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Haven't been to Town today, just wonder if the English flag is being flown over the Town Hall ? Now Starmer sinks into the pit of hypocracy by trying to claim allegiance to that flag, when the left support any flag. like the Palastinian flag or the LBGBT flag, in the pursuit of "diversity" which equals division rather than National Unity. 😠

There no way imo that this will "deter" people, that have travelled half way round the world to get here, the latest cohort being from Vietnam, one of the safest countries in Asia now. These are economic refugees, searching for "a better life", can't blame them for trying, but we should defend our borders against being flooded with these people. It's quite ironic, that our politicians talk about "defence" in terms of keeping the Russians out, but are allowing the physical invasion of our Nation by migrants. The attraction of the UK, is that we are seen as a soft touch by these migrants, time we hardened our policies. 😠

I think it would definitely deter people but as you say, just intercepting them and taking them back to France would have been simpler and just as effective. Where we seem to go wrong in this country is that rather than just look at what works elsewhere, we waste time trying to come up with something different. Then on top of this, we have politicians who try their best scupper any plan by objecting to anything the opposition to put party suggests. Bill 😊

Finally, the Gov have got their Rwanda Bill into law. But, at great expense, what will it actually achieve ? The Tories argue that it will be "a deterent" to making the Channel crossing, but if the risk of drowning in the Channel doesn't represent a deterent, how the hell will possible deportation to Rwanda act as a deterent ? As for Lab/Libs, they've no intention of reducing immigration, they can't wait to throw the doors open to the world, and invite their diverse voters in. The obvious solution from the start was to take the "rescued" migrants back to Calais instead of taxing them to Dover, as Richard Tice argues. So if you want an end to this farce - vote for Reform. 😠

i have read an article and to be fair to the police they did offer to escort him via a different route but he was having none of it and managing to blow the incident out of all proportion. total *trouble maker* out to cause an incident which he succeeded in doing and putting the police in a bad light. *what my actual words would be are not suitable for this or any other forum along the line of the rear end lower front end of a male or a common garden bird* the policeman concerned was quite right to point out that he looked like an obvious Jew. he was wearing the skull cap at the time and was obviously out to cause trouble as he wanted to walk, dressed as he was, into a street full of protesters that were protesting about the Jewish bombing of Palestine. had he been ignored by the police and been assaulted by the Palestinian protesters then he would be a hero and proven that the Jewish point of view was correct about the Palestinians. because he was stopped by the police he has 'shown' the police in an anti-Semitic light and that they are siding with the Palestinians. police were on a loser either way. peaceful protest are allowed in this country, provided they are peaceful and the majority are until you get some Herbert bent on causing trouble either joining in or haranguing from the side-lines and egging others on to cause mayhem.

Why don't they just limit such marches to Sundays ?

Yep their marches disrupt and can cause a lot of problems but it’s not like they actually achieve anything. Doesn’t matter how many protest, Mr Netanyahu won’t be the least bit bothered. He doesn’t listen to the world’s leaders so why would he take any notice of a load of numpty flag wavers. The government can’t intervein to stop them otherwise they’ll be accused of being undemocratic and probably siding with Israel. I think there are some restrictions as to what they can and can’t do and in theory people could end up being arrested. Trouble is that the police are usually vastly outnumbered in these situations and have to consider any potential crowd reaction that might occur as a result of trying to enforce something that’s a relatively minor infringement. It’s just not worth it. Marches aside, what wound me up was self-righteous attitude of this bloke. He could well have been a lawyer who knew his rights better than the police, but a knowledge of the law doesn’t give anyone the right to be obstructive. From what I heard; the officer was being polite and making a fair and reasonable case for why he shouldn’t proceed. At one point though, he did say something that people say wasn’t quite kosher. We’ve all chosen the wrong words at some point in our lives and it’s especially easy to do in a stressful situation so those calling for action to be taken against the officer should bear this in mind. Bill 😊

My concern is the frequency of these so called marches, which clearly cause disruption to normal buisiness. Where do all these marchers work ? Or are they all on benefits ? Perhaps some restriction on the number and frequency of all marches is required, and I would think that any vocal support for prescribed terrorist organisations like Hammas, should be tackled by the Police ? 😠

as he insisted it was his right they should have let him through but with the warning that it was at his own risk and that if he did get attacked the police would not intervene to help him and maybe even arrest him for inciting a riot. he says he has the right but that right also includes the right to accept the consequences of his actions. wonder what the media would have had to say about that scenario. probably something along the lines of "well the police were at fault for not preventing the guy from going where he did, they should have stopped him", no doubt. i have not seen the reports of this incident but assume that the Palestinians were exercising their right to protest.

Lot of fuss lately about the Jewish guy that complained about the police officer who threatened to arrest him and restrict his rights to free movement while seemingly ignoring the nearby flag waving Palestinians. It was all caught on camera and the media had an absolute field day with it. Two channels in particular, Talk TV and UK TV clearly believed this was worthy of being the big news event of the day, both bringing in no end of political commentators to dissect every word. So, what started out as a discussion between to completely unknown people on the street eventually ended up as the UK being a police state with antisemitic policies. Maybe I’m seeing it all wrong but to me the policeman was absolutely right in preventing the man from walking into a potentially dangerous situation. Had the man in question been reasonable, he’d have accepted what was being asked, but instead he insisted that he knew his rights, and nothing could be said to change that. I’d have thought that refusing to comply with a police request or being deliberately obstructive would be grounds enough for some hands-on stuff, and if it isn’t, then it bloody well should be. The police do a difficult enough job as it is just dealing with the criminal fraternity, who also know their rights, but they can’t all be experts especially when it comes to race, religion and political issues. Bill 😊

- and they'll ride to beggary. Seems Labour's chief Chav has dug a huge hole for herself. 😑

I suppose they look upon over - tourism, as we look upon over- immigration. Historically, this would have been dealt with by physical means. 😢

Can't see that happening Bill, unfortunately. Natanyanu has a personal interest in remaining PM, as he's under threat of conviction for corruption and jail. His cabinet, and indeed the majority of Jews, are bent on eliminating Hammas, and indeed all Palastinians within the greater Israel. Their strategy of keeping neighbours cowed by fear of their military superiority and will, no longer applies. So this age old biblical vendetta will continue, until they've seized their promised land - from the river to the sea, a view shared by the arabs. 😢

Probably best I leave it up to you to pick a time and a place Sid as both my normal drinkie places are a bit far out for you. It’s a shame the forums been allowed to decline so much to the point where a gets together drink happens so infrequently and with just two people. Social media isn’t really living up to it’s name. 😊 Bill 😊

Fingers crossed the recent tit for tat fighting seems to have ended with both sides seeing common sense and both playing things down. I’m sure there’ll be extreme radicals on both sides that won’t be too happy with this outcome, but the leaders of both countries had to temper any ambitions and consider their positions on the wider world stage. Let’s just hope it can remain that way. Bill 😊

From what I saw on telly yesterday, it’s more about the fact that so many homes had been converted into holiday apartments making it difficult for the locals to find anything they could afford. I did a three-week winter break in the canaries recently but stayed in a hotel. Talking to many Brits in the bars though and so many of them were spending most of the winter months self-catering in these relatively cheap apartments. When you do the sums, it’s not that bad an idea and it certainly gets you away from the woes of our winters. As for them loosing their culture, I suppose that’s true to some extent but it’s the way of the world these days, just part of evolution. Bill 😊

we were lucky in that the rain and hail stayed away so just the cold to contend with, difficult bowling with no feeling in the fingers. apart from the odd Wednesday or Monday during the bowling season and Thursdays during the domino season i am free as long as i have taken my medication, occasionally forget and that is despite having post it notes to remind me. mind you our next bowls match is not until May 20th, we have a bye on the 13th of may and the various bank holidays as well so about five weeks until i pick up a bowl again, so hopefully the weather will have warmed up a bit. might be tempted to try another bitter shandy, Wednesday was the first alcoholic drink i have had for almost twelve months. got hooked on lemonade with a splash of lime during the off season and not missed beer at all. alcohol tolerance gone right down the tubes (two bitter shandies and i am everybody's these days)

Seems after decades of mass tourism to the Med, locals have had enough. I remember over 30 years ago telling a group of Greeks, that tourists will destroy their cultural heritage, but alas they placed income ahead of outcome, and suffered the annual event of drunken Brits despoiling their culture. Seems now they've finally absorbed the wealth and are reacting to this annual migration. 😠

Sounds very responsible of the Iranians, but I doubt it will sate Israeli desire to be number one in the M/East and involve the US. Seems Biden has given them permission to assault Raffa, " in a humanitarian manner"; an impossibilty that will see even more women and kids slaughtered. 😢

Reckon foxes like a bit of duck in their diet Sid so not surprising he was hanging about. Yes there were some big showers Wednesday night, and the bowlers at Cadishead had to pause their game when the green got completely covered in a layer of hailstones. They won their first match btw after being promoted to the higher league but given most of them are essentially beginners they doubt they’ll be quite so successful this season. We’ll have to try and arrange a proper sit-down beer sometime and have a better catch up. Wednesday and Fridays I have to play designated driver but I’m free the rest of the week. Bill 😊

It looks like Israel had finally responded with a limited missile strike against specific military / weapon production sites targets rather than the countries capital. Not much actual news coming out just yet, but the mobile phone footage did show significant burning on the ground and explosions in the sky. The Iranians said they’re not that worried and aren’t planning any further response so a bit of hope there that this is an end to it. Bill 😊

As I said Bill, let's wait and see what happens and just hope it doesn't reach our little part of the world. The reason the IDF jets need the space, is to have time to shoot down the drones outside their own SAM defence zone, otherwise they may get hit by their own SAMs. An Israeli strike on Iran will probably be delivered via submarine, as their jet don't have the range. 😢

I don’t believe everything I read on the net Obs, I might get some info from it, but my thoughts are my own and I think are based mainly on logic and common sense. The idea being put out on the web and suggested by yourself was that Iran’s on to a winner by having loads of weaponry that cost next to nothing while Israel will bankrupt itself trying to defend against such a huge onslaught. Look what actually happened though, do the sums and in all probability, exactly the opposite is closer to the truth. I can’t see why the IDF would need to overfly other countries BTW unless they decided to make some kind of attack. If they were to do something like that, then they’d probably just use ballistic missiles, but these would likely be a lot more accurate and sophisticated that what Iran used against them. It’s also been suggested that they may use cyber tech that could be just as damaging, and this wouldn’t surprise me in the least. As for comparisons with the Ukraine, well it’s a very different situation out that way so meaningful comparisons are just not possible. Too late for all this sort of stuff. My glass is as empty as my head. Goodnight from me. Bill 😊

Think your first sentence should apply to you Bill ! Israel is an extremely small and confined area, and I doubt IDF aircraft will be allowed to overfly neighbouring arab countries, thus limiting their attack time, and no doubt their airfields would be targeted too. In Ukraine, the SAM systems have all but been wiped out, using this tactic. Still, pointless to speculate at this stage, but better to await the fireworks to come. And it will be no longer rocket science, when the rockets run out ! 😑

You don’t want to believe everything you read on the web Obs. Some of the media seem to be using assumptions rather than facts in order to create a headline grabbing story and I suspect the reality wouldn’t be half as interesting. The Israeli military aren’t stupid. They might have some of the best and most expensive weaponry around but they’re not going to be using multimillion dollar devices when a pea shooter can do the job equally as well. Take the Iranian drones for example. Being propeller driven, they’re extremely slow, making them a doddle for a modern air force to shoot down. Target lock, burst of cannon fire and move onto the next. The drones might be cheap but they’re nowhere as cheap as bullets so in this case it’s guaranteed to be costing the Irans more. Cruise missiles are a hell of lot more expensive but they’re not super-fast either, or particularly agile and so can be taken out by the most basic heat seeking SAM or AAM. The cruise will typically cost well over a million while the missiles that shoots them down would be cost about a twentieth of that. Just like the drones, none of these reached their target so again it would have cost Iran more. Each Iron Dome missile cost £47k (about the same as a standard heat seeking SAM) so I doubt a Shahab2 Iranian intermediate range missile is going to cost any less? On top of that, Iron Dome uses some cleaver AI to identify each incoming missile, assigning higher priorities to any heading for sensitive or populated areas. Those that it calculates will miss are simply ignored and allowed to fall to ground harmlessly, thus saving on costs. Leaving aside the cost of implementing Iron Dome, the cost of the missiles it used would have been less than less that it cost Iran. I’m not saying the IDF didn’t used any of the more expensive stuff in this exchange but cost wise it’s certainly not quite as one sided as some make out. It's not exactly rocket science. 😂 Bill 😊