In the news

Blast and gunfire reported at Istanbul airport. Reuters reporting & bbc now also.

I love the news, keeping up with current events, trying to make sure I access stories from other cultures that wouldn't make the UK mainstream news.

At the moment I'm reverting to playing CD's in the car to avoid listening to the radio.

Can it get any more crap on any level without nuclear weapons being involved? Stop the world, I want to get off.

Yes, Europe in the 1600s. Crusades. Black Plague.

Better listen to these guys instead :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5DZF7YvwwM

Yes, Europe in the 1600s. Crusades. Black Plague.

You may be a couple of centuries out on that. Crusades were put on pause from the 1400s through to the 2000s, and plague was long gone by the C17th.

OK OK...just trying to make a point it could be worse... :)

[not that I'm in such a great mood after this brexit crap]

Isn't it Tester's job to correct people btw? :P

Last major outbreak of plague in London was in 1665. There were regular outbreaks that preceded it.

On a positive note the black death played a huge role in improving the social and economic health of the general population. Well, those that lived anyway.

London had the Plague 1665/66, it ended in the same year as the fire but it's not the fire that ended it. QI fact.

and lots of instances of The Plague may not in fact be The Black Death....

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jan/24/nigel-farage-uk-gun-control-laws-relaxed fuck me. Perhaps best for the media to start ignoring this guy by now?

Or photoshop a clown outfit onto him, play a laugh track...

Crusades were put on pause from the 1400s through to the 2000s

Awkward lol.

The media can't ignore him because the truth is he is the most successful politician of our time.

He's so moronic it's painful. I love how supporters of Farage or Trump use their lack of consistency and idiotic rhetoric as proof they are 'honest'.

It's like the scene in Office Space where the bloke admits to doing nothing and is promoted for being a straight talker.

Has UKIP achieved anything in local councils?

Getting protest votes is step one. Then achieving things is step two. That's a compromise made by not just being an annoying twat and hard annoying work. I see the socialists doing it here in NI, but they work really hard.

Often that's where the issue is, so then others get blamed for not having success. I'm in NI where the local UKIP party got laughed out of town (don't worry we have other idiots) but maybe they have some really good local people that have resolved issues for their voters?

(not Farage he got votes in, so yes that's a measure of success, but bar trolling and populism doesn't do anything imho)

Yeah, lots of outbreaks of plague since the C15th (including quite recently in Africa iirc), but not really as a major Europe-wide population decimator.

Croc/gator news

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/crocodile-spotted-prowling-londons-docklands-a3283596.html

Put it on the policy list, I'm sure we can get a broad statement of intent through on population decimation following a plague outbreak causing a reversal in net migration as people flood back to mainland Europe to benefit from the increases in wages as a result.

Ha!

I looked at that and thought "that's some rope, surely?"

When the BNP were briefly popular, the worst thing that happened to them was getting elected in the local councils. People quickly discovered that they were bloody useless and did sod all.

I'm about to go for a lunchtime run around Millwall dock - will report on the croc/rope situation later.

Well?

Yeah, it's a bit of rope.

I did see llamas and alpacas, but they're a poor substitute.

I discovered Mudshute Park today.

No crocligators, but I did see a staffy and a horse.

Yep, and pigs, donkeys, turkeys - it's almost like I'd stayed in Canary Wharf. Here all week, folks...

And more people have died jumping off Monument than were killed in the Great Fire.
100% troofact.