[QUOTE=xilman;536499]Reminds me of an old advertising campaign with the slogan "Drink Canada Dry". The inevitable graffito was, of course, "I´m doing my best, starting with the whisky."[/QUOTE]Heh-heh. We US-ers probably drank the lion's share of Canada's liquor production during Prohibition.

But -- good God! I forgot about rye whiskey! Shame on me! I should have remembered it because of its immortalization in poetry and song. A couple of verses:

[i]I'll eat when I'm hungry,
I'll drink when l'm dry,
If the hard times don't kill me,
I'll live till I die.

Rye whisky, rye whisky,
Rye whisky, I cry,
If you don't give me rye whisky,
I surely will die.[/i]

The line "I'll live till I die" is sometimes replaced with "I'll lay down and die," which I don't like nearly as much.

In the song [i]American Pie[/i], there's the line "Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye." There, "whiskey" likely means bourbon.

"Colonel Smithers" has an [url=https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2020/02/links-2-2-2020.html#comment-3283191]incisive comment[/url] over on today's NC links page:
[quote]One wonders whether, further to Brexit, the NC team and you should introduce a “I don’t know whether to laugh or cry” segment.

[Nigel] Farage has been on the airwaves all week-end, and in the days leading up to, in his words, “independence day”, advising the punters that the “EU is terrified of the UK as a competitor”, hence the EU wishing to bind the UK into alternative arrangements.

I have just returned from Mauritius. Railways are being resurrected after sixty years. They were built by the British in the 1860s and 1870s. The new system is being supplied and built by Indian and Spanish firms. The new 5 G networks are being supplied and built by Chinese and Israeli firms. Power and water grids are being renovated by French firms. The UK is nowhere to be seen.

If one visits the island’s sugar estates, there are ancient bits of equipment on display in the grounds. They were all made in Birmingham and Glasgow. The decline of British industry is chronicled over six thousand miles away.

A friend attended the recent UK-Africa business summit in London. She reported Johnson ad libbing as if he was doing stand up comedy. There was no formal speech. Johnson said that the UK could now buy Kenyan tea, implying that the EU prevented the UK from such imports. We wondered where the EU tea plantations are that need protection. My friend said that it would have been impolite to ask Johnson, especially in the presence of the future William V, if he still thought of Africans as “picanninies with water melon smiles”.

Apart from the Ghanaian delegation won over by British plans to fund airport and university development and the South African delegation won over by a commitment to open the UK food and drink market and loosen regulations on such imports, the others didn’t take Johnson’s gathering seriously and made the most of the jolly. There’s no need to take that stuff seriously as Johnson doesn’t and much of the British public does not either.

Farage must wonder, especially at pillow talk or over a claret with his much younger French girlfriend, how long he can get away with this schtick. Johnson, too, with his equally much younger and latest partner.[/quote]

Immigration, and How People Are Valued -Craig Murray
 

[URL]https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/immigration-and-how-people-are-valued/[/URL]
Note that Murray does not ascribe this outcome to conscious policy, by rather to utter incompetence.
[QUOTE]Non-EU net immigration has risen substantially in each of the last eight years. The second most interesting point about the Home Office’s [URL="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-uks-points-based-immigration-system-policy-statement/the-uks-points-based-immigration-system-policy-statement"]policy statement[/URL] on the new “points-based immigration system” is that none of the existing routes by which 219,000 non-EU migrants per year enter the UK is to be abolished (paras 12-13, 20-24). So that 219,000 non-EU net migrant figure will not be reduced as a result of these changes. Indeed, as several references in the paper make clear, immigration opportunities for non-EU citizens are increased as a result of this paper.

Those immigration routes for non-EU citizens are increased quite substantially. I anticipate a major surge in immigration from the Commonwealth as a result of this change. The problem the Government will find is that a points based system results in a level of automaticity of qualification. Those from English speaking countries – let’s say Ghana or India, but it is true of scores – already have the language qualification and benefit from good educational systems. Crucially, there are large very established communities from those countries already in the UK which own a vast plethora of companies, which makes securing a job offer much easier. I have no doubt whatsoever that many companies will discover an urgent need for one new accountant and two new systems administrators, and that cousins and brothers with genuine, appropriate qualifications, who previously the family was finding it difficult to bring in to the UK, will now breeze through to work for the family firm.
Speaks English? Yes, 10 points. Job offer? Yes, 20 points. Salary over £25,600? Yes, 20 points. Appropriate skill level? Accountant or IT systems administrator, yes, 20 points. For the avoidance of doubt, I have spoken to people in Ghana today already working on how to make money out of helping people get in through the scheme once it starts on 1 January.
[/QUOTE][QUOTE]I make this forecast with confidence. The net result of these changes will be increased net immigration into the UK, with a substantial spike in non-EU immigration visible in the March 2021 annual return. This is the other point on which Migration Watch are [U]actually correct[/U]. [Link killed. No threats detected by various watchdogs. Search Migration Watch UK] The difference is, of course, that I very much welcome the increased immigration opportunities which will arise and believe the increased immigration is essential to our economy and society. [U]I also find it irresistibly hilarious that the large majority of those who voted Brexit and voted Tory, who were primarily motivated by racism, will as a consequence face a substantive surge in non-white immigration. You would need a heart of stone not to laugh at that.[/U][/QUOTE]Schadenfreude Reigns!

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;536517]Heh-heh. We US-ers probably drank the lion's share of Canada's liquor production during Prohibition.

But -- good God! I forgot about rye whiskey! Shame on me! I should have remembered it because of its immortalization in poetry and song. A couple of verses:

[I]I'll eat when I'm hungry,
I'll drink when l'm dry,
If the hard times don't kill me,[/I][B] [SIZE=3]*[/SIZE][/B]
[I] I'll live till I die.

Rye whisky, rye whisky,
Rye whisky, I cry,
If you don't give me rye whisky,
I surely will die.[/I]

The line "I'll live till I die" is sometimes replaced with "I'll lay down and die," which I don't like nearly as much.

In the song [I]American Pie[/I], there's the line "Them good ole boys were drinking whiskey and rye." There, "whiskey" likely means bourbon.[/QUOTE]
[B][SIZE=3]* [/SIZE][/B][SIZE=3]Or[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]"If moonshine don't kill me"[/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]The line appears in a US version of a song you can hear from the Clancy's etc. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=3]Kentucky Moonshiner -Ed McCurdy
[/SIZE][SIZE=3][YOUTUBE]-AWUWzf1OfQ[/YOUTUBE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][SIZE=3]The Clancy version is [U]usually[/U] more upbeat, but I found this specimen which is closer to the Kentucky version's tempo.
[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][SIZE=3][YOUTUBE]tsRjmQoqQkI[/YOUTUBE][/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][SIZE=3]The rye whisky song often includes the lines
[/SIZE][/SIZE][INDENT][SIZE=3][SIZE=3]If the ocean was whisky and I was a duck[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][SIZE=3]I'd swim to the bottom and never come up.
[/SIZE][/SIZE]
[SIZE=3][SIZE=3](or "get one sweet suck" which I do not fancy.)
[/SIZE] [/SIZE]
[/INDENT]

[QUOTE=kladner;538069][URL]https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/immigration-and-how-people-are-valued/[/URL]
Note that Murray does not ascribe this outcome to conscious policy, by rather to utter incompetence.
Schadenfreude Reigns![/QUOTE]All entirely fine by me. The current regime is racist in that it gives a free pass to Austrians but not to Australians. The latter are second-class citizens when it comes to immigration.

I believe that all applicants should be treated on the basis of their merit, not on their nationality.

UK Issued "Titre de Voyage" Travel Document Changes

12/02/2020
easyJet has been informed by the Spanish Authority that, with immediate effect, holders of 1951 and 1954 Refugee Travel Documents (Titre De Voyage), issued by the United Kingdom (GBR), must hold a Schengen Visa to enter Spain. The list of Schengen countries that require holders of these documents to have a visa are Austria, Czech Republic, Italy and Spain. Customers are advised to check their acceptability with the relevant Authority before travelling.

[B]Felixstowe Port in 'chaos' as Christmas and Brexit loom[/B]

The Brexit shipping problems have already begun.
[URL]https://www.bbc.com/news/business-54908129[/URL]

Had to stockpile mine and wife’s medication, it will give us until March 2021.

From 2 January 2021, there will be a ferry sailing directly between Dunkirk and Rosslare,
allowing people and freight to avoid the UK entirely when they travel between France and the Republic of Ireland.
[URL]https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/1127/1180829-rosslare-wexford-ferry/[/URL]

[QUOTE=Nick;564674]From 2 January 2021, there will be a ferry sailing directly between Dunkirk and Rosslare,
allowing people and freight to avoid the UK entirely when they travel between France and the Republic of Ireland.
[URL]https://www.rte.ie/news/2020/1127/1180829-rosslare-wexford-ferry/[/URL][/QUOTE]I am surprised that there hasn't been one for decades.

[QUOTE=xilman;564680]I am surprised that there hasn't been one for decades.[/QUOTE]
The reason is.. money. probably.