Broad Oak Magazine

Sunday grab bag

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 25 Oct 2026 07:00:00 +0000

Our out-of-door relief cat - a slim and handsome black model with white feet - came into the kitchen to rob the resident’s plate but seeing only crunchies uttered thin pleading cries. We caved in and put a packet of superior meat on the outside dish and he laid into it lustily. “He’s eating in a way that makes his ears waggle,” I said to my wife. “So do you,” she replied. I’d never noticed, but then you wouldn’t, would you?

Who wants to be ~~a millionaire~~ an ex-pat? Gambling sites are missing a trick: they should say something like “WIN ENOUGH TO GET OUT OF BURNHAM’S BRITAIN!” As we are becoming poorer we are betting more - £17.5 billion in the year to March 2026. Maybe the Chancellor’s plan to balance the budget is to distress us so much that our vices supply a robust tax base. But landing the jackpot may not be necessary: this video looks at five countries that don’t need visas and could be affordable on a State pension. That said, warm weather, clean seas and seafood lunches can’t make up for losing our family, friends and culture. Nothing left for it but to stand and fight, then.

Comedy post: Dave Barry recounts what happened when he got his AI assistant to call his friends - using a clone of his voice - to tell them he was too busy watching football to do it himself…

Dave Barry’s Substack
Bernice and My Friends
A few months ago I was boarding a flight out of Detroit, standing in a long line of passengers behind a woman who was with two boys aged maybe 10 or 11. As we approached the aircraft door, the woman turned to the boys and said five words. I contend that these are five words no adult has ever felt the need to say, in any language, to two girls…
Read more
a day ago · 980 likes · 304 comments · Dave Barry

The first UK storm this season is called Austen, after a meteorologist apparently but by coincidence the authoress Jane Austen is due to be replaced on British £10 banknotes by some animal as part of the general airbrushing out of our culture. It doesn’t seem fair to sully people’s names with destructive associations (though I could understand if the eleventh was called Karen.) Instead why not extend the wildlife theme to gales, from Aardvark to Zebu; if the latest was christened Binturong rather than Boelo I’d feel more positive about it. Or if you prefer to vent, how about terms of abuse? I’m sure you can come up with the first few.

Finally, this post claims guinea pigs have different voices. Can you tell? https://www.facebook.com/reel/1134419255934184

Why the British State is “dysfunctional”

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 24 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000

The Lords Constitution Committee is looking at constitutional safeguards and on 14 October questioned Dominic Cummings, former chief adviser to Boris Johnson when the latter was PM.

Cummins gave three main reasons why our political system is failing:

Public service no longer attracts elite talented people, who instead have gone into money-making private enterprises.
Government ministers have ceased to be masters of their brief and personally accountable to Parliament for the performance of their departments. Their answerability has become a “fake charade.”
The Cabinet Office has grabbed political power it should never have had. It was set up during WWI to deal with crisis but at that time it was agreed on all sides that the Office should not be responsible for making government policy or for personnel and public appointments. Now it is.

We are lacking elite talent, ministerial responsibility and speed of execution (cutting through bureaucracy). All three have become “more or less unlawful”!

The problem are interconnected. “If you have duff people you will have duff institutions and it will become hard to attract talent.” Young talent becomes disillusioned and the ablest look for a way out.

Asked whether he thought the constitution was under serious threat Cummings replied that there is “a general collapse of trust in the competence and integrity of institutions” including political parties, the media, Parliament and the civil service. “Because of the internet people can see many of the lies they are told and a fundamental lack of responsibility for things.”

These difficulties are not limited to Britain but are found in other Western countries.

Russia’s President Putin is only a minor threat compared with our own Ministry of Defence (e.g. hundreds of billions wasted in procurement, resistance to learning about drones from Ukraine) and the lawyers in the Cabinet Office pursuing “lawfare” against the SAS.

Are there too many arm’s-length institutions (quangos etc) checking ministerial power? Yes, said Cummings, and it started under the Thatcher government with the idea that these bodies could run like businesses with CEOs; instead their decision-making tends to be opaque. He has been told by civil servants that the quality of MPs is rubbish and they don’t want the responsibility; ministers and MPs have become “infantilised” and are “largely happy with this process.” Fewer arm’s-length bodies would be welcome but ministers need to be made personally responsible as once they were.

…………………………………………………

A couple of thoughts:

Labour plans for decentralisation/regionalisation extend this process and the intention from Blair onwards has been to set bureaucratic socialism in concrete and so make a Conservative recovery impossible; even if it ruins the country.

The exact opposite of sclerotic managerialism and failure can be found in the way Elon Musk runs his businesses. I read recently the account of an engineer newly joined who was amazed and delighted that he could suggest an idea and see it modelled and trialed in days rather than bogged down in layers of committee approval.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Faun, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 23 Oct 2026 06:09:48 +0000

Faun is a German band that was formed in 1998 and plays pagan folk, darkwave, and medieval music. The vocals are performed in a variety of languages, including German, English, Latin, Greek, Turkish, Scandinavian and Hungarian. Their instruments include Celtic harp, Swedish nyckelharpa, hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, cittern and flutes.

FAUN have played more than 950 concerts worldwide and are currently on tour with various concert programmes, including a seated, quieter programme for theatres, churches and concert halls (FAUN ACOUSTIC), a cultural programme for seated, classical concert halls and romantic summer concerts, plus a rousing and unseated festival show.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faun_(band)

FAUN - Walpurgisnacht (Official Video)

FAUN - Diese kalte Nacht (Official Video)

FAUN - Federkleid (Offizielles Video)

Faun - Rosenrot (official video)

FAUN - BLOT (Official Video)

FAUN - Tamlin and the Fairy Queen

Gas flare-up in Parliament

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 22 Oct 2026 12:51:41 +0000

Yesterday the Speaker of the House of Commons furiously reprimanded the Government for telling the news media about the North Sea “Jackdaw” gas drilling approval before announcing it in the House. This is not the first time that Hoyle has taken Labour to task for arrogantly sidelining Parliament and therewith the electorate. The Mail’s Quentin Letts described the telling-off as volcanic. Watch the explosion from 12:48 here: https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/cbcb29bd-5303-42c8-97de-a2cd2fc79386?in=12:48:19

As a result of this breach of protocol environmental activists were protesting outside the Department of Energy even before the official announcement in the Debating Chamber:

That was a bit quick, wasn’t it? Interesting demographic, too.

At least they weren’t setting fire to the city, unlike in France - so polluting!

But don’t they realise that there is more than one path to Net Zero? While we hope to power the nation one day solely with “clean” energy we have to keep the lights on and fossil fuels are needed during the changeover.

Perhaps they truly don’t understand. And why should we expect them to, when much of the news media and the Government fails to make that case?

Is yesterday’s policy announcement a tacit admission that however imperfect our democratic system may be it does matter after all? A population sitting in the cold and dark eating bread sandwiches and baked beans straight out of the can is unlikely to vote for a Labour Party that put them in that position.

Unfortunately this unlikely to be much of a boost for the Conservative Opposition. When they were in power they had ample opportunity to repeal the 2008 Climate Change Act and chose not to. Kemi Badenoch said in March last year that Net Zero by 2050 is not achievable and in the following October the Party finally pledged to ditch the Act. Too late? And they have still not been forgiven for other matters; they may wait in vain for “Buggins’ turn.”

Is the Jackdaw gas decision a signal that Labour is growing up and becoming commonsensical, or is it a misleading flirt preparatory to going to the polls while the parties of the Right are inadequately prepared and fighting each other?

FRIDAY MUSIC: The Platters, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 16 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000

Another helping of nostalgia and why not, real singers with excellent singing voices.

The Platters, an American vocal ensemble, were one of the foremost singing groups of the early days of rock and roll and also often associated with the doo-wop style. They were managed by songwriter Buck Ram, who was taken with Williams’s dramatic soaring voice and had the singer form a group around himself in 1953 in Los Angeles.

Ram wrote or co-wrote some of the Platters’ biggest hits, including “Only You (and You Alone)” (1955), “The Great Pretender” (which topped the pop and rhythm-and-blues charts in 1956), and “(You’ve Got) The Magic Touch” (1956).

The Platters sustained their career by specializing in rock-and-roll renditions of old big-band hits, notably “My Prayer” (1956) and “Twilight Time” and “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” (both 1958). The group also appeared in two rock-and-roll movies, The Girl Can’t Help It and Rock Around the Clock (both 1956).

Williams left the Platters in 1961, but during the late 1960s, with Turner as the lead vocalist, the group achieved moderate success with soul-style hits. The history of the Platters, however, is primarily associated with the early days of rock and roll. The group was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Platters
https://theplatters.com/about/

The Platters - Only You, And You Alone (1955) 4K

The Platters - The Great Pretender (1959) 4K

The Platters - My Prayer- Lyrics

The Platters - Remember When

The Platters - Smoke Get In Your Eyes - Lyrics

The Platters - Twilight Time - Lyrics

Public Execution and Public Unrest

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 11 Oct 2026 16:42:43 +0000

The mass murderer Nidal Hasan is to be executed by firing squad on 3 December. It is likely to be a swift and certain death unlike the recent botched administration of lethal injections to Christa Pike, now discharged from hospital and returned to Death Row.

The controversy in Hasan’s case is the proposal to livestream the shooting, though President Trump is said to be having second thoughts about it.

Journalist Peter Hitchens advises us against watching, because of the (im)moral effect on spectators. He quotes Charles Dickens’ witnessing a double hanging in 1849 and the shameful behaviour of the public.

Blood lust seems to be part of the human psyche; it is the basis of much of our entertainment. How many fictional violent deaths do we see and read about? Does that increase our homicidal tendencies? Yet even in societies that did not have books movies and TV there was plenty of war and murder in real life.

One motive for the State to worry about carrying out judicial killings in public is self-preservation. The people might begin to question the State’s right to kill.

The last woman to be burned at the stake was Catherine Murphy in 1789, as France exploded in revolution a few miles away. Less than four years later the captive French King was guillotined, together with his wife. It gave rulers pause for thought.

Five decades after Murphy’s execution Parliament rejected the Chartists’ first petition for democratic representation in July 1839 and arrested local leaders of the movement in Newport. A mass uprising there three months later was put down with lethal force, resulting in scores of civilian deaths and casualties. The three ringleaders were convicted of high treason and sentenced to the prolonged and grisly penalty set for that offence. However the British Government feared a political backlash and widespread popular unrest so the penalty was soon commuted to transportation for life to Tasmania. That was the last time hanging, drawing and quartering was used as a form of capital punishment.

But now a State agenda of war, costly energy and disruptive levels of mass immigration is being imposed on a resentful populace and tensions have increased once more. What will make the Crown in Parliament listen?

"History has taught me, that RULERS are much the same in all ages & under all forms of government: they are as bad as they dare to be," said the poet Coleridge in a letter to his brother George (c. 10 March 1798).

FRIDAY MUSIC: Dmitri Shostakovich, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 09 Oct 2026 06:57:40 +0000

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) was a Soviet composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostakovich achieved early fame in the Soviet Union, but had a complex relationship with its government. His 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was initially a success but later condemned by the Soviet government, putting his career at risk.

Shostakovich’s reputation has continued to grow after his death. Scholarly interest has increased significantly since the late 20th century, including considerable debate about the relationship between his music and his attitudes toward the Soviet government.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dmitri-Shostakovich
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Second Waltz

Nicola Benedetti: Shostakovich’s Romance The Gadfly Suite, Live in The Greene Space

Waltz no.6

Dmitri Shostakovich - Piano Concerto No. 2 - II. Andante

Eventually... by Wiggia

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 07 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000

As Milton Friedman said ““You cannot simultaneously have free immigration and a welfare state. “

That of course was before the numbers racked up enough for the same immigrants to become a political as well as religious threat which is where we are now in the West.

There is nothing new about the threat that Islam and mass migration will cause the West eventually if nothing is done and soon.

Recent events have highlighted the trend to appease the Muslim vote and keep it within Labour. This is already a lost cause. The mealy-mouthed words spouted by Left politicians to somehow stay onside of their immigrant constituents are painful to see and hear; this is one of many cringe-worthy efforts by Labour MPs with slim majorities to hold the tide back. Pathetic.

Wanker Finder@IfindWankers

This is Stella Creasy, Labour MP for Walthamstow. Watch the snivelling, traitorous evil wank stain wanker grovel for Islam, spewing the same worn-out lie: “Islam is a religion of peace.” If it were, she wouldn’t have to keep begging you to believe it. Bellend!

5:13 PM · Oct 5, 2026 · 43.3K Views

325 Replies · 500 Reposts · 2.44K Likes

“A little less than two years ago, West Midlands Police used social media to make an important announcement. Not to issue an appeal for witnesses to a crime or advice on public safety, but instead to declare that a number of prayer mats and hijabs had been purchased “to go in our police vehicles” so that “our Muslim colleagues and public will have access to these when they are needed”.”

Somali vs. overall: • 268 per 10k in prison (highest ethnicity) • 64.6 arrests per 1k vs 12 (Britons) • 72% in social housing vs. 17% • 47.1% Economically inactive vs. 24.7%

Performative Humanitarianism.

Tyler@cillianblack

My eighteenth observation from the grooming gang report: Ayaan Hirsi Ali testified that the dependence on the Muslim voting bloc among left wing parties actively discouraged prosecution and deportation, with Labour at national and local level repeatedly choosing electoral…

9:54 PM · Jun 28, 2026 · 7.37K Views

3 Replies · 158 Reposts · 450 Likes

Halifax…….

Donna Louise@DonnaLouise1212

Vincent Brown just dropped one of the most uncomfortable but necessary films you’ll see this year. Halifax. Yorkshire Ripper ground zero. Endemic grooming gangs. An imam who (according to a whistleblower) refused to even mention the convictions in Friday prayers. And a town …

6:16 PM · Aug 21, 2026 · 28.7K Views

46 Replies · 413 Reposts · 892 Likes

And back in 2018 we were warned about the underlying reasons for all this.

Angie Rayner 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 I was born first 🇬🇧@AngieRayner007

Janice Atkinson warned us in 2018 what the @UN were planning, 59 million migrants imported to REPLACE US. We never had a chance with Brexit it was all about the United Nations pact. @RupertLowe10 @andyburnham @RestoreBritain

10:30 PM · Sep 22, 2026 · 250K Views

175 Replies · 2.54K Reposts · 5.88K Likes

Can’t keep the NHS out of the loop: instead of using the trained nurses and surgeons we the tax payers have funded, the NHS brings in cheap labour from third world countries as a saving, then this wheeze is floated or maybe judging by the current insanity of Chagos and the reparation syndrome it is true, we have no money yet ever more is found for foreign shores.

https://spectator.com/article/labour-pps-floats-billions-in-nhs-recruitment-reparations/

The lack of scrutiny that went with the coup from Andy Burnham was off the scale, nothing of his past was questioned in the media and he lies like Starmer.

Tom@tomwhx

Andy Burnham promised only four months ago he wouldn't reopen the Brexit debate Now he says he wants to rejoin the EU You cannot believe a word Andy Burnham says

8:36 AM · Sep 30, 2026 · 250K Views

269 Replies · 1.19K Reposts · 3.57K Likes

On top of all that I and others have laid out about Burnham is the latest on the Manchester City affair: outside of the football it is alleged that Burnham was involved in giving the UAE first dibs in contracts over land deals. It is amazing that virtually nothing has been said in the MSM about this and all the other dubious activities and proven failures before he waltzed into No10.

He must also have given the green light to the lockdown in Gosport and the extraordinary scenes there of a huge organised effort to bring in unwanted illegal migrants and shower largesse on them. Next time you have to wait for hours to get an ambulance remember this, a long line of them at a moment’s notice in case someone got wet on the way here. It was so well organised in advance one cannot but believe the government is involved in the migrant crisis; this has to stop.

The illegal migrants it is noted are now arriving unnoticed on our shores, it is said. This has been going on for years, many reports of landings on the East coast some by speedboats and even light aircraft as well as the continuing use of lorries all point to governments various that have no intention of stopping migration; in fact the latest “safe routes” plan will only increase it. What is really going on? Reports of aircraft landing at night with transponders turned off at Manchester and Liverpool airports enhance the theory that it is all deliberate.

Cllr George Madgwick@georgedmadgwick

HONESTLY look at this video. The resources gone in to bringing in, protecting and securing illegal migrants is astonishing. They have a bigger security motorcade than Trump would have on a visit. This is shocking. In Gosport, Portsmouth Harbour.

8:55 AM · Oct 5, 2026 · 588K Views

244 Replies · 709 Reposts · 2.92K Likes

I saw this tweet today, I agree with every word.

Piecing together the Home Office changing its bio from protecting “British citizens” to protecting “vulnerable people”, alongside what’s happening in Portsmouth Harbour, paints a deeply concerning picture. There are no coincidences.

I wanted to use this next picture as a bit of light relief. It shows the two leading candidates for “TT” Starmer’s old seat - you know, the one he said he would not leave. Where are we as a nation that ends up with this, two inadequates who could not run for a bus, literally, but one will become an MP. Needless to say neither has had a proper job unless making boobs bigger through hypnosis or turning up once to a council meeting in six months can be considered work. Despair is too kind a word.

I believe Labour were going to select the one in the middle, but too much lunch time prosecco meant a slip of the pen.

Dave (David Paulden is Zack Polanski’s birth name) will lose and be replaced by the one on the left and the Greens will become the first Islamic party in Parliament. The end of tree-hugging then, nothing green about them now.

War and the Big Picture 2: The Map Man

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 06 Oct 2026 12:49:08 +0000

In the previous post on this subject we saw how Britain was keen to join in the great conflict of 1914, despite General Foch, then chief of France’s War College, rejecting (in 1910) our offer of military assistance and Germany looking for our neutrality (in 1912) in return for their not enlarging their fleet to rival ours.

Pace Foch’s stubborn pride, when King Edward VII toured Europe in 1908 the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau told him

“When the time comes when France needs help, England’s sea power will not be enough... Napoleon was beaten at Waterloo, not Trafalgar.”

The King went on to visit the Russian Czar and the German Ambassador reported to Kaiser Wilhelm that Edward desired peace. The Kaiser wrote on the report:

“Lies. He wants war. But I have to start it so he does not have the odium.”

The 1839 Treaty of London provided that excuse.

As early as 1906 Colonel Repington, on behalf of our War Office, met the French military attaché in London, Major Victor Huguet and sought a confidential assurance that France would not be the first to violate Belgian neutrality as such an act would force Great Britain into the field to defend its obligations under the Treaty.

Eight years later on July 31, 1914, British Foreign Secretary Sir Edward Grey dispatched identical notes to both France and Germany asking if they would engage to respect the neutrality of Belgium. The French agreed the same day but the Germans declined, their Foreign Secretary stating that a reply would reveal their military campaign plan.

Bingo.

But why? Why did we want to pitch in?

It was going to be about more than historic Franco-German rivalry.

Clemenceau saw it as not only an issue for wider Europe but an existential issue for his country. On 5 May 1914 his newspaper l’Homme Libre stated in an editorial

“One would have to be deliberately blind not to see that the [German] lust for power, the impact of which makes Europe tremble each day, has fixed as its policy the extermination of France.”

Gallic excitability and overstatement fogs the lens: Berlin’s real objective was an invasion of Russia and Germany needed to secure her western border first and fast; crossing Belgium was to be the quick way. With France not annihilated but subjugated Germany could then turn East.

So the big picture as we saw it was, as when we had fought Napoleon, stopping anyone becoming master of Europe.

But the even bigger picture was the struggle for, or prevention of, mastery of the whole vast Eurasian landmass.

Which leads us to a damp and dreary day in London, at the Savile Row headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society. There, on 25 January 1904, a distinguished geographer called Halford Mackinder gave a lecture that some say established him as the father of geopolitical theory.

The next post will discuss this in detail.

………………….

As before, here we have drawn on early chapters of Barbara Tuchman’s meticulous study “The Guns of August.”

Colour Supplement: Reports from the Rear, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 04 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000

My local Working Men’s Club used to show feature films once a week and they were usually about a year after being shown in the cinemas. This was in the early 1970s and it proved to be very popular. There was a man came with a 16mm projector and two maybe three reels of film. When a reel ended it was lights up for a ‘beer break’ while the following reel was loaded and then the film would start again.

One day he brought what was probably the ‘most offensive’ film of all time; Blazing Saddles, a spoof of the Western genre by director Mel Brooks which pokes fun at everyone and everything. Mel Brooks also had a starring role in the film. In case you are unfamiliar with the plot “A corrupt governor grants a reprieve to an African American convict if the condemned man agrees to serve as sheriff of a small Western town, believing that new sheriff will only live long enough to serve the needs of the governor and his nefarious railroad-baron backer.” It is certain that Brooks would never be allowed to make a film such as that today!

The man with the projector visited various Clubs in the area and he was obviously familiar what would appeal to his audience. I had already seen the film in the local cinema and it was a chance to enjoy it again.

And so we watched and laughed and then it came to this famous scene with cowboys sitting around a camp fire feasting on plates of beans -

You can no doubt guess the reaction, lots of working men with a couple of beers inside started laughing then tears of laughter turned into howls of laughter which must have been heard outside so loud was it.

It just so happened that this scene came at the end of a reel and the ‘buzz’ continued through the ‘beer break’ and on into the next reel and on, with many more funny scenes adding to the fun until the end of the film.

I would say that was undoubtedly one of the most enjoyable nights I have had in the Club, and there have been more than a few.

The set up for the films was in the Concert Room which is now known as the Functions Room The film shows ended many years ago and one of the things the room is now used for is dancing. Real dancing, i.e. ballroom dancing as in waltz and quickstep etc and it has been proved to be very popular. How times change. It also shows how the Club Committee is in tune with the members and know what will be popular and this is how and why the Club is thriving while pubs everywhere are mostly dying on their feet.

We need more laughter to counteract the dismal everyday news bulletins!

War and the Big Picture

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 03 Oct 2026 12:28:54 +0000

As we skitter towards another Continental war that may finally see the end of our country let us look back to the start of our ruin. If enough can understand what 1914 cost us then perhaps we can turn back, even now.

There are over 100,000 war memorials in the UK erected in memory of our soldiers killed in WWI. They were paid for by local communities not by the Government.

Each name on the stone cross is someone who might otherwise have lived a humble and productive everyday life. Moreover, someone who was fit enough to fight, which in some places put them in a minority: AI says we discovered how Britain had been failing the people at the call-up for the Second Boer War (1899–1902):

Roughly 30% to 40% of British recruits—and up to 60% to 90% in impoverished industrial cities—were physically unfit for military service due to malnutrition, rickets, and poor health.

Across the nation locally we grieve on Remembrance Sunday and important people lay wreaths on the Cenotaph in Whitehall.

Yet one British PM after another bangs the drum for Ukraine - that and abandoning the strategically important Chagos Islands are two of the few early significant commitments made by our current, Brezhnev-eyebrowed Andy Pandy. Who takes our Premiers aside and gives them their starting orders?

What were (some of) the (social) consequences of the Great War?

Over 700,000 British servicemen dead, with another couple of hundred thousand from the wider Empire. Add in the prisoners, wounded and crippled and the toll rises to some three million, for our side alone.

So many widows and bereaved mothers. So many with disabled and disfigured husbands. How many who never even had the opportunity of marriage and family life?

As common soldier Michael Williams tells the incognito King Henry V:

But if the cause be not good, the King himself hath a heavy reckoning to make, when all those legs and arms and heads, chopped off in a battle, shall join together at the latter day, and cry all “We died at such a place,” some swearing, some crying for a surgeon, some upon their wives left poor behind them, some upon the debts they owe, some upon their children rawly left.

Henry replies that it is for men to sort out their own lives so they can if need be, die with a clear conscience. There, that was easy! You won’t out-talk a politician.

But surely there had to be some compelling reason for us to declare war on Germany in August 1914?

Mmmm… not exactly.

Germany wanted to expand into Russia whose naval/military weakness had been highlighted ten years earlier when beaten in a war with Japan. To avoid having to fight on two fronts the German strategy was first to defeat France within a few weeks before Russia could mobilise sufficiently to resist an invasion by the Kaiser’s armies.

France had been defeated in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 and fear of France had helped persuade southern Germanic States to join what then became a large unified Germany.

The French were heavily fortified along their common border with Germany, so the latter’s Schlieffen Plan was to cut through Belgium instead and then head for Paris. The French thought they could halt German forces in Belgium and counter-strike through the French-German border with Berlin in their sights.

What did this tussle have to do with us and our global, sea-based empire?

We had to cast around for a justification, a casus belli. We found it in the multinational 1839 Treaty of London that guaranteed majority-Catholic Belgium’s independence from the Protestant Netherlands.

Not all the British Cabinet was aware of the determination of certain parties within and outside the Government to get involved. But the military correspondent of the Times, Colonel Repington was okayed by Lord Esher and Sir George Clarke at the War Office to open negotiations with the French Government, seeking an assurance from the French that France would not be the first to violate Belgian neutrality and telling them that whoever did so would “automatically” bring us into the field in defence of our treaty obligations. This had never previously been officially confirmed.

Nor was the prospect of British assistance initially welcomed by the French. In 1910 the future Marshal of France Ferdinand Foch was asked what minimum size of force we would need to send to help and he replied “A single British soldier - and we will see to it that he will be killed.”

In 1912 Viscount Haldane went to Germany to secure an agreement that they would keep their navy smaller than ours; for that they demanded a guarantee of British neutrality in the event of a Franco-British war, which was not offered. Haldane came away convinced that

“once the German war party had got into the saddle it would be war not merely for the overthrow of France or Russia but for the domination of the world.”

So all our stone crosses mark the consequences of a geopolitical strategy first systematically described by a British geographer in 1904; about which more anon.

………………………

The latter half of this post draws on Chapter Three of Barbara Tuchman’s meticulous study “The Guns of August” - thanks to Peter Hitchens for the lead.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Angels of Venice, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 02 Oct 2026 06:00:00 +0000

Angels Of Venice is a Californian harp, flute and cello group founded by harpist Carol Tatum in 1993. The group’s core sound is harp, flute and cello but also combines Middle Eastern, medieval and neoclassical styles.

The official members of Angels Of Venice are:
Carol Tatum - harp, composer, producer
Cathy Biagini - cello
Susan Craig Winsberg - flute
Suzanne Tang - flute
Irina Cherkova - cello
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_of_Venice

You can read more about Angels Of Venice on their web page. https://www.angelsofvenice.com/bio

Angels of Venice- Nothing else matters

Angels Of Venice - After The Harvest

Angels of Venice Lionheart

Angels of Venice - Pachelbel’s Canon

Angels Of Venice-China Moon

Modern echoes of Roman Britain

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 29 Sep 2026 09:56:40 +0000

Robin Fleming’s “Britain After Rome” begins with a sketch of our pre-410 AD history as a colony of the Roman Empire.

For a couple of centuries we had a disproportionately large share of Rome’s imperial legions. To support it there were massive imports of basic supplies but also a privately-run trade in luxuries carried (for free?) in the same ships. Towns sprang up, complete with public amenities such as baths and basilica.

Then in the third century the Empire had increasing problems with barbarian tribes on its borders. The armed forces in Britain were scaled back and redeployed on the Continent. Less wine and olive oil here, more beer and butter; less foreign pottery, more locally made Samian ware.

Things stabilised in the fourth century but did not return to the prosperity of old times. Towns withered and their population declined; the baths and basilica available to the better sort of Romano-British ceased to operate.

But disparity in wealth grew. Fine big villas were built, some within the areas vacated in the towns. A fortunate minority had private bathing pools in their mansions, and reception rooms designed to impress visitors and business associates with their classical mosaics, pictures and fabrics. This was the age of bureaucrats and administrators, living in a bubble protected from the great unwashed outside.

Until the Empire fell.

“History does not repeat itself, but it rhymes.”

Cooking Fat: cats being disgusting

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 27 Sep 2026 09:35:00 +0000

The fat item who has been sponging off us for years has rewarded us with a technicolour yawn not once but twice in recent days.

First I came down to the kitchen to make the morning brew and there along the fortunately wipe-clean floor were what you might call “islands in the stream.” Much kitchen roll and antibac, floor mop after. Perhaps cats were sent to make us houseproud.

Yesterday I’m shaving upstairs and hear a rhythmic hoicking down in the hallway. Shouting from a distance stops nothing. This time the gift was on the mat under the radiator, so a paper towel scoop-up and the mat flung into the washing machine sorted it. That was easy, hey?

This morning it’s tea time again and I am about to check the shower in the garden room so put my feet into the worn old deck shoes I keep under the stairs and use as slippers. Or rather, my right foot. Squelch. Round Two. There it is, inside and outside, on the carpet offcut and a bit on the vacuum cleaner hose. Scoop scoop, wipe wipe, spray spray. Shoes now bumping in the washing machine; we’re still uncertain whether we can launder the offcut.

Isn’t nature wonderful?

FRIDAY MUSIC: Dion DiMucci, part 2, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 25 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000

Yes, we have featured Dion previously from his ‘doo wop’ days in the fifties with The Belmonts. He is now 87 and believe it or not he is still singing and making records. His most recent record is “Rock and Roll Philosopher” released last year (2025). He is singing as well as if not better than ever. So here is another selection, some new and some old but showing how he embraces all styles of American music.

https://diondimucci.com/career/

Dion Dimucci- Written On A Subway Wall

And The Night Stood Still

I Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound

Dion - “Abraham, Martin And John” - Official Music Video

King of the New York Streets Live at The Town & Country Club 26 2 1990

I like my nostalgic visits to the golden olden days of melodic music!

War with Russia: before the bullshit tsunami hits

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 24 Sep 2026 10:17:40 +0000

It’s only the other side that does propaganda and our government is stepping up to protect us from it. So PM Burnham has just told the UN that we are setting up a new National Centre for Information Defence.

Already some are dubbing it “Mini Truth” after Orwell’s corporate fountainhead of lies in “1984” and so Defence Secretary Wes Streeting insists that it will not be used for “policing domestic political dissent.” He doesn’t say that we do that already by other means including plodettes rapping your front door merely for viewing a social media post.

That doesn’t go far enough for Paul Richards, Labour commentator, speechwriter, erstwhile Parliamentary candidate and currently the treasurer of the subversive-socialist Fabian Society. Richards says:

“The British will rise to greatness against Russia. We would have to lock a few people up….pro-Russian voices, people who say there isn’t a threat, don’t fight for your country, that don’t go to war for Burnham.“

“Rise to greatness”… authentic meaningless bullshit. But then he’s a speechwriter.

We’re not yet at war with Russia, formally. How, I don’t know, given what we’re already doing for and in Ukraine. Time was we had the decency to declare a war before we started fighting it.

But once it’s “game on” what fun will the Government have with us! Decades of starving our armed forces have left us unable to tackle a paw-shaking kitten abroad but woe unto any placard-waver who protests at home.

Perhaps this is why so many prisoners have been released early; the authorities say it is because of overcrowding and yet we have found space for 38,000 illegal immigrants in the twelve months to June 2026. Make my hotel a three-star, please; no allergies but I prefer not to eat shellfish.

Forewarning: if Burnham, Richards and the rest of our neo-Brownshorts decide to get seriously tough on dissidents and I can’t get to the airport in time, look out for my jingoistic support for any appalling crime HMG chooses to inflict on our people. My codeword to tell you that I don’t mean a word of it will be “Eulalie” meaning “up yours, Spode-Burnham, Spode-Richards…”

… and, tragically, Spode-Rees-Mogg. Surely this sober Catholic Conservative grandee cannot have fallen for the murderous war hysteria - “Who would not weep, if Atticus were he?” But he has:

“In the next few years we may face a war. And if we face a war, we will need people who will join the armed services and who will go out and do their duty (...) people have to die to save their country as they did in the First and Second World Wars.”

Ah now, that opens a can of worms. In each of those cases we were the ones to declare war on Germany and in neither case had the Germans been previously intent on destroying us; their eyes were turned eastwards.

Our twentieth century wars have brought us to our present sorry state, close to collapse even before the “intermittent drizzle of malignant robots” begins. And for why, this inhuman destruction of human happiness and prosperity?

Geopolitics.

I shall trace the history of this cartographers’ slaughter mission in another post.

Unless I am prevented, in which case “Eulalie!”

THE 20MPH SCAM: WHY BIRMINGHAM IS BEING SOLD A PIG IN A POKE. by Rafan Beg

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 19 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000

I’ve spent over sixteen years behind the wheel of an HGV. Five, six days a week, up and down this country’s road network. Not tramping, mind, I go home most nights. But I know Britain’s roads better than most people ever will, and I know exactly what a genuine road safety measure looks like versus what gets dressed up as one.

Birmingham’s proposed blanket 20mph plan is the second kind. I’m calling it what it is: the 20mph scam.

A consultation designed not to be found.

Here’s where it starts. Birmingham City Council has a legal duty to consult residents before rolling out significant speed limit changes across the city. Fine. That’s how it should work.

But ask around. Ask your neighbours, your mates on the school run, the bloke at the corner shop, whether they know a consultation is even happening, and where. Most won’t have a clue.

The process has been buried in council documents, spread across different pages, framed in language that reads like it was written to be skimmed past rather than understood.

I don’t think that’s an accident.

A consultation that’s hard to find and harder to follow doesn’t get participation. Low participation then gets quietly read back as public acceptance. That’s not democracy, that’s a tactic, and it’s one we’ve seen before.

Three petitions, one council that won’t listen.

To their credit, politicians across the spectrum have seen this coming and tried to do something about it. Cllr Shehryar Kayani of the Workers Party of Britain has launched his own petition, calling for a balanced approach: proper road maintenance, evidence-led limits assessed road by road, transparent data, and real consultation before anything further gets imposed. Not anti-safety, just anti-blanket-rule-with-no-evidence-behind-it.

The Conservatives have their own petition running. Reform have set one up too. Different parties, different politics, same conclusion: this scheme, as it stands, isn’t right.

Add up the engagement across all three and I’d put money on it outstripping whatever the council’s own official consultation manages to pull in.

And here’s the part that should make every resident furious: it won’t matter. The council will run its process, technically tick the consultation box, and push the scheme through regardless of how loudly residents across the political spectrum reject it.

That’s the real scam.

Not the speed limit itself, the pretence of listening.

Evidence from somewhere else entirely.

Dig into what the council is actually citing to justify this, and here’s the kicker: it isn’t even Birmingham evidence. It’s drawn from studies and data sets from other cities, other road networks, other traffic patterns entirely, dressed up and applied here as if Birmingham’s roads, Birmingham’s traffic, Birmingham’s specific accident data, don’t matter enough to justify the policy on their own terms.

If you’re going to reshape how an entire city drives, the evidence should come from that city. Anything less isn’t evidence-led policy. It’s policy looking for evidence to back it up after the decision’s already been made.

What the Highway Code actually says, from someone who lives by it.

I want to bring some professional experience into this, because I think it gets lost in the shouting on both sides.

The Highway Code sets out a hierarchy of road users. Think of it as a pyramid: those who can do the greatest harm, the biggest vehicles, carry the greatest responsibility to protect those most at risk, pedestrians, cyclists, children.

That’s not up for debate. It’s right, and every HGV driver worth their licence knows it and drives by it every single day.

But here’s the thing about that hierarchy: it already exists. It’s already the law. Every driver on this country’s roads is already bound by it, already held to it, and when something goes wrong, already investigated for it.

When there’s a serious collision, it gets properly investigated. Fault gets established. If a driver is found responsible and survives, they’re punished - licence, courts, the lot.

If a fatality occurs and the driver’s at fault, that detail is not usually published out of respect for the person who died, but make no mistake, it’s known, it’s on record, and consequences follow.

So my question is simple.

If Birmingham genuinely has a serious problem with dangerous driving on its roads, where’s the enforcement? Where are the police?

A blanket speed limit change doesn’t touch the driver doing 50 in a 20 zone, they’ll do 40 in a 20 zone just the same.

What actually stops dangerous driving is dangerous driving being caught, investigated and punished. That’s policing, not paint on a road sign.

Punishing the many for the few.

That’s the heart of why I call this a scam. It takes the failures of a tiny minority of dangerous drivers and uses them to justify restricting every single driver in this city, the overwhelming majority of whom drive carefully, responsibly, and already operate under a legal duty to protect the people around them.

That’s not road safety policy. That’s a blunt instrument being swung at everyone because it’s administratively easier than doing the harder, more targeted work: fixing the roads that are falling apart, funding proper enforcement, and holding the small number of genuinely dangerous drivers to account instead of restricting the many who already drive right.

Birmingham residents, whatever your politics, deserve better than that. This needs fighting, properly, and it needs fighting now, before the council gets to quietly point at a technically-completed consultation and say the decision’s already made.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Dulce Pontes, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000

Dulce José Silva Pontes is a Portuguese songwriter and singer who performs in many musical styles, including classical music, pop and folk. She is usually defined as a world music artist. Her songs contributed to the 1990s revival of Portuguese urban folk music called fado.

https://universalmusic.pt/artista/dulce-pontes/

Canção Do Mar Dulce Pontes (legendado) HD

Carlos Núñez & Dulce Pontes - El Cant dells Ocells (Directo Sta. María del Mar, Barcelona) 1997

Dulce Pontes “Indios da Meia-Praia”

“Nada te turbe” Dulce Pontes

Dulce Pontes & Banda da Armada - O Amor a Portugal

AI advice for doomscrollers

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:59:28 +0000

Here are some AI thoughts for a less than cheery scenario. Don’t blame me!

Q: We are British pensioners. In the event of a European war with Russia and economic disaster in the UK in which foreign country are we likely to be accepted and safe? And where should we invest what is left of our savings?

Ans. 1 (from Google’s Gemini):

In the event of a large-scale European war and a severe domestic economic crisis, the safest and most legally accessible foreign countries for British pensioners are geographically isolated nations outside of Europe that offer structured retirement pathways, while the optimal investment strategy focuses heavily on global safe-haven assets decoupled from the UK economy.

Navigating such a severe scenario requires balancing your physical safety, immigration pathways, and financial preservation.

🔎 Part 1: Where You Are Likely to Be Accepted and Safe

A direct war with Russia would heavily impact continental Europe, eliminating traditional British retirement havens like Spain, France, or Cyprus due to their proximity to the conflict zone and NATO alignment.

To achieve maximum safety and a realistic immigration pathway post-Brexit, look to the Americas or specific insulated regions:

1. Panama 🇵🇦 (Top Recommendation)

Safety: Geographically distant from European conflict, strictly neutral, and outside any missile ranges.
Acceptance: Offers the Pensionado Visa, globally recognized as the most accessible retirement visa. It requires a guaranteed lifetime pension of just $1,000 USD (approx. £760) per month.
Perks: Grants steep, government-mandated discounts on healthcare, utilities, dining, and entertainment. [1]

2. Canada or New Zealand 🇨🇦 🇳🇿

Safety: Exceptionally safe, stable democracies with massive geographic insulation.
Acceptance: Neither country offers a simple “pensioner visa” for ordinary retirees. However, they are highly viable if you have direct family ties (children or siblings) who can sponsor you through family reunification pathways.
Risks: New Zealand will freeze your UK State Pension at its current cash value (no annual Triple Lock increases). [1, 2]

3. Costa Rica 🇨🇷

Safety: Known as the “Switzerland of Central America,” it has no standing military, a deeply peaceful culture, and zero involvement in European geopolitics.
Acceptance: The Pensionado program requires a stable retirement income of $1,000 USD per month.

📊 Part 2: Where to Invest What is Left of Your Savings

In a UK economic disaster, Sterling (£) would likely plummet in value, and UK-centric banks or property markets would face severe distress. To protect your purchasing power abroad, your capital must be diversified out of the UK and into global safe havens: [1]

1. Hard Safe-Haven Currencies 💵 🇨🇭

Do not hold your wealth in Pounds. Convert liquid cash into currencies traditionally resilient to geopolitical collapse:

US Dollar (USD): The world’s primary reserve currency and the official currency of Panama and Ecuador.
Swiss Franc (CHF): Backed by a fiercely neutral nation with a history of weathering European conflicts intact.

2. Physical Gold 🪙

Why: Gold has zero counterparty risk and cannot be inflated away by a central bank during economic ruin.
Execution: Hold physical gold or invest via physically backed Gold ETFs (such as iShares Physical Gold) stored in secure, non-UK vaults (e.g., Zurich or Singapore). [1]

3. Globally Diversified, Non-UK Index Funds 📈

Why: Avoid domestic UK equities (FTSE). If the UK economy crashes, global corporations will still generate revenue elsewhere.
Execution: Move your investment or brokerage accounts into a World Index Fund (Ex-UK) or an S&P 500 ETF denominated in US Dollars. This ensures your wealth is tied to the performance of global mega-corporations rather than the British economy. [1, 2]

4. Short-Term US Treasury Bills (T-Bills) 🇺🇸

Why: Backed by the US government, these are widely considered the safest debt instruments in the world during wartime. They provide a reliable, low-risk yield paid out in US Dollars. [1]

⚠️ Critical “Order of Operations” for British Pensioners

Expatriate Your Capital First: Open an international or offshore bank account (such as in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man) that allows you to hold multiple currencies (USD/EUR/CHF) outside the immediate UK domestic retail banking system.
Secure Private Healthcare: If you leave the UK, you lose access to the NHS. Ensure any destination you choose has a high-quality private healthcare network, and ensure you factor international health insurance into your budget. [1, 2]
Audit Your Pension Mechanics: Check whether your private or state pension providers pay out to foreign bank accounts, and be aware of the “frozen pension” rules depending on your chosen country. [1, 2]

Ans. 2 (from Grok):

Ireland stands out as the most practical option for British pensioners seeking acceptance and relative safety in a European conflict involving Russia, combined with UK economic turmoil. Switzerland is another strong European neutral candidate (though harder to access), while distant options like New Zealand or Canada offer geographic isolation but face significant residency barriers and often freeze the UK State Pension.

No place is risk-free in a major European war. NATO involvement would pull in most of the continent; economic shocks, supply disruptions, energy issues, and refugee flows would affect neighbours. Pure military neutrality is rare and imperfect in practice (Switzerland and Ireland maintain policies of military non-alignment/neutrality, but both apply sanctions and face strategic pressures). Geographic distance helps more than formal neutrality alone for pure physical safety from conventional fighting.

Why Ireland ranks highly for British pensioners

Acceptance and ease of move: Under the long-standing Common Travel Area (CTA), British citizens can live, work, and access many services in Ireland without a visa or residency permit. This is uniquely straightforward post-Brexit—no points system, income thresholds for entry, or complex applications. You can relocate relatively quickly.
Safety and neutrality: Ireland ranks among Europe’s safer and more peaceful countries (high Global Peace Index scores). It is not a NATO member and maintains a policy of military neutrality. It is geographically somewhat peripheral (island nation). Crime is low in most areas; it is culturally familiar, English-speaking, and has established British communities.
Practicalities for pensioners: UK State Pension continues to be paid and is uprated annually (as in EEA countries and those with reciprocal agreements). Access to healthcare and certain social supports is facilitated under CTA arrangements (though you should verify habitual residence rules for full benefits). Cost of living is higher than southern Europe but lower than Switzerland; proximity to the UK aids family visits and logistics.
Drawbacks: Not the cheapest; weather is similar to the UK; healthcare has waiting lists (private insurance is wise); Ireland is still European and could face secondary effects (energy, trade, cyber, refugee pressure).

Switzerland is the classic neutral (permanent armed neutrality since 1815, high safety rankings). It is stable, wealthy, and well-defended, with excellent healthcare. However, post-Brexit UK nationals are treated as third-country nationals. Retirement residency (non-lucrative permit, typically for those 55+) is discretionary, requires proof of sufficient independent means (well above social-assistance levels), and usually “special personal ties” to Switzerland (prior stays, family, etc.). Quotas and cantonal approval apply; it is expensive. Pension uprating continues.

Other European options popular with British retirees (Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Greece, Malta) offer easier visas (e.g., D7 passive-income or equivalent), lower costs, sun, British communities, uprated State Pensions (EU/EEA), and good healthcare access via S1 forms in many cases. They score highly in retirement rankings for lifestyle and value. They are not neutral, however, and would be more directly exposed in a continental conflict.

Outside Europe for greater distance:

New Zealand or Canada: High safety, political stability, English-speaking, Commonwealth ties. Geographic isolation reduces direct war risk. Residency is difficult for pure retirees—no straightforward retirement visas; pathways often require family sponsorship, substantial investment, or skilled-work routes with age disadvantages. UK State Pension is typically frozen (no annual uprating). Australia is similarly hard (retirement visas closed; parent visas costly and slow) with frozen pensions.
Lower-cost non-European spots (Thailand, Malaysia, Panama, etc.) appear in retirement lists for affordability but freeze the pension, have variable long-term visa stability, and different healthcare/safety profiles.

Realistic caveats: Acceptance depends on individual circumstances (income, health, family ties). Wars create chaos—borders can close, transport disrupt, currencies swing. “Safe” is relative; prepare contingency plans, multiple residencies if possible, and monitor official advice. Economic disaster in the UK could involve inflation, banking stress, or capital controls—diversify early.

Investing remaining savings

This is not personalised financial advice. Rules, taxes, and markets change; seek regulated independent advice (e.g., via a UK-regulated adviser familiar with cross-border issues, or local equivalents). Consider your risk tolerance, time horizon, healthcare needs, and currency exposure. Past performance is no guide to the future.

Core principles for retirees facing uncertainty (geopolitical + economic stress):

Diversification across asset classes, geographies, and currencies is the main defence. Avoid concentrating everything in UK assets or sterling.
Preserve purchasing power and liquidity: Keep emergency cash (or near-cash) in stable currencies covering 1–3+ years of spending. Inflation and currency depreciation are key risks in economic turmoil.
Defensive and real assets: A modest allocation to gold (or other precious metals) is commonly discussed by analysts as a portfolio diversifier and crisis hedge—historically low correlation to equities/bonds in stress periods, and a store of value when currencies or confidence weaken. Typical suggested ranges from various sources are low-to-mid single digits up to around 5–10% (sometimes higher in more aggressive views); size it so a sharp drop is tolerable. Physical bullion, ETFs, or allocated accounts each have storage, liquidity, and tax trade-offs.
Quality equities and income: Broad global equity exposure (especially non-UK/European) for long-term growth, tilted toward quality companies with pricing power. Dividend or income-focused holdings for cash flow. Bonds (especially short-duration or inflation-linked in stronger currencies) for ballast, though real yields and sovereign risks matter.
Other real assets: Some exposure to property (carefully, given local markets and liquidity) or commodities can help, but property abroad adds complexity (taxes, maintenance, currency).
Currency and location: If relocating, align investments with living costs (e.g., euro assets for Ireland). Use multi-currency accounts or specialists for transfers. Be aware of tax residency rules, double-tax treaties, and reporting (UK still has interests in many overseas arrangements).
Pensions specifically: State Pension can usually be paid abroad (uprated in Ireland/Switzerland/EEA; frozen in many others). Private/workplace pensions can often stay in the UK and be drawn internationally, or considered for QROPS transfer (complex, potential charges, limited options, HMRC rules tightened). Professional advice is essential—transfers can trigger tax and lose protections.
Avoid: Heavy concentration in any single asset, speculative bets, or products you do not understand. High fees erode returns. Scams proliferate in uncertain times.

Practical next steps: Review total net worth, spending needs, and risk capacity with an adviser. Stress-test portfolios for inflation, currency falls, and equity drawdowns. Keep documents (passports, pension details, wills) accessible and consider dual residency or contingency locations early. Monitor official sources (gov.uk, foreign ministries) rather than speculation.

Circumstances change; the most resilient approach combines practical mobility (Ireland’s ease is a major advantage), diversified real assets, and professional guidance tailored to your situation.

COLOUR SUPPLEMENT: Big Society revisited, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sun, 13 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000

This is another reposting from 2010/11 originally published on Nourishing Obscurity:

--------------------------------------------

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10680062

Long before David Cameron or his spin doctors came up with his idea of the Big Society, the people of this country were well capable of ‘community’ action in the form of mutual self help and self improvement in the trade unions, the co-operatives, the credit unions, the mutual guarantee societies, the mutual building societies, the Workers’ Educational Association, the Miners’ Lodge Libraries, the pitmen poets, the pitmen painters, the brass and silver bands etc.

A good example of this was the group known as the Pitmen Painters of Ashington in Northumberland, first brought to national attention in this book by William Feaver, the art critic of the Guardian.

The book then inspired the playwright Lee Hall to create the play of the same name. This was first aired in Newcastle in 2007 and transferred to the National Theatre in London where it was well received and has recently been revived as a touring production.

Subsequently it became a critical success on Broadway That is quite a journey; from a small mining village in Northumberland to the glamour and show-biz hoopla of New York.

But what of the painters themselves?

This picture shows Oliver Kilbourn and Jack Harrison photographed in 1982 in the original Ashington Group hut.

Probably the most well known of these painters is Norman Cornish who was the subject of a previous post in these pages - https://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.com/2020/02/art-norman-cornish-by-jd.html (a bit of cross referencing there to a previous post which is now being repeated here)

The paintings are not great art but that is not the point. These people painted in order to discover themselves to find out what they were capable of doing as they tried to realise their potential; to explore the undiscovered country within; to search for and release the divine spark that is in each of us.

They are a living embodiment of Alexander Pope’s words-

Know then thyself, presume not God to scan
The proper study of mankind is man.

(As a sometime painter myself, I can attest to the fact that the intense concentration required in looking, drawing, painting can produce a form of transcendental self-hypnosis which is liberating – an antidote to the madhouse that is the modern world)

It is indicative of the detachment of the political class that they are unaware of such things both then and now and are beguiled by what they read in the popular press, believing that it is a true reflection of life. Or perhaps they are aware of it and are fearful that the common man might actually think for himself. Politicians don’t approve of things like that.

My grandfather was also a pitman. Although not a painter, his pastimes were to grow roses and read Shakespeare. He also had a few hens at the bottom of his garden to provide eggs and occasionally a roast dinner. Try that now and the whole health and safety or environmental health Council Jobsworths will be down on you in an instant.

Whether it be keeping hens at home or the WI selling home made jam or a small business advertising by the roadside, all must be outlawed to protect the large retail companies

Such politically inspired prohibition of independence can only lead to dependence on government and/or the corporate monopolies.

So Dave, if you want to encourage your big society just get out of the pockets of the plutocrats and repeal a few stupid restrictive laws.

-----------------------------------------

Current PM, Andy Burnham is trying to introduce something similar with his No 10 of the North. Less radical than the ‘big society’ but missing the whole point of independence for the people but increasing local bureaucracy.

FRIDAY MUSIC: The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Sep 2026 06:00:00 +0000

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band (also known as The Bonzo Dog Band & sometimes just “The Bonzos” for short) was created by a group of British art-school students in the 1960s. Combining elements of music hall, trad jazz and psychedelic pop with surreal humour and avant-garde art, the Bonzos came to the public attention through a 1968 ITV comedy show, Do Not Adjust Your Set.

http://www.iankitching.me.uk/music/bonzos/history.html

Their name was inspired by George Studdy. Read more here -
https://www.chrisbeetles.com/artists/studdy-george-ernest-1878-1948.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonzo_Dog_Doo-Dah_Band

Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band Canyons Of Your Mind 1968

The Intro and the Outro by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band

BONZO DOG DOO DAH BAND: Jollity Farm (Live UK Television 1967)

The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - I’m The Urban Spaceman (1968)

The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band Equestrian Statue (1967)

Look Out There’s a Monster Coming

Raving at St Paul’s, by Sackerson

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Sep 2026 12:11:06 +0000

The management of St Paul’s Cathedral have signed a four-year deal with a nightclub called Fabric to use the premises for entertainments.

On Twitter/X the Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan welcomed this decision:

Fabric. St Paul’s Cathedral. Name a more iconic duo.

Bringing together these two institutions will create a one-of-a-kind experience, pairing world-class music with one of our most special landmarks.

But it wasn’t his call and although one suspects that as a Muslim he may have enjoyed seeing how easily the kuffar can be bribed into desecrating one of their houses of worship, answerability lies with the Christians alone.

The public offence it has caused is for two reasons.

Firstly, St Paul’s is a national monument sacred to the memory of many of our great people - naval, military, scientific, literary and so on. As such it is a special place and there are things you simply do not do.

A similarly “iconic” site is Lutens’ Cenotaph, built in 1919-1920 to honour those who fell in the “war to end all wars.” In 2011 when Charlie Gilmour swung on a Union Jack from the Cenotaph his adoptive father’s fame as a rock musician did not save Charlie from a prison sentence. Nor did his claim - as a 21-year-old Cambridge student - not to know what the Cenotaph was; nor his attempt to recruit the war dead as his political allies (“Those who are commemorated by the Cenotaph died to protect the very freedoms that allow the people of Britain the right to protest.”)

But St Paul’s is also a sacred place for Christian religious worship. Secular activities are literally profane - “away from the temple.” All four Gospels in the New Testament describe how Jesus entered the Temple in Jerusalem and drove out the merchants and those who exchanged money for coinage that was ritually acceptable as offerings.

An American bishop states the central issue here:

“This development simply shows that the leadership of the Church of England has lost any sense of the crucial distinction between the sacred and the secular.”

If that is so then the people drawing salaries and accruing pension rights as religious functionaries and their assistants need to reconsider their positions. As Jesus told his followers:

“Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.”

Another X commentator tells us the secularism is not new: “They rent out the crypt containing Lord Nelson & Duke of wellington graves for corporate drinks parties on top. They claim building itself needs more than £60 million of repairs over the next decade.”

If St Paul’s is nothing more than an entertainment venue requiring physical maintenance then we cannot deplore Osama bin Laden’s remark “When people see a strong horse and a weak horse, by nature they will like the strong horse.”

As Milton said, “The hungry sheep look up, and are not fed” and they will turn elsewhere: other religions, magic, millenarian socialism or various kinds of self-destruction.

In this as in other matters, we seem to be approaching a moment of decision.

Ukraine: Empire wars, by Sackerson

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 05 Sep 2026 16:07:17 +0000

What’s been going on in Ukraine is an extension of a scheme of imperial conflict outlined in a 1904 talk by a man called Mackinder: “The geographical pivot of history.” More on this later.
Meanwhile here is something I wrote back in 2014 about plans to develop Eurasia for the benefit of Russia, Iran and other powers.
…………………..
Russia’s big plans?If we are to understand them, we have to look behind the horrible events in Ukraine - for which the West may turn out to be be partly responsible, if Peter Hitchens is right about the CIA’s Director being spotted in Kiev a couple of weeks ago.

What’s the big picture?

How about, Russia’s future as a non-EU European country?

For all its vastness, the land is far more heavily populated in the West, as hardly anyone wants to live in the cruel cold of the Siberian winter:

(Source)

Then, how about the customs union between Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan that started in January 2010, which could be the seed crystal of a sort of eastern EU?

And the massive blue-sky concept, mooted in 2008, of a Trans-Asian Corridor of Development? Here’s a map of how it could look:

(pic source)

On a less gigantic scale, there is the long-proposed Eurasia Canal project, linking the Black Sea to the Caspian via Georgia:

(source)

This was reportedly delayed in 2011, pending the development of cargo facilities in Kazakhstan.

A company called Yaconto LLC had ambitious plans along the same lines, with a naval base at Tuapse (two hours’ drive from Sochi, on the Black Sea):

Yaconto (founded by a Sergey P Yakunin) appears to have ceased trading, but it’s interesting to note that further up the same coastline is the port of Novorossiysk, which has indeed been developed, as I noted in an earlier post:

(pic source)

As part of his integrated plan, Yakunin also proposed the construction of a second waterway parallel to the Bosphorus, to ease shipping between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The last couple of paragraphs refer darkly to potential interference from the corrupt elite in Russia and perhaps this is what has happened after all. (Nevertheless, last year Turkey announced its determination to continue with its own similar plan for a “Kanal Istanbul”.)

And three days ago, President Putin told officials to come up with a plan to develop Russia’s Black Sea fleet.

Like China, Russia is under pressure to maintain economic momentum, like a fox with its tail on fire. Her aim - perhaps unattainable - is to achieve 7% pa GDP growth to 2020: have a look at these briefings from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. There’s a long list of challenges to be overcome, including corruption and ineffective law and regulation.

As with China, a rapidly-growing economy is needed to tackle a host of problems, not least demographic challenges. There’s a danger of collapse if their economies stall.

We can only hope that this is not the West’s intention.

Some previous BOM posts on Russia:

http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/battle-for-black-sea.html

http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/ukraine-belarus-gets-message.html

http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/ukraine-never-mind-fascism-taunts.html

http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/ukraine-is-it-just-business-plan.html

http://theylaughedatnoah.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/from-sochi-to-sevastopol.html

FRIDAY MUSIC: André Rieu, by JD

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Sep 2026 07:03:26 +0000

André Léon Marie Nicolas Rieu is a Dutch violinist and conductor best known as the founder of the waltz-playing Johann Strauss Orchestra. Rieu and his orchestra tour worldwide, often playing in stadiums. He resides in his native Maastricht, where he also regularly performs at the Vrijthof.

As the founder of the Johann Strauss Orchestra, he has succeeded in making classical music accessible to a wide audience and has inspired millions of people with waltzes and music from opera, film, musicals, operettas and traditional melodies and he does it with a touch of humour talking with his audiences and sometimes playing unusual choices as can be seen below.
https://www.andrerieu.com/en

Andre Rieu - An der schönen blauen Donau 1999

André Rieu - The Second Waltz (official video 2020)

André Rieu - Boléro (Ravel)

ANDRE RIEU - Old MacDonald [HQ]

André Rieu - Mestreechs Volksleed en Mestreech is neet breid

Scotland the Brave & Highland Cathedral – André Rieu live in Bahrain

There and back again

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 01 Sep 2026 08:50:10 +0000

We start with going down the park.

The lockable bollards have been pulled up and discarded; the grass has been churned up by tyres and there is rubbish all over the place. Travellers have visited, we assume.

Thee are crows all over the place, too. We walk to the usual spot and dump cut-up chicken scraps and leftover couscous salad. The birds lose no time getting stuck in, though only a minority; the rest are hungry spectators. Alphas and betas, eh.

An Asian man walks past, his little boy proudly showing us a found pound in his fist. The man says he’s been off work for a week and spent his last twenty on fuel for his taxi; he’s not sure what he’s going to earn in the next few days.

And so to Stratford.

The waterside market has many stalls selling clothes, knick-knacks and food. We order a couple of somosas from a Sikh and while they are being prepared by his assistant we chat. Some of the things he says:

All cities should be like this (S-on-A, on a jolly Bank Holiday.)
He doesn’t like what’s happening to Birmingham (he lives not far fom us). He lowers his voice and says they’re letting too many in.
He is disconcerted to learn that the large pub across from our house has been turned into a mosque. He’d seen the refurbishing and thought another brewery was taking over.
The young need employment. His helper turns out to be his son who got a first class honours degree in biomedical science and now can’t get a job.
I say there’s rumours of another general election, maybe this October. He says we don’t need a change of government, we need action.

We buy a paper bag of swan food from a kiosk by the river. One swan pecks three others; the corrupting effects of charity. They follow us as we move downriver.

We get on the last hand-operated chain ferry in Britain. One passenger has a little dog and is carrying a two-foot bull’s pizzle that the dog had claimed with joy as soon as he saw it. The man says the bottom bit is bone but bull penises don’t have one.

Halfway across I tell my wife to drop her phone and passport in the stream. She says I won’t pass for fifteen; I reply that I’ve shaved.

And so back to home, and reality.