JAG

Many will remember the notoriety he gained , some 20 years ago for the foul practical "joke" he played on the entirely harmless elderly actor Andrew Sachs - Manuel in Fawlty Towers. Brand, along with his partner in crime, Jonathan Ross, invited Sachs onto his radio programme; he then regaled Sachs and the listeners with lurid descriptions of his (claimed) sexual exploits with Sachs' much loved granddaughter. It was a foul and extremely cruel thing to do, which left Sachs an utterly broken man. He died not long after. Not criminal perhaps, certainly deserving of a good kicking, but it is entirely credible that someone who did such an appalling deed could also be capable of a bit of casual rape. He may well have been baptised in the Thames, I suspect that even the Thames does not have enough water to wash his soul clean!

Oh, I expect the battery will be flat, it always is! Trouble does seem to follow our Bob around doesn't it?

His best defence would probably be to take a leaf out of the late ( and much missed) Andrew Sach's book: "Qué? I know nothing. I come from Barcelona!" Vile creature (Brand, not Sachs)!

Unfortunately they were fencing "foil", so that would have been out of the target scoring area, if however they had been fencing epee, or sabre, that would have been allowed. I used to fence, I once got through to the final round of the British Army competition (more by good luck than good judgement - my Regiments team had a couple of very good fencers, I wasn't one). I was drawn against a tall languid sort of chap who was in the running for the UK Olympic Squad - shortest bout ever but I did get praise for trying from the judges! It is certainly not a sport for "Nancies"! But a woman against a man is always going to be an unfair match.

I am on no side, I am not an American and of course do not vote. But I do watch with some considerable dismay the carnage and destruction which Trump, yes, corrupt, malevolently vengeful, amoral and increasingly remote from reality, and utterly careless of the results his actions (which seem to be only calculated to boost his fragile reputation and ego) have wrought upon American society, and in particular it's more vulnerable members. I have spent time in the USA, and frankly did not much like quite a lot of what I saw. However, the offices of state, legislative and executive, were underpinned by a basic acknowledgement that it was their duty to understand and support the society which they governed. That, together with basic respect for democracy and people's rights seems to have gone by the board, certainly in the case of the executive and much of the legislature. I also regard with some amazement the antics and posturing of the hopelessly out of their depth collection of sycophants Trump has appointed to positions within his government; together with (it seems to me) the increasingly bizarre attempts of many of his supporters to justify what he is doing. My own country's' leaders (on both sides of the political divide) and those of other European countries are far from perfect, but ye gods and little fishes, compared with the. malevont idiocy running rampant in America, they are virtual plaster saints!

Well done that man, bringing Hunter Bidens laptop into the discussion!

I wish such practices had been around back in the day - I used to play rugby - front row forward. Golly, it would have been such fun!

You feed me the lines, I will respond!

Rather (tragically) a recipe for a "perfect storm": An easily controllable epidemic of a childhood disease which should have ( and has, to all intents and purposes elsewhere has) been eliminated through vaccination. A buffoon of a Health secretary pushing quackery. Gullible parents.

Unfortunately the tariff regime has rendered them prohibitively expensive!

Perhaps we should ask the Soy bean farmers who went bust the last time Mr Trump played his tariff game with China?

If Thursday was "Liberation Day", is today (Friday) " Slow Motion Train Crash Day"?

If you look at the bizarre mathematical gymnastics which Trump and his administration have used to decide the size of the tarifs applied to various countries, it rather seems that the Trump Administration doesn't either. Still, 'twill show those pesky penguins that they can't mess around with the United States! The total absence of tariffs on Russia? A testament to the enduring power of old VHS tapes?

If you walk into a location whose prosperity depends on exporting goods to the USA then it is likely you will face some hostility. Otherwise I doubt it.

Of course you are Bob!

At which point he will disappear from AN for 24 hours before he reinvents himself under another identity, funnily enough, based in Pattaya!

Well, I suppose if the aircraft smells like the back door of the municipal market food court it might provide a clue!

The "rest of the world" is rather more than debris scattered around the fringes of the United States. I can't personally think of anything that we trade with the US that cannot either be obtained or sold elsewhere. Let us just leave the US to crack on alone, and concentrate on trading with the rest of the world.

It certainly is and they certainly are. Just perhaps not in the way in which you fondly imagine!

Consumers queuing to withdraw deposits...

Don't take that badly @theshu25, after all, Bob's ( sorry I mean "The Don's") circle of acquaintances is limited to assorted restaurant and bar owners who have thrown him out, white skinned flat stomached "escorts" who are prepared to indulge him with group sex, and of course his conquests amongst ladyboys!

Windmills are being dealt with by our great leader - replaced as I understand it by beautiful clean coal! Personally I am more concerned by the battery powered sharks that are swimming around our cars ...

Golly, one of the best streams of racial (semi) consciousness heard on this forum for a long time! And of course, it is all the fault of the Jews!

He is the King of the United Kingdom (not the King of England). There are a considerable number of Muslims in the United Kingdom. That's why he is doing this. He does things to celebrate/mark Easter, Christmas and Divali as well, for his Christian and Hindu subjects.

Alex Belfield's sentence was a reflection of the fact that he attempted to use the trial as a platform to continue his campaign against Vine and the BBC. That is why the judge gave him a sentence at the top end of "the range".