CHAPEL END CHARLIE

I came, I saw, I forgot all about it by the time I got home

I must say that seeing serial malcontent Jeremy Corbyn yesterday calling on Labour MP's to support his leadership now - when of course he has spent his entire career refusing to back previous Labours leaders - is hyprocrisy on a stunning scale. Nevertheless, being the darling of the hard-left, he will probably win this contest. What happens next in the Labour Party will certainly be interesting ...

I think you will find that no one religion holds a monopoly on mental illness - even Klan supporters have been known to suffer from this problem.

But the Metropolitan Police seem pretty confident that yesterday's incident in London was NOT a terrorist attack, but rather the actions of one mentally ill individual. If that is wrong then you should provide some evidence to support any such contention. In the meantime if you want to see a "confused" person then methinks you need only look in a mirror.

One of the bombed hospitals was actualy a MATERNITY unit by the way. But please feel free to try and justify that if you can.

It seems to me that terrorism is not only a 'private enterprise' activity because states too are not adverse to partipating whenever it suits them. Evidence of this are reports that no less than five of the Syrian city of Aleppo's nine hospitals (and a blood bank) have been bombed in recent days: http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/i-would-rather-die-here-rebel-held-aleppo-residents-caught-307797434 I would hope that we can all agree that civilian medical facilities are not really what you might call "legitimate" military or industrial targets - even in a bitterly contested civil war. So how else could you possibly describe deliberetly targeting hospitals but as a act of state sponsored terror, or at least a warcrime? And yet in stark contrast to the level of reaction that other recent terrorist incidents receive on here these particular acts of terror have been allowed to pass virtually without comment for some reason. Indeed, the silence from some is quite deafening. So I ask myself where are all those outraged posts from our 'usual suspects' who are so quick to condemn terrorism when Muslims are the perpetrators of terror rather than its victims? Not that I would claim for one moment that some estimed SWF members would ever maintain a obvious double standard of course ...

Gogglesprogs - Channel 4. A fairly staightforward offshoot from C4's successful 'Gogglebox' series you may already be familiar with - but with young children replacing the adult TV addicts on display this time. Now that may not sound all that original or interesting I suppose, but against the odds Gogglesprogs turns out to be a little gem of a series and rather better methinks than the original programme it is based on. The kids are frequently charming and watching their honest reactions to the TV shows they see is both entertaining in itself and a truely fasinating insight into what it is to see the world through the innocent eyes of a child again. Delightful TV. The Somme 1916: From Both Sides of the Wire - BBC2. Most TV history is rather superficial in nature I'm afraid - more magazine than book if you know what I mean. But this series is much better than that because it is based on extensive archival reasearch conducted into the battle and not just another sombre but 'by-the-numbers' account of the tragic personal story's of this infamous battle's many victims. Crucially, this time we see the Somme not just from the familiar Brirish side but from the often neglected German perspective too. Yes we all know that the Somme was indeed a frightful slaughter. But why was that so and how exactly did the heavily outnumbered German Army successfully withstand the pulversing artillery bombardment it recieved? If the answers to those old questions still interest you as much as they do me, then you too might find this superb series to be as unmissable as I have. The Two Ronnies - Yesterday Maybe watching too much 'nostalgia TV' is not the best use of precious time in this short life. However, when it comes to the Two Ronnies I just can't stop myself. Watching this old series again for the first time in many years you soon realise that not every sketch is great by any means - the big end of show 'song and dance' numbers may be cliched and not to everyone tastes in this day and age. But at its wonderful best - especially when the great Ronnie Barker stikes top form - then there is little funnier to be seen on TV regardless of when it was produced. Both Rons have gone now alas - but bless 'em because they surely brought a lot of pleasure to a lot of people in their time. .

'Operation Mincemeat' by Ben Macintyre. If you have ever seen the old black and white film 'The Man Who Never Was' then you already will know something about the subject of this book. If you have not, then prior to the Allied invasion of Sicily in July 1943 (Operation Husky) British intelligence mounted a operation intended to decieve the Germans into believing that Greece, rather than the island of Sicily, was the planned landing place. If the Germans could be fooled then the war might be shortened and thousands of allied lives could be saved. In order to achieve this objective a recently deceased corpse of a unfortunate sucide victim was secretly obtained, the body was dressed-up as the entirly fictitious 'Major Martin' of the Royal Marines and set adrift off the coast of Spain to wash ashore. Attached to the body was a briefcase containing various letters addressed to Allied commanders in the Mediterranean concerning this fake Greek invasion. In order for this plan to succeed then it was vital that one of the many German spies working in wartime Spain would get hold of the misleading letters and pass this seeming crucial intelligence 'windfall' on to Hitler and his generals ... What ensues is a brilliently told tale as thrilling as it is remarkable. A story of deceit, spycraft and a inspired plan that in reality was perhaps not quite as foolproof as that old film made it look ... oh and easily the best book I have read this year by the way.

A superficially tempting idea perhaps but think about it - do we really want to be in the business of exporting terrorists so that they can murder and create mayhem abroad? No, it really doesn't make a lot of sense I think that western nations should allow their own citizens to reinforce a enemy we are also currently engaged in bombing. And what if they want to take their children with them ... is that okay too?

I'm a big fan of Das Boot - at least when used as a sub.

To state the obvious we live in violent times and that violence seems to be spreading in society - almost as if it were some kind of virus or even obscene fashion. Those on here who place the blame for this bloody phenomena on one (ancient) religious faith, or on immigration generaly, fall into the error of oversimplifying a issue that perhaps originates more from the great divide that exists between the powerful and the powerless rather than any matter of religious dogma. It seems to me that the percieved injustice and inequality of the world are the real fountainheads of this current wave of violence. I hope and believe that we that are ALL equaly appalled by the bloodshed we see on the streets of Europe today. It is of little surprise that in reaction to that the usual suspects on here feel entitled to spout the usual kind of stuff. What I'm not seeing frankly is much in the way of a sensible proposal being put forward to remedy this situation - need I remind anyone that yesterday's attack in Munich was apparently the work of a German citizen and that Lee Rigby's murderers were both born in Britain. So we are where we are then and short of some medieval style 'pogrom' being launched to rid our continent of everyone of a non Judeo-Christian background the only thing we can do right now I suppose is place our trust in the forces of law and order to protect us and to try to 'keep calm and carry on' in the time-honoured British manner. Matching extremism with more extremism can only lead to disaster I think. If it is any consolation, you can rest assured that our parents and grandparents generation had to endure infinitely worse in their time before that storm too passed - as they always do.

Funnily enough the comparision between Trump and Mussolini struck me some time ago. The posturing, the mannerisms, the same inability to think issues through. Add weird hair and a ghastly 'trophy wife' and they could be brothers.

The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - by Claire North. What if reincarnation was real, but your next life was also the very same one you have just gone through - and that your memory of what had gone before could survive each death? That is the situation Harry August faces, for him and the other members of the secretive 'Cronos Club' death has become little more than a inconvenience that forces them to go through the tedium of childhood again before they can employ their vast level of accumulated knowledge to their advantage. The only rule is that club members agree to never alter the key events of history. But rules are there to be broken and on his deathbed at the very end of his eleventh life Harry recieves a message handed down to him from the future warning that somehow the end of the world is approaching ... This is a wonderfully inventive novel that makes you question the nature of time and life. It is also one that I found to be quite irresistible.

Aye - there's the rub. Dreams of easily negoiated new international trade deals and of our somehow replacing the EU Single Market (in the medium term anyway) are just so much 'pie in the sky' thinking I'm afraid. So British business will continue to require free access to European markets while the British people will continue to dislike the immigration that goes along with that. And then there is the Scottish question acting as a kind of 'cherry on the cake' of the UK's many post-Bretix problems. So how on earth do we square these various circles - answers on a postcard please! No bugger knows in all honesty but it's almost bound to end up in some kind of fudge, such as EU immigration continuing perhaps but with immigrants needing a firm job offer prior to arrival - or something like that. To even get to that stage will probably involve many years of argument, controversy and uncertainty ahead, which itself will be highly damaging to our economy. The new PM has one hell of a salvage job in front of her.

This BBC programme offers a valuable insight I think for we non Americans. Not so much as to Donald J Trump himself, but rather why quite so many poorer, older and less educated white Americans find his message so politically attractive: Panorama, Trump's Angry America: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07lq12w via @bbciplayer I'm quite convinced that Trump will win the coming Presidential election - God help us all.

I was once a supporter of our nuclear deterrent but have over time become increasingly sceptical as its real utility in this post Cold War era. Furthermore, the extreme costs involved in renewing the RN's nuclear armed submarines will clearly be detrimental to what remains of our conventional defences. The record shows that the 'Successor' programme might be a enormous £41bn project if the contingency fund is spent - all of which must for the first time come specifically from the defence budget rather than via a special HM Treasury fund as in the past. There is I think a good case that NATO still requires nuclear weapons in this uncertain world - whether the UK can either afford, or for that matter really needs, to duplicate that US provided capabilty is another question.

A sign of things to come? http://home.bt.com/news/news-extra/could-there-really-be-a-new-centre-left-breakaway-party-lib-dem-leader-tim-farron-thinks-so-11364074186394

Good point. Apparently what is really needed now is for the "good guys" to not only to be armed, but to be BETTER armed than the "bad guys". Thetefore, before very long I suspect that the NRA will be advising that police departments should employ Bazookas and helicopter gunships in their road policing efforts. That would clearly make much more sense than attempting to introduce any meaningful gun-control legislation. Remember, do it to them before they do it to you ...

Well Britain has over its long history aquired its own sense of what the concepts 'liberty' and 'freedom' mean that seems quite distinctive from much of the European tradition. Okay I agree this is a secondary issue, but I hope that I speak for the majority over here in saying that the notion that the state should be in the business of legistrating what clothes people are allowed wear is utterly abhorant and against more or less everything this nation stands for. Frankly, I'm more than a little surprised to read that the (seemingly sensible) Netherlands has joined authoritarian France in the folly of banning certain items of traditional Muslim dress - I can't imagine such a move even being seriously contemplated by our Parliment. Again, discrimitory laws of this type are highly damaging to race relations in what are - and will remain - multi-culteral societies. By the way, the British people are equally reluctant to accept the Indenity Cards that so many Europeans are obliged to carry by law - for much the same reasons. As for your view that religion should be excluded from political power, here too Britain has developed its own approach to the subject over time. To this day the Church of England retains a historical (but now quite small) degree of influence in our unelected revising chamber - The House of Lords. The Queen as Head of State is also the titular head of that church. Furthermore, Prince Charles has let it be known that when (in the fullness of time) he takes the crown he intends to act in the capacity of "Defender of Faith". That means ALL faiths not just the established Church of England. All the above may seem strange or even outdated when viewed from the other side of the English Channel I suspose - but I for one wouldn't have it any other way.

In a stadium structure designed for seating I wonder if shorter fans who happen to find themselves standing behind taller ones would be able to even see the pitch? In the days of terracing you could often move about quite freely and find a suitable spot for yourself - children were sometimes even passed down to the front - but you can't really do that with the 'safe standing' concept can you? That freedom to move was the best - and worst - thing about the old terraces. That frankly is never coming back post Hillsbrough, so perhaps we should just leave things as they are now.

The dangers of a anti-Muslim backlash here in Europe are very real I think in this fevered situation - and that is just what the extremists are banking on of course. Indeed, the bigotry I see the usual suspects on here expressing is a painful reminder to me of my own anti-Irish reaction to the IRA terrorism of my youth. That emotion was one of those 'childish things' I managed to put away long ago thankfully. It goes without saying I hope that we all on here condemn terrorism, but I don't really know what 'confronting backward Muslim ideas' really means in practice. France for example has banned Muslim women from wearing the Burqa that some (but not all) Muslims feel their religion requires. Would you say that move has helped make France safer place or a more insecure one? How can a nation state that likes to take pride in its timeless values of Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité also employ the full weight of the law to instruct its citizens on what clothes they are allowed to wear? There is a fine line to walk between upholding our modern (and often secular) western values and religious/racial oppression - nations that transgress too far over that 'fine line' risk making what is a bad situation even worse I think.

The idea that the European empires were ever somehow run by a western business or administrative elite only and excluded any significant mass emigration from the "everyday" people of the great imperial powers is utter nonsense. To openly express such a ridiculous thing betrays a deep level of ignorance about the world that is rather embarrassing frankly. For example (and with the current situation in mind) Algeria was until the 1950's not deemed to be a French colony per se, but rather it was considered to be an integral part of Metropolitan France with substantial numbers of (often poor) French and other southern European settlers living there - some even entitled to elect deputies to the French Parliment by the way. For that matter has not the current population mix of the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand not been heavily influenced by mass British immigration over time? In fact it is perfectly clear that where empires became established a mixing of populations between people from the imperial power, and those of its colony, almost inevitably follows - as night does day.

Again, Boeing's decision to invest in the UK is because we decided - last year - to place orders with them for P-8A Maritime Patrol Aircraft and new model AH-64E Apache helicopters. This has NOTHING to do with Bretix and to suggest otherwise is misleading.

On the face of it Boris Johnson and diplomacy go together about as well custard and baked beans. But I guess Mrs May is working on the principle that a Prime Minister should keep their friends close - and their enamies even closer. The potential for a uniterupted run of embassing gaffs from are new Foreign Secretary seems quite high and wether foreigners will be prepared to overlook his future misdemeaners quite as readily as many British people do is a matter that is open to question. Mind you, Boris being given just enough rope to go hang himself might be the plan here I suspect.

He seems to have a aquired a band of supporters on here, but I can't be the only saints fan who starts to worry whenever it looks like Yoshida is going to play. Perhaps playing week in and week out he would perform satisfactorily - but right now coming off the bench he looks very much like a 'weak link' to me.