity and low wages are endemic in the UK and has been for decades. If importing cheap Labour was going to fix that problem then the mills in northern England would still be working.

Andrew was second in line once upon a time but the arrival of William and Harry and their off spring means he is now getting relegated season after season. He is pretty much down at non league level now. Whatever he has been up to sexually or otherwise he is clearly a certifiable idiot. I bet the Royal Family wish now he had been allowed to marry Koo Stark rather than that money grubbing colleen Sarah Ferguson.