When someone says your like Hitler, how do you react when they want you to give them a good deal ?

Boris Johnson, the possible next prime minister, caused genuine and grave offence by likening the European project to the ambitions of Hitler. His declarations that Brexit will trigger events that unravel the entire project is


The UK has next to no trade negotiators, and will need hundreds, to replicate the market access it currently has with 50 states around the world .

Britain has made clear it doesn’t want free movement – and so any deal on those grounds would be so impossibly fragile as to be a waste of time. Frankfurt and Paris would certainly like our banks. clearing houses that trade in Euros and generate billions for the Exchequer will have to be domiciled in the Eurozone.

A Canadian-style trade deal, that will set tariffs on imports and exports. That may be fine for German manufacturers. But Britain’s service economy will be cut up like an old car. British graduates are about to learn what it's like to use an Australian-style points system. 

If a deal covering trade arrangements isn’t struck once the two-year period expires, Britain is  simply released from the EU treaties and left on crippling WTO terms - something the Treasury terms  a "severe shock scenario" and which it envisages would likely result in a cut in GDP of six per cent and increase unemployment by 800,000, not including the risks presented by emergency spending cuts, or the "tipping points" presented by the crystallisation of financial stability risks.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/26/the-eu-will-treat-britain-like-greece/

It will be easier to leave the EU later than it will be to rejoin

In the rather awful EU membership Referendum draws top a close, the obvious point has not been made. This isn't a once in a lifetime opportunity to leave the EU. The UK can leave anytime Parliament votes to leave.  So if there comes a time when the EU admits Turkey, creates an EU army and forces the UK to pay for a bailout of euro zone countries or any of the other 'predictions' the likes of Farage make - then the UK will be able to leave. Some might even think that would be a more intelligent time to have a vote. 

Jo Cox - Tim Farron writes

This morning with my kids all I could think about was the family who’ve woken up with their lives changed forever.

Yesterday a mum, who left home to do her job to serve her constituents, was cruelly and brutally taken from them. Her husband and their children are in my thoughts and prayers.

When something terrible happens, I feel it. I am not one of those who shies away from emotion. And I, like so many others, am really feeling it today.

In Orlando, when all those people were massacred for simply being themselves, the hurt was overwhelming. And here in Britain, we have seen terror on our streets and lost an incredible woman. 

Grief, sorrow, anger, frustration, confusion.

Jo Cox was a wonderful MP. Much will be written about her and she deserves all the tributes that are being paid.  

Very few politicians had her vision and courage when it came to standing up for Syria and for refugees. She was really affected by their plight and when she spoke in Parliament I was deeply moved.   She came to the Commons to make a difference, for something she believed in.  

For too long we have allowed division and hatred to thrive. Vitriol has risen, and only yesterday we saw the shameful and sickening sight of England fans taunting child refugees, while public figures went out of their way to fan the flames of prejudice. 

I am angry and upset at all those politicians, public figures and newspapers who wilfully stir up fear and hatred.  

Political debate has become a nasty place where personal attacks, blaming foreigners, migrants, the poor, the different, have become palatable.

Where has all the hope, and optimism, and decency gone?  It will be quoted many times over, but Jo’s words in her maiden speech couldn’t be clearer and couldn’t be more poignant – ‘we are far more united and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us.’ 

Today I won’t be campaigning in the referendum, but I’m going to be in my constituency doing what MPs do; I will be holding an open-air surgery. 

This is how I, in my small way, can pay tribute to Jo.  

This is what I encourage all people in politics to do today. Be in your constituency, be in your ward. Be part of your community. Reach out, lend a hand, support, listen, comfort and help. This is what we’re here to do.

Tomorrow I will begin again to make the positive case for Europe.  

I am fed up with the anger and the hatred. It’s gone on for too long. I am a passionate believer that being part of Europe is better for our country, yet this debate has been suffocated by ego and dirty politics. 

We must turn a corner.  

Let this be a turning point for our country. When the world around us is fearful, confusing, and clouded, let us be the beacon of tolerance and hope.

Tim Farron

7 ideas about terroism that aren't true

http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/myths-of-terrorism/

Eloquent case for staying in the EU

http://www.libdemvoice.org/a-postal-vote-for-the-eu-50805.html

RIP actor Gareth Thomas

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/2016/04/14/blakes-7-actor-gareth-thomas-dies-aged-71/

Loved Blakes 7, loved Children of the Stones, he was even good in Heartbeat.

Such as shame, as I believe he was just about to record some more Blake's 7 for Big Finish Productions.
At one time he was in the running to be in The New Avengers on TV but was told he didn't look right so they chose Gareth Hunt - who looked incredibly similar - instead.

Damaging effect of Porn

http://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/how-porn-is-messing-with-your-manhood/

Research is suggesting that pornography addiction may be distorting our ideas of healthy sexual relationships, causing erectile dysfunction, social anxiety, depression, compulsivity, desensitization, anorgamsia, delayed ejaculation, difficulty having sex with real partners, and abnormally low sexual desire