OneGuyFromBarlick

The Isles are full of noises, but no sweet sounds…. The Tories lap up the Lancaster House red lines and the EU says fair enough, here’s the only deal we can give you based on these you lapped up so much, and as expected the hapless UK has a tantrum and says well that’s just not fair. Pathetic. But l...

Correlation does not imply causation. That joining the then EEC correlates with the resultant 3-day week does not imply it caused it. There was quite a lot of strife in the 70s, post our joining the EEC. The sharp-eyed will note that saying this means ergo, our joining is not necessarily the cause o...

It’s just dreadful isn’t it? Take the PM talking about EU nationals queue jumping. It’s a quite deliberate turn of phrase that. The anthropologist Kate Fox, quoting someone I can’t recall, noted that left to their own devices, an English person will form an orderly queue of one. The point being that...

Tittle-tattle and gossip Tripps. The trials of DFDS Fox and the WTO schedules were in the press the other week. The issue is we have no schedules as we are a part of the EU’s. Fox argued that we could just spilt something out pro rata. The adults in the room argued that was a none runner as the UK o...

One widely-reported matter these past days has been the five Cabinet Ministers staying on to try and steer the PM towards a different agreement with the EU by re-opening negotiations. Quite aside from there being no alternative agreement to be had, let’s have a look at this quintet of all the talent...

Pretty blatant pitch for future Tory party leadership last night by the Brexit Secretary Mr Raab. Whilst speaking at an event on Brexit and the high tech industry, he admitted that he hadn’t appreciated the significance of the Dover-Calais border, and that consumers would suffer if there were delays...

Yesterday’s vote kicked the can down the road again. The problem the PM and the Government have, indeed the problem Parliament has, is that the day will come when they are going to have accept that there are only two Brexit options. A bad option and a worse option. These were only ever the two optio...

Thinking about that post of mine immediately above, I think I might have argued that 500+ MPs can't be wrong!!

Richard Broughton

Ian – the plan was not to sell the house but to rent it out say for 12months/2 years perhaps registering it with the Local Universities/big companies for any visiting staff and family on sabbatical or short-term transfer. We’d use the rent to rent a place in Europe, time here time there. Pop back he...

‘’Is that what is wrong with democracy: the voters are mainly clueless?’’ Course they are on most things (but not everything). I am. I’m not on how the EU works, but I am on a host of other matters. Most matters in fact. I have not got the first clue on for example the vagaries of police pensions p...

Assuming that, as is the norm these days, Parliament abdicates itself of all responsibility and does not support the call for a ‘meaningful vote’ one outcome will be this. The UK Parliament will be the only Parliament in the whole of the EU that will not get a vote on the final Brexit deal. The Ital...

Depending where you went Stanley you might surprise yourself. Ignoring the obvious obscene wealth and wealth disparity there is a very real radical edge to the city and it is a Labour town (last night notwithstanding). As you turn onto Bethnal Green Road from Brick Lane there is in front of you, cov...

Of course we imported food and compared to the arrangements for doing so now as members of the EU it was a pain in the neck. We have decided to go back to making it a pain in the neck. Indeed it will be more of a pain in the neck as the supply chains have been set up in the assumption that we would ...

That leek and chicken looks really nice….

Chicken ourselves tonight, roasted in the pan served with greens and potato.

Richard Broughton

Went to London weekend gone, and saw Hamlet at The Globe. The new artistic director cast herself as Hamlet, along with a female Horatio. It chucked it down and thankfully we were under cover – folk standing got drenched. But that’s The Globe, you know what you’re in for. Stayed a couple of nights ne...

It’s astonishing isn’t it that nearly 24 months after the referendum; 9 months after triggering Article 50 and 6 months before some deal needs agreeing to ensure the EU can consult, the Government is still arguing over which customs option the EU have already rejected to put to the EU. Read that aga...

Here we go again…. So, as the EU have explained time and time again, unless they change their Treaty base one is either in ‘the’ Customs Union, in ‘a’ Customs Union, or a third country. The EU’s Treaty base (so it’s legal base) permits nothing else. To permit something else, the EU would have to cha...

It’s known as Ireland these days rather than the Republic of Ireland. And goodness knows why folk still keep mentioning Eire (very few if any Irish person refers to the country as that I’ll bet), especially as and wait for it………………………. if you do not use the correct diacritic and refer to Éire, then ...

I haven’t posted much on here for the past few months largely because I usually note a few random witterings on the politics thread and well, the groundhog feeling was just too much. We were all too predictably hurtling towards what was yesterday’s dénouement of sorts from the EU. I am of course tal...

So, to summarise: Boris: She was there teaching journalism. Others: Sorry? I thought she was there on holiday? Boris: Precisely. That is what I said. There on holiday. My words have been misinterpreted. Good grief. Should I laugh or cry? Still look on the bright side. The International Development S...

Stew an’ ‘ard in Barlick I would have thought, Stanley. And mighty fine it is too. I do like a good stew, in this sense. Back when I was living in London, I was a member of Harlequins Rugby Club. They contrived to get relegated from the top league during this time and in the lower league played Otle...

Tripps – I can say with certainty that the custard tarts are indeed as good as they say they are, and look. Delicious! They also have a good sausage called the alheira – smoked with paprika it’s almost paste-like and made from pheasant, chicken, quail, rabbit and the like. No pork as it was made by ...

Whether we like it or not, the largest part of the benefits budget is pensions and then housing benefit paid to pensioners. I know a lot folk think it’s all spent on unemployed layabouts, single mums on council estates and scrounging foreigners, but the reality is these groups get a fraction, a smal...

Porto, for the 20th wedding anniversary. Never been to Portugal before. Enjoyed the place very much. It rises steeply from the banks of the Douro River - very steeply! Derelict house blocks/tenements, pastel-coloured sit next to swish done up ones, all nested in a maze of alleys. Very atmospheric. T...

Tony Booth – actor, Cherie’s dad and Alf Garnett’s ‘scouse git’. 85 years old, not a bad innings. Plus, The Fourmost member Billy Hatton died suddenly aged 77 at his sheltered housing in Dingle, Liverpool 8. At the heart of the Merseybeat scene and hung out with The Beatles – he actually did have st...