Retsdon

It's sweet that you like the world in black and white with no nasty, confusing grey areas.in it.

Thank you. I recommend the Pie video if you haven't seen it. You'll like it.

Interesting bloke, and his background will have undoubtedly coloured his perspective on a lot of things. I'll withdraw 85 percent of my earlier negativity It might also help that I just stumbled across a Johnathan Pie video from 3 months ago that basically is saying the exact same as Pat Condell - except far less politely! I don't want to post a link because the video contains a lot of 'profanity' but it's funny, and for anyone interested, a google search on 'Johnathan Pie leave voters are thick' should turn it up. Like all Pie stuff it's worth a watch.

I'm sure it was frequently the case that there was a very good reason why the defendant was in that court - but sometimes not at that particular time. As one bloke said to me one time, 'I may be a thief, but I'm not a stupid thief!" complaining bitterly that the DS had fitted him up. Of course, 'he would say that, wouldn't he', but sometimes you had the feeling that the client was almost certainly telling the truth for once. But mostly it was just a lottery. I agree 100 percent with this too. And it's dumb to boot, because any evidence that you subsequently present will be tainted. But the thing is we simply don't know. We have evidence, but like the evidence against our 'stupid' thief client, can you trust the people giving the narrative into which the evidence is supposed to fit? On that score I had to be amused when a decade or more after the Brixton gig my mother got called up for jury service. My mother, God rest her, was a card-carrying Conservative, golf club ex-captaining, WI organizing, Meals on Wheelser... and she came away from that Crown Court with a whole different view of the police force. I can't remember the details now, but she utterly outraged that a policemen would perjure himself to secure a conviction against someone he knew was innocent, but apparently that was the unanimous consensus of the jury. Am I saying that the police always lie? Of course not. But it's only prudent to look at all evidence and how and why it is presented, with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Back in about 1981or so I worked (zero hours contract they'd call it now) for a solicitors in Brixton for about 6 months. As can be imagined, their business was chiefly criminal law, and my main job was to trot along to court and sit behind our client's barrister throughout the case and report back. There were other things, but basically it was to act as the brief's general factotum. And it was interesting - I got to see the majesty of the British Justice System in action. I mention this because the whole Salisbury thing reminds me of a typical criminal case in the Inner London Sessions. You could sit there for three days while each side brought out witnesses, made statements, questioned each other, etc ,etc and at the end of the day it would be anyone's guess what the actual truth of what had happened was. The police would lie, the witnesses would lie, the client would lie and at the end of it all the poor jury had to make a stab at who to believe. What made it so difficult was that although everyone lied nobody really lied completely. On both sides it would be a truth hedged around with lies or a lie hedged around with truths and you had to basically guess which was which. And that's how the Salisbury thing strikes me.

I've said it before. I''m almost certain that I would have voted leave if I'd been in residence and had a vote. I didn't like the EU and still don't. But in retrospect I think my vote would have been wrong. As the time draws closer, it seems like the wolf is set to be even bigger and badder than 'Project Fear' were claiming, and at the same time as a minnow in a world of pike-sized trade blocs 'the taking back control' hope is looking increasingly chimerical. Out in the real world, the little people don't control much of anything at all But we'll see. Here's hoping that I'm wrong and being unduly pessimistic. As for your man Condell, there's something nasty about him that rubs me up the wrong way. Why the gratuitous sneers at people who study 'useless' degrees? His hatred and contempt in that regard puts him in some pretty dubious company - Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot too were notoriously vehement in their condemnation of 'useless intellectuals', with their carping objections to a Great Project. Besides which, literature, music, history, language, religion and philosophy are an integral part of what makes us who we are. So where's the objection to studying them? No, the man's a throwback to the worst kind of communist/stalinist anti-intellectual. Never did care for those sorts of people. Destructive...

Why wow? The man sneers at 'useless' humanities courses. But learning to step back to critically assess and reassess the worth and weight of differing evidence or opinion - including one's own - is fundamental to the development of ideas and is one of the first and most important things people at university learn how to do. Compare his rant to the words of someone who has clearly thought hard about what he's saying, knows what he's talking about and who is not grinding an axe with earmuffs on. http://www.eureferendum.com/documents/RogersDublin.pdf Rogers speech in Dublin should be required reading. It is what proper Brexit discussion should look like.

No he doesn't. He says nothing - just repeats a lot of self-pitying canards before throwing in a lot of snide ad hominems for ironic effect. He might just as well be miming along to something he made in 1915. Meanwhile, the clock has kept going round and round and the fact is that unless May comes up quick sharp with a feasible proposal or, from compassion, the EU grants an extension to the leaving date, in March Britain is set to throw out seamless trading ties for 40 percent of its business. Not to mention that nearly all the permissions, standards, protocols, etc that have, for 40 years largely underpinned our relationship with the rest of the world by virtue of having been negotiated under the EU will go out of the window with them and will need to be painstakingly rewritten one by one. No, none of these minor details bother our intrepid hero in the video because he never listens to people who might not share his opinion or reflects on what they say. Far easier to insult them and close his ears. A university education would have helped him in this regard - but hey ho. Nonetheless, 'facts are chiels' and in 6 months - unless everyone from the trade unions, to the banks, to industrial manufacturers, to agri business, etc' etc are all completely wrong in their predictions- the UK is very likely facing a economic tsunami with follow up waves of incalculable permutations lasting an unknowable time. But what do these experts know about their own livelihoods anything? And don't forget, they've all been wrong at some point in the past about something or other spo they can be safely ignored forever (as if having being wrong about A invariably means being wrong about a different B, C,D, into infinity). Absurd...but enter our hero in the movie. There's a saying to describe this attitude. It's called 'the arrogance of ignorance', and this rather unpleasant individual is a perfect personification. Like they say, if it walks like a duck, etc, etc...

Living between Saudi and Thailand , a decent VPN is a must! I use Avast virus protection for all my devices and it has an add on VPN available for a nominal annual sum. You have a wide range of 'locations' to choose from that you can change anytime. And you can turn it on and off. I don't know how it compares to others because I've never had reason to think of changing mine. If it is available as a stand alone program (no idea if it is) I'd recommend it. Not sure if I can get BBC iPlayer on it...let me check and report back. Report. Turned on the VPN, set the location to Glasgow and went to the BBC website. Radio is no problem - I just listened to the shipping forecast live. TV, they want me to create an account and say I need a TV license. Haven't tried yet, because on a whim I poked BBC Cymru and now all the instructions for everything have switched to Welsh and I'm lost. But I would imagine that it should work. With the VPN off, you get 'not available in your location' as a matter of course. Actually I'm kicking myself now that I'd forgotten about all this. Could have listened to Cook reaching his century.

That's good. I like to agree with people.

Yes well, that's another pet bugbear of mine. I've worked for at least 20 years in different foreign countries and cultures and none of them were worried in the least if I was offended by anything. And why on Earth should they be? If I didn't want to be there I could have stayed at home. When the natives must accommodate the incomers you're beginning the shift from immigration to colonization.

Thanks for the in depth reply. Interesting and not in the least surprising really. But the thing is, the attitudes that you describe are not specifically Arab. In my experience the whole Indian subcontinent is on a par when it comes to sheer lack of compassion for ones' fellow man. You could pretty much add nearly the whole African continent too. The only difference is that they don't have the money the Gulf Arabs do to import the labour to lord it over.. And be honest that's what I find so irritating about these people who are all for opening the door of Europe to culturally alien immigrants, and decrying opposition voices as racist and backward. They're dangerously naive if they think attitudes and beliefs forged over a thousand or more years will be altered by a bit of do gooder encouragement and matronly hectoring. On the other hand, while 'in country' I just take people on an individual basis. On the broader canvas it's their culture and they can live how they like. Who am I to be constantly passing judgement? Their culture isn't mine, and long may that separation continue. Interesting conversation. Thanks.

Thanks.

The hawks of the US War Party - Nikki Haley, Bolton, etc, aren't happy about Assad and Putin finally winning the war in Syria. Naturally they'll try to trump up an excuse for one last spiteful and pointless orgy of long distance violence.

Of course it's predicable - because it's true. The thing about Brexit is that there's no status-quo ante to act as a safety net. We don't just keep the pound and carry on as before. If they make a mess of the doivorce -which it looks like they're doing royally. - then on 29th March Britain steps off an economic cliff. Now, that might be a price worth paying. But let's not pretend that the consequences won't be dire in the extreme because they will be. What price would be acceptable to be rid of the EU? Sterling at 2 to the Euro? at 3? or 4? An unemployment of 10%? 20? 30? At some point in any endeavour the costs need to be balanced against the gain. And that's my big issue with the likes of JRM and Johnson. They just lie and say that there won't be costs - and long-term ones to boot. Never did like liars....

Brexit hasn't happened yet. We're still in the EU. Are you saying the the UK would have been worse off in the Euro? The chart hardly bears that our..... https://www.poundsterlinglive.com/bank-of-england-spot/historical-spot-exchange-rates/gbp/GBP-to-EUR#charts

His words were widely reported in dozens of news outlets. That was just the first one I clicked on. And sure, I've read what he said. He said the benefits of Brexit would be unquantifiable for 50 years. Not much more than a month later he's talking about the country being a trillion better off in 15. So which is it? It's OK, I don't expect you to answer really because JRM hasn't the foggiest himself. He just says whatever comes in to his head at the time. On the other hand, there is a slew of world class, highly respected economists and institutions (on the phone so not easy to link but I'll try later) who have properly peer-reviewed studies and models that show JRM and his one-trick pony Mistord or whatever his name is are simply pulling figured from thin air to try and support the economically and factually unsupportable. Fine, if you think any falsehood is justifiable to exit Europe, but let's not pretend that we believe these people. It's too degrading for words.

But which one do you want? This Jacob Rees Mogg from two months ago? https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/jacob-rees-mogg-economy-brexit_uk_5b54e3b5e4b0de86f48e3566..who said that it would take.maybe 50 years before tangible benefit accrued Or this Jacob Rees Mogg -(in the picture below listening to his guru, the widely-respected economist Minford) who now, with no new economic data or deal, is asserting that the country will be a trillion richer in 15 years. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/09/10/jacob-rees-mogg-no-deal-brexit-will-boost-uk-economy-11-trillion/ It's not possible to have both.

Our experiences differ then. I worked in Kuwait for a while. The kids riding the buses were a pest, but I never witnessed anything like you describe. Been in Saudi for more than a decade now and I have to say that generally I've found the Saudis to be OK. Less arrogant than the Kuwaitis and with a better sense of humour. I gather that travelling alone in parts of Qassim - you're talking the heart of Wahhabi Bedu country - can be a bit hairy if you don't speak the language, but never having been I couldn't say. And by spme accounts you can meed hostility in hick towns like Hafr Al Batin as well. But for my own part I've never felt the least bit threatened in Saudi, in fact quite the opposite. On a few occasions I've had Saudis actually get in their cars and have me follow them to show me a location or route when I've got lost and asked for directions. And if you've got kids with you they'll invariably stop their cars and let you cross a road in a shopping mall or wherever, even when there's no real need. Other than the parking and the driving, I've also found them to be very polite. Dunno... I'm not denying your experiences, but I think it would be unfair for everyone in the Middle East to be judged by them because from what I know from my own and other western colleagues, what you described is not typical. Were you with the military - because they're a whole different breed?

I remember a fellow who had a vizsla that chased a sheep into the river Usk when it was coming down in spate, and the last we saw of it (the sheep), it was still paddling as it disappeared around the bend about 100 yards downstream. That was the last shoot we ever saw the dog too......... Your dog looks a right fun character though....

Great advice. Although to be honest, my first dog was a cocker. I had so much fun training her and she turned out to be a cracker. But I suppose at 13 years old I had plenty of energy to run!

Here's my tu'ppence worth on the topic - hope it might be of some use. Dog training is 90% conditioned response, so the most important rule is to only give a command when you' know you['re going to get the required response. The end goal - and the essential goal - is that if you tell him to come, he should come at once - there should be nothing optional about it. But it's a slow, step by step process over a month or more. So to begin with, only tell him to come when he probably wants to. Then make a fuss of him when he comes. When that gets entirely predictable, tell him to come when he might not want to, but isn't particularly distracted. If you walk or run away from him while giving the command, he'll almost certainly follow. Make a fuss of him again. Rinse and repeat until that too gets entirely predictable. At some point though, you're going to want to tell him to come when he doesn't want to - and almost certainly - as you're already found out - you're going to see the dog say to himself 'B*gg*r you, this is more interesting' and he'll deaf you out. Now, I'm a bit old-fashioned, at this point I would run to him and give him a shake by the scruff and bit of a telling. Not hard enough to hurt but he has to know that not responding (note I didn't say obeying) has consequences. Once I'd got his attention, I would put some distance between us and call him again. If you're not in the habit of bad-using your dog, he'll come immediately. Big fuss again. And so on and so forth. Eventually the dog will always come first time. A couple of key things. 1) If you're not sure he'll come back, or if you're not close enough or in a position to get at him if he doesn't - don't give the command in the first place. Dog training is all about conditioning an automatic response to a stimulus, and you can condition a dog to automatically ignore your commands just as easily - in fact more easily - than you can condition him to obey them! 2) Never ever call the dog to you and then give him a doing or a severe telling for not responding to a previous command, or for some other transgression like chewing the car seat or whatever because you're basically teaching him that coming to you is a dodgy business. The result will be one of these dogs that half comes back and then circles around out of range - usually before bu@@ering off again to do what he likes! If you're going to chastise a dog for anything at all - you must always go to the dog - even if it means running 200 yards. 3) With a young dog, it's helpful to keep training sessions and general exercise, etc, separate activities as far as you are able. That way both you and the dog will know what's expected of you when 'school' is in session. Of course, later, when you're confident that the dog will return, stop, wait, look back, or whatever other commands you've taught him, it's fine to practice them anytime or anywhere - in fact it's what you should do. But when the dog is still struggling with getting the hang of what you want of him, or if he still imagines that he has the option of doing what he's told or not, it's best to only give commands under controlled circumstances, away from distractions. As I said above, if you rinse and repeat often enough and consistently enough, eventually the dog will just naturally obey wherever he is, because you'll have conditioned an automatic response. Then you're pretty much home and dry for the life of the dog. So it's worth spending time on to get it right from the beginning. 4) Don't be impatient. The key to training dogs is little and often and consistency. And loss of temper (despite that we've all been there!) is ALWAYS counter-productive. One very last thing. Again, maybe it's me and I"m a bit old-fashioned but I have serious doubts about bribing the dog with a marrow bone. It's unnecessary - a little bit of encouragement should almost certainly do the job instead - and bribery is not conducive to a correct balance in the relationship between you and the dog. Is the dog coming because you give the command, or for the marrow bone? For you and the dog to work in harmony, he needs to be responding to you and you alone. It's OK to reward a dog to give him the idea of what he's supposed to do, but once he knows what's expected then it should just be you and him and the bone is an outside distraction. Good luck. I'm envious - I'd love to have the opportunity to train another dog .....

That's good!

That's very true - but the problem hasn't been so much with the EU as it has been with the Swedish government's long term policy of letting in all and sundry who claim to be refugees. Under EU law,. they're not obliged to - it's more a case of misplaced Swedish altruism that's come back to bite them on the behind. On the topic of outside immigration Brussels is pretty toothless really when it comes to individual states. When the Poles and the Hungarians effectively put up the No Entry signs all Brussels could do was grizzle and finger wag. The fences and the not welcome here message didn't change one iota.

Not really. The EU Commission is basically made up of appointees from the member states. If enough states believe that further centralization is contrary to their and the EU's interests, there's nothing to stop them actually reversing the process. It might take a while to turn the ship, but it's not impossible. Yes, but the problem is that from outside the single market you can't trade on competitive terms.