Q) Does anyone else have problems with ATW not loading?

Communication problems in the Commons. pic.twitter.com/TQWJfUwbw3

— Tom Moseley (@moseleytom) October 18, 2018

The Mayor of London “promised to drive down the use of stop and search by the Metropolitan Police if he is elected to City Hall”. That was in 2015. He won that election and followed up on his promise. The path was laid before him by Theresa May, who when as Home Secretary, pressured the police into reducing stop and search. The result of this joint genius initiative is out today.

Knife crime in London has risen to its highest ever level with nearly 15,000 blade offences committed during the past year https://t.co/YIEw0KxJTN

— Evening Standard (@standardnews) October 18, 2018

Of course knife crime is far, far higher than this. These are just the known cases, which include murder, killings, rapes, sexual assaults and robberies. Every day, hundreds and possibly thousands of da yoof are carrying blades in London, a city increasingly resembling Africa.

It must have been a belter of a story.

Many news sources are reporting today, from Turkish state sources, that Jamal Khashoggi was dismembered, drugged and beheaded in just a few minutes after walking into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. I’m inclined to believe the accusation, because it’s quite precise and the Saudis aren’t hopping in outrage.

If Ankara had made it up then natural human behaviour would have Rhiyadh furious and indignant. Instead, the Saudis seem quite nonchalant. It’s as if they know that things will be smoothed over …

But why the urgency to murder Khashoggi? He could easily have been drugged, flown to the Saudi desert and made the unfortunate victim of a car accident. But this was an urgent and messy job, which means he was working on something big. Maybe the WaPo, for whom he worked, knows something. I bet someone out there does.

“Ultimately, Irish people don’t really know what they’re supposed to think about Brexit. The rebel spirit, which lies half–dormant underneath layers of propaganda and fear-mongering, whispers that we should support the right of British people to self–determination, but the official culture is deeply disapproving of such heresy, so everyone just keeps mum.”

– John Waters, in this week’s Spectator, calls out the neutered, hypocritical Irish.

The Ambassador to the Court of St James brings us news.

It’s official! @USTradeRep announces we intend to start trade negotiations with the UK as soon as possible after #Brexit. https://t.co/nLpZF5oDnD

— Ambassador Johnson (@USAmbUK) October 17, 2018

The news is that the US is ready to talk trade the moment we leave the EU. Standby for the Single Market headbangers to suddenly turn against free trade. Never mind that the American economy is far larger and more dynamic than the sclerotic, failing EU. Never mind that the American economy’s default position is growth, while the EU kills southern Europe and condemns score of millions to economic penury. Little Europeans are dense and parochial. Their sights cannot see beyond the horizon.

Talking of which, Shinzo Abe the Prime Minister of Japan, last week announced that Japan would welcome Britain to the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal “with open arms”. Americans and Japanese recognise the greatness of the UK while our dismal Little Europeans endlessly talk us down. To reclaim our historic place as a global buccaneer was one reason why we voted to get out of he dying EU. It’s too small and stifling for life in the 21st Century.

So please, you Little Europeans with your silly little concerns, shut up and get out of the way.

Oh …

BBC News – UK wage growth fastest for nearly 10 years https://t.co/OQ19NP5dyc

— Christopher Snowdon (@cjsnowdon) October 16, 2018

Wages rising, employment at a record high, it’s as if doom-mongers have been making it up, wishing for a collapsed economy to show those racists and xenophobes that they were wrong. Well, they’ve always been wrong. The economy will do just fine despite Brexit.

Don’t tell me that it hasn’t happened yet. Everyone knows it’s coming in a few months’ time. Brexit is priced in.

I know, I know …

An independent investigation has been held into bullying and harassment in Parliament. Among its conclusions is that the Speaker of the House of Commons, John Bercow, is a part of a culture of bullying and that he ought to step down.

Because Bercow is left wing and pro-EU, Labour MPs are today standing up in the Commons to defend him, to stay that he should not step down. Some politicians really are scummy. Tim Stanley has it right.

John Bercow is 21st century politics. Accused of bullying, wrecker of institutions, protected because he's on the right side of the culture war. Oh, and from this moment on nothing Labour ever says about bullying is worth a damn.

— Tim Stanley (@timothy_stanley) October 16, 2018

Everyone becomes a criminal.

BBC News – Hostility to men and elderly people could become hate crimes https://t.co/749sFn5wu2

— Christopher Hope (@christopherhope) October 16, 2018

With everyone is put into a group, and it’s a so-called hate crime to be hostile to a group, society is eternally Balkanised. Everyone is divided, everyone is turned into victims and criminals. In the end it’s impossible to speak freely without committing a crime.

On the upside, if hostility to the elderly becomes a crime, that’s most Remainers shut up.

My DNA tests are back. I am 1/1024th Kree and claim ownership of Earth.