herfiehandbag

I'm just popping in for a diplomatic visit. Oh by the way, I'm bringing my air force with me! Coupe of chaps with me would appreciate a really good look at those new Swedish jets you have got. They are going to Moscow next month to brief up our comrades...

I would take Ben Wallace's analaysis over your frothy mouthed enthusiasms any time.

Sometimes I just love the AI(?) on this board. I clicked onto the link for Yvette Cooper ( married to Ed Balls) and up came an advert for " Forged Steel Media Balls"!

The agreement was for two debates, between the Democrat and Republican candidates. The first debate was held before the Democrats had decided who their candidate was. Now they have decided. So the second debate will still be between the Democrat and Republican candidates. The three debates idea was chucked in the ring by Trump, desperate to get Fox News in on the act. It is all starting to sound a bit like the "Black Knight Sketch" from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"!

A novel and rather engaging term for a bar girl!

A whole new story! Is that my taxi outside?

Bizarre, quite bizarre!

Beatings will continue until morale improves! Let us be under no misapprehensions, they are going to tax the living daylights out of the UK, to build the centrally controlled society which is their aim.

Just to make things clear, are you referring to the bleach blonde, bad built, butch body, as was so delightfully and memorably put by one Jasmine Crockett, she of the "Kamala Harris has a resume, Donald Trump has a rap sheet" quote. Really nasty and unfair!

Well given that he is 70 years old I suspect that it is the end of his political ambitions - still, it is good to see Donald Trump bringing on board some fresh young blood! Here is a good rumour to start: Trump is going to bin Vance and bring on Kennedy as VP! That should get the frothy mouthed to their keyboards!😃

Yes, but it is not beyond the bounds of possibility that they may have discussed the matter with the " border bounce" agencies, who will offer a package deal encompassing travel and two nights in Laos!

That was my first reaction as well - the closure of the border crossings into Burma will have led to some deep thinking in the agent industry in Chiang Mai!

Well, you welcomed them. You got diversity. You have been culturally enriched.

Indeed, even less "touristy"!

One might consider that people doing "border bounces" every 60 days are not really tourists?

Donald Trump Claims to Be Queen Elizabeth II's Favorite President

I've seen that photograph before - I think Mr Trump's tailor played a particularly cruel practical joke!

I got on the wrong bus once at Chiang Rai, dozed off and woke up in Phaya Mengrai. Didn't have a clue where I was for about 15 minutes.

This happened a month ago.

Her Majesty was personally frugal, had a strong personal religious faith, and was driven throughout her long lifetime of service to the country by a strong sense of duty. She rarely, no, practically never, made known her personal views on people, or politics. So much in common with Trump!

Cynics of course might suggest that he knows quite a lot, having broken most of them during his rise. I however conclude that his professional success was due to superb leadership, sound consistent tactical knowledge which he frequently displayed whilst commanding troops in the field, all of course backed up by the general demeanor of an admirable lean mean steely eyed killer ...

At the risk of veering wildly off topic, the readings (Old Testament, Epistles, Gospel and sermons were in the vernacular - English). The rest of the Mass was in Latin, but the congregation, having listened to It over years, brought up with it, understood it! As a matter of interest, I have been involved in teaching the choir at the Catholic Cathedral here in Chiang Rai to sing the Gloria and Sanctus in Latin, and the Kyrie Eleison in ancient Greek. The choir, girls, mainly Akha hill tribe boarders at the school attached to the Cathedral, do so beautifully, and I have taken great pains (my Akha is very limited!) to make sure that they understand what they are singing! But then I love the Latin, which many no doubt think a bit weird! I also remember my father recounting hearing Mass aboard a troopship during the Second World Was. The congregation was drawn from British and Commonwealth, Poles, Czechs, and French. Not a problem, Mass was said in Latin!

It is "herfiehandbag". A six pack of stubby bottles of Herforder Pils beer, which came in a yellow cardboard box with a carrying handle, and was known therefore as a "herfiehandbag". I used to have a little picture as my avatar, but apparently it was advertising, or encouraging alcohol consumption or something! Oh those halcyon days, when the fittest alcoholics in North West Europe (otherwise known as British Army of the Rhine) held back the Soviet hordes! Happy days, life was so much simpler then!

Sinking the boats in the channel is NOT the solution. It is simply not acceptable, morally not politically. The only practical solution is to interrupt and intercept the movement at the point of entry to Europe. That of course is a problem in the Mediterranean and along the Balkan land borders. If we accept that is where the migrants must be stopped, and we are prepared to provide funds to assist with stopping illegal (economic) migration, then that is where the money should be spent, and the assets deployed, not in bungs to the Northern Departments of the French Republic. Once the migrants are in Calais, then the French just want to move them on. That is what the Poles are doing.

France has no wish to accept returned migrants, indeed every 50 that make it off their beaches are 50 less to worry about. For that reason alone, they are unlikely to do more than pay lip service to co-operation. Pragmatically ( and the French can be very pragmatic) the people smugglers are rather doing them a favour!