Sportsman

Huge I have to admit that I am very surprised at the outcome, but I would bet I am not as surprised as Trump. If he was so sure of his innocence why the daily twitter storms? We have only seen the very partisan AG's letter on his opinion of what it says. Until the full report and context is released (how likely is that?) then I feel that there is more to come. We'll see.

The only one lying about Brett Kavanagh was Brett Kavanagh. Not fit to be a Judge, let alone a supreme court justice. His little tantrum demonstrated that. Could Trump win a second term? Of course, there are enough gullible/stupid people about prepared to ignore all of his failings just because he is Republican.. Should Trump win another term is a different question.

Interesting. It seems that to be seen to be doing something doesn't constitute proof that you did it. I look forward to actually seeing as much of the content of the report as they allow I wouldn't worry too much about a report in Fox news. In the UK the CPS will not proceed with a prosecution that they don't think that they can win, even though there is no doubt about the guilt of the defendant. This may well be the same. Any indictment against Trump or his family would be the most heavily defended cases the world has seen, with layers and teams of the best lawyers money can buy. Without literally the smoking gun type of proof it may have been felt that conviction was unlikely. No indictment does not prove innocence. I am sure there is much more to come.

you voted leave, you should leave and I'm sure you will, one way or the other. I think this whole sorry mess goes back to David Cameron. He never really understood what was involved in being in the EU and he certainly never understood what was involved in leaving the EU. Maybe he just believed there wouldn't be a vote to leave,maybe he was too stupid to understand or maybe he just didn't care. Then we have people like David Davies who did not have a clue what was involved and who did nothing to advance the cause. There was an attitude of "we are British, therefore everything will be all right, we managed before the EU and we will manage again. We will just sign deals with all these other countries and we will rule the waves once more" if anybody pointed out that this was a bit simplistic and unlikely the cry went up "project fear, project fear" and no one took any notice. No-one understood what WTO rules were or meant.This was compounded by liars such as Farage, Johnson and Gove telling us we didn't need to negotiate, we would just do it, it would be easy and the result would be wonderful. When it all started to go pear-shaped then it was "it's that nasty EU punishing us" "it's those nasty remainers making it difficult" we were told that once the UK leaves all the other countries will want to leave and it the EU will collapse. Couldn't be more wrong. Other countries look at the UK experience and any thought that they might want to leave his soon buried, the EU must love it. We keep hearing that the EU needs us more than we need them, why would you believe that? You will leave and what happens will happen. It could have been much better and much easier but it seems that nobody in charge of the UK knew what they were doing or what they wanted to do. You had three years to sort it out and all of a sudden we're told it will be done in three weeks. Quite frankly, it is unbelievable, the rest of Europe are looking at it and wondering what happened to the calm and regulated diplomacy that they used to expect and respect. It is time for both sides to work together for the good of the country. I will continue to live in France and observe from the sidelines. I have to say, I trust the French government to look after my interests much more than the trust any UK government. Good luck

So NZ demonstrates to the USA how to deal with mass shooting incidents, something the US should have done many years ago.

Speaking of Trump's policies

You don't think that the crash in 2008 is significant? Obama took over in the middle of a crisis. Trump took over after 6 years of growth. Not quite the same. I would love to know which of Trump's policies led to high employment, or did Trump just keep Obama's policies going because they were working?

The problem is that if you posted every time Trump did or said something stupid or told another outrageous lie, you would not have time post about anything else. They call it "Trump fatigue" Chesters1 The UK needs a barrier around it? It already has one, the sea. If that doesn't work what makes you think a wall (or slats, or fence) would work any better? Walls became redundant after the invention of the ladder.

This was a disgusting act by disgusting people and to try to infer that the victims deserve it in some way is even more disgusting.

The ducking, diving, twisting and spin on here is worse than the houses of Parliament. Everything is everybody else's fault. Will you get what you want or what you deserve?

So the US dictates the terms of any trade deal and the UK WILL go along with it. I thought that a major part of Brexit meant not being told what to do by people who you hadn't elected. Seems that this is OK now and that chlorinated chicken was what we wanted all along. Oh, and by the way, don't get up to any trade deals with China without getting approval from the US first. One giant step forwards, three giant steps backwards. Who are you going to blame this on?

Still getting paid though

Experts making predictions? Sound a bit like project fear to me. That will never catch on.

If anyone remembers Rudd from on here some time ago, I was talking to him recently. He would like to log on but his password no longer works and the email address he used is no longer working so he can't get a new password. Does anyone have any suggestions how he might get a new password, or would it just be easier to register again.

Went to the office party last night They played "the Twist" - I did the twist. They played "Jump" - I jumped They played "Come on Eileen" - I got kicked out after that.

It was JRM's specific quote, but there were quite a few others in the same vein. I am no fan of May, much less so of Rees Mogg or Boris, but what I dislike most on this occasion is the hypocrisy shown by the very people who are first in line to criticise remainers when they have a whinge. They lost the vote, get over it. I see that Boris is set to be favourite to take over as PM so his sacrifice of principles and country will have paid off. Will a failed and fairly useless Foreign Secretary make a good PM? What do you think?

Strange isn't it. We have the prominent leavers, the ones who are always trumpeting about how they won the vote and democracy must be respected, so the losers should just shut up about it, lost a vote by a much larger margin last Wednesday and are now whinging to anyone who will listen that the vote shows May no longer has "moral authority" to lead and should resign immediately. It seems that votes are only important if they produce the outcome you wanted.

It was always the case that the EU would come out on top in any negotiations. They are bigger, stronger, more powerful and have a much clearer idea of what they wanted and needed to achieve. UK negotiators are a disorganised rabble who are too busy fighting amongst themselves to fight with anyone else. It's ironic that the man who coined the term BREXIT never wanted the UK to leave the EU, he wanted the UK to exert its authority and become the leading force within the EU. If our "leaders" had expended a fraction of the time, money and energy making the EU more effective and better for the UK, that they have spent on this farce of a brexit, then they would not now have to go to Brussels, cap in hand, begging for handouts and concessions. All this faux nationalism and talk of "freedom from the EU tyranny" is, as my old granny used to say, a load of ******.

Now that he has left UKIP, does that mean he is still an MEP? I suppose it does, until the election, so he is just looking for a vehicle to get his nose back in the trough.

Well, it looks like the Gallic charm had an effect. The planned diesel tax rise set for January has been scrapped, at least for a while. Rises in the cost of electricity and gas next year have also been postponed. The CT test on cars (equivalent to MOT) was made harder in March this year and those changes have also been scrapped, so not all bad news.

John I didn't expect to change anything or have others agree with me. I just thought it put a different spin on "project fear" that we have heard so much about. As I have often said, I agree that Brexit is not all about immigration, although it is a very major point, and that both sides are equally to blame for misinformation and downright lies. Just thought that it would make a change.

Diesel prices at the moment vary between 1.55 and 1.65 in a fairly small radius, depending on which station you use, supermakets being cheaper.The price fluctuates with crude oil prices and the Euro/dollar exchange rate. The problem has been a rise in taxes, both the so called "eco" tax and the direct taxation on diesel in particular. Diesel has always been a good bit cheaper than petrol, which is why 70% to 80% of vehicles in France are diesels. The government has said they intend to bring diesel prices up to match petrol prices to reduce emissions. They increased the tax on diesel by 7.6c a litre in 2018 and intend to raise the tax by a further 5.6c a litre from Jan 1st 2019. As you can imagine, feelings are running at a fairly high level, but I don't think that what one person said at a road stop can be taken to show that the protest has anything to do with immigration. By and large it is still almost universally good natured and friendly at the barricades. Paris could be a different country as far as rural France is concerned. When we moved into this house, our elderly neighbour was told he would be getting English neighbours and he said "could be worse, they might have been from Paris" John, I seem to remember similar protests and fuel blockades when the UK put petrol prices up a few pence. Maybe that was just part of your Anglo Saxon charm.

Just stumbled across this. Another aspect of Project Fear. Alas, too late now, but makes a lot of sense.

I am sure that there are extremists of both wings. Chuck in the students who always enjoy a good riot and away we go. I understand that it was sparked off by a government minister and a member of the green party having a discussion on TV and one said they would like to see diesel at 2 euro a litre by Christmas, to cut emissions. 70% of cars in France are diesels and the government have encouraged this for years with diesel prices always being lower the petrol. The only thing that I haven't heard blamed for it is immigration. France has an excellent health service which has to be paid for and which I have been using quite a lot recently. Ironically, when I have been in Hospital I am usually the only immigrant there, apart from the staff.