Byron

Frankly, I couldn't care less. Just a 'little news day' for the press, got to print something

You hope

Is Bitcoin just another bubble? Will we see similar anguish, handwringing, 'nobody warned me', 'I thought that it was legitimate,' I started with just £100 etc. etc.

This is a matter of caveat emptor. If the EA will not demonstrate the water utilities, walk away. There can only be one reason that the EA is being cagy.

During the Brexit arguments I always championed the 'Right of self determination of Peoples' I still do and feel that if it is the will of the Scots to be independent then to hold them in the Union against their will is like screwing down a safety valve on a boiler. Brexit is a valid point, how many Scots voted for the Union and then voted Remain? The Union that they voted for was in the EU, now it is not and I feel that they should be allowed to voice their opinion. The last Indyref referred to something very different to the current UK, and to say 'Once in a generation' is OK, but the Scots have not voted for the present situation. They should be heard.

Politically this was an incredibly brave move by De Valera. Belfast had been badly bombed and they did not have enough equipment to put the fires out. The nearest were in Scotland. The North telephoned Dublin and begged for help. The Dublin Fire Brigade was sent across the border. Now in wartime, a uniformed force from a supposed neutral country went to Britain's aid in order to minimise legitimate damage caused by the German offensive. Hitler could have used that as a legitimate reason for invading the RoI.

So, your pathological altruism would allow you to condemn British people to die, just to make you feel that you are a nice person? I wonder what a British person, in hospital on a ventilator and struggling to breathe would make of you.

Well it's really all speculation, but my gut feeling is that with the enormous loss of talent the UK experienced between 1914 and 1918, bearing in mind that conscription only began in 1916 meant that mainly the fittest and brightest were removed from the gene pool. This left noticeable age gaps in the workforce that existed until the 1960s. The capable leadership was just not available. This effect was felt throughout Europe. Consequently a softer easy approach to life took hold of the popular will and still exerts it influence to the present day. What I feel rather than can prove is that the dynamic that existed for centuries has gone.

All Empires rise and fall. The British Empire began to falter before the First World War and has been slowly sinking ever since. Just like Cairo, Athens, Rome, London will wither away from its present position because we have simply become soft as the Romans became. Try reading contemporary books written before WW1 and you soon realise that the essential toughness in the male population and the family protecting, care, and binding togetherness of the female population has just about gone. Men nurtured the country and women nurtured the families. That pattern of family and national life had been the norm for millennia. Same in the USA and Western Europe. Mostly gone now. China and India and Russia step forward it's your turn now.

Fool, I was quoting Brexiteers.

My view is that people have the right of self determination and if Scotland wishes to be independent then the rest of us should not stand in their way. This is democracy and as a Brexiteer incensed by the disgraceful antics of the remainer MPs, I would apply the same values to the Scots. Not being Scottish, whether they go independent or not is absolutely nothing to do with me. All the current arguments that Scotland will go broke are equivalent to the anti-Brexit 'Project Fear' Remainers never understood that Brexiteers were not interested in the financial aspects, they just wanted to be free of the EUSSR regardless of the consequences. It is the same with the Scots.

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But, but, but, Ten years ago these scum were, as we were told by the papers, "Canny Investors snapping up bargains before prices rise again" Now I know what canny means.

All these 'predictions' remind me of the 1914 'It'll all be over by Christmas.'