JAG

Pedantic I know, but he is the King of The United Kingdom (England, Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland), rather than "King of England". Also of course 15 other Commonwealth Realms, including Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Perhaps easier to refer to him in International columns as "The British King".

There are certainly some distinct and deliberate parallels.

All at the same time? Blimey, talk about multitasking!

I knew Andrew Wakefield - rather well ( unfortunately as it happens). He was at school with me, a couple of years ahead of me. He was a liar, a bully and a cheat back then. I make no claim to being "Tom Brown" but he was definitely the prototype for Flashman. I was one of his favourite victims, and for several months he made my life a living hell. Things rather came to a head when he beat the living daylights out of me in a park on the way home from school. It required a visit to casualty, a lot of dental treatment and the loss of 3 teeth. He was the headmasters favourite, and the headmaster wanted to dismiss it as " high spirits". My father (also a schoolmaster) threatened prosecution, and the headmaster caved - he was a magistrate and the chairman of the Youth Bench. He (Wakefield) was allowed to stay at the school for his last 6 months to complete his A levels - he was clever and had very influential parents. The Headmaster was in something of a cleft stick, I suspect that he would have rather I left, ( my father threatened to take me out) but I had just won a scholarship to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst for my last two years which would have greatly embarrassed the school! When Wakefield came unstuck with his fraudulent research I must confess I opened a bottle of Champagne! Central to his fraud was that he had bullied parents into allowing him to use their children for research. Leopards and spots and all that!

Recidivism rates for women are approximately 20%, for men approximately 26% (UK Home Office figures). It is also generally the case that the prison regime for women is not so harsh. This suggests ( heaven help me - this is going to upset some) that longer and harsher sentences are not particularly effective!

Deep sigh, breathe regularly before responding; NOT AS SEVERELY!

So how about the much hyped warning system, buoys out at sea, warning sirens and announcements, survival plans and instructions as to where to go... No, I thought not. A lot of money was spent on establishing a system of buoys, well out to sea, to give warning of a Tsunami. Were they maintained, do they still work?

Budget constraints my dear chap. Burglars, shoplifters and thievery will always be with us, but these sort of people, who question the actions of their establishment betters, must be stamped on and hard! Scruffy bugger mincing around with his hands in his pockets wasn't he?

"The left wants to destroy the Greatest country on Earth." How dare they, that is Trump/Musk's job!

And while we are about it, let's go back to steam engines and sailing ships - finally technology I can understand!

You tink too mut!

Well, obviously they needed a place to hold audit inquiries into whether they need to build such premises! What is deeply sad is that the lawyers are gathering even whilst there are so many trapped, some may still be alive, under the rubble

Drunk: he has something of a track record... Incompetent, responsible for the alleged security breach: he is the Secretary for Defence, and was actively engaging in discussing classified plans for a forthcoming operation on an unclassified messaging app! That is about as incompetent and irresponsible as it gets. I don't have any "masters" owe no allegiance to any political movement, British or American. I don't flame or libel you ( where in my post did I even mention you?) I do respond to ridiculous suggestions and frothy mouthed commentary with mockery or sarcasm from time to time, and you often draw such a response - others (if not you) may see some correlation there! I think that the "sad" and "confused" emojis are pointless and a waste of time, have been on record several times as saying so, and so make a point of not using them.

Personally what worries me (and I leave it to others to decide whether I am a leftist or socialist, I certainly don't identify as such) is the man in charge of the most powerful military in the world being a drunken incompetent buffoon capable of making such an obvious and egregious security breach - one which put the lives of those he is in charge of at even greater risk. As for being a strong masculine war veteran, didn't he have to get his mum to say that he promised not to be a drunken tosser - sorry I meant reformed character - if he was confirmed? Gloves off, he is a pretty buckshee junior reserve officer with a loose mouth who came to prominence on a weekend TV programme. Now as to resignation or being sacked he will not go of course. He has lied vehemently and his boss has doubled down on those lies.

I support the decision, not because I wish to discriminate against transgender athletes, or those with medical or physical developmental conditions like Imane Khelif; but because I do not want to see women in sport degraded and disadvantaged by being forced to compete against what are, as was certainly the case in the Olympic boxing bout, physically males.

Mind you it is a long way for them to waddle, and away from the urban areas fast food outlets are few and far between!

I suspect a conventional invasion is unlikely, but I can anticipate grievances being stoked and created to justify a more specific "limited" involvement, for example to establish a land (or air) corridor to Alaska, or to secure/safeguarding electricity supplies to northern US States. The case for these will be made over time, with many wails about "nasty countries" and orange Mussolini posturing ( have you noticed how he is working on the look? Late night screenings of Chaplin's "The Great Dictator" I wonder?). If when he/they are confident that they have sidelined Canada from the rest of NATO and the West only then would they move.

The western intelligence alliances will continue to operate - although it is likely they will be more circumspect in including the USA in their liaisons. No doubt the cue in due course for cries and wails about nasty countries and post hangover declarations of contempt for "the Euros". Can you put tariffs on information?

Ah - the new railway line - they're building lots of them to avoid having level crossings.

There is a serious risk @blackcab that you may be introducing an element of thought and knowledge into this debate, please stop before it is too late! "Everyone knows" that Thai standards in construction are inadequate, the fact that no other major high rise buildings, elevated roads or trailways failed is pure luck!

If you have, as you claim, been in many earthquakes then it rather underlines my point that it was a tasteless if not ignorant thing to say - you should understand the likely results, irrespective of published data. That said, like so many of your ridiculous claims, it should probably be taken with a large pinch of salt! And lay off the 1960s San Francisco hippy talk, or should I say "cool it babe" - you are in a hole of your own making, continuing to dig makes you sound even more of an old fool. The fact that you claim that it is "your topic" on an open forum says enough about your delusions. And finally I am not, never have been and going by your performances would never wish to be counted as a "friend".

Given the likely scale of death, injury and destruction this earthquake will likely have wrought upon the unfortunate people of Myanmar, then perhaps "Nice one" is probably amongst the least tasteful ( if we are to be generous) of epithets to apply. Frankly, a downright <deleted> ignorant thing to say!

On the contrary, yesterday was rather a good day. A not unrealistic forecast though. Did you see the newsreel of the Muslim woman being picked up off the street somewhere in North Eastern USA, by half a dozen masked men in plain clothes, handcuffed, and whisked away in an unmarked car? She is entirely legally resident in the USA, student visa, postgraduate student. I think, may be wrong, she was from Turkey. Now being held incommunicado in an ICE detention centre in Louisiana. Her "crime", expressing an opinion in a student newspaper! Why Louisiana? The other end of the country? Well it is a damned sight more difficult for any courts or lawyers to track her down and get her released - I should imagine ICE finds it a more favourable jurisdiction? "Nacht und Nebel" doesn't it make your heart swell?

All military orders written ("Op orders") or spoken ("O groups") start with a "general outline" paragraph, before going on to detailed tasks and timings etc. The drunken fool sent the general outline paragraph, out over an unclassified and insecure messaging app a couple of hours before the operation was launched. What an utter buffoon! Anyone who has served in the military knows that any commander who made such a stupid and obvious mistake, and then lied about it, would simply be sacked!

Absolutely - Honan's paramilitary thugs at polling stations to question anyone who isn't white turning up to vote! Brown, Spanish speaking, got a tattoo? Wrap 'em in chains and off to a concentration camp outsourced to El Salvador! I expect they will have every available bus and 'plane chartered next polling day!