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Quote of the day 23rd July 2025

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Labour isn't working, continued.

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Tuesday music spot: "All Around My Hat" (Steeleye Span)

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Free speech should apply to everyone

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About the only thing Noam Chomsky ever said that I agree with is that if we don't believe in free expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all. To be absolutely clear about this, I an not a " free speech absolutist " because what I support is freedom of speech within the law . If you use your freedom of speech to incite or organise criminal activity such as violent attacks on a group you do not like, or sabotage or damage public or private property, you are breaking the law and cannot claim free speech to protect yourself against the consequences.   But if you merely express, in a way which does not commit, facilitate or encourage any violent act or other breach of the law, or slander anyone, views which other people including myself might find offensive or despicable,  then you should have freedom of speech to express those views - and those who disagree with you should have, subject to exactly the same conditions,  the right to respond in robust ...

Quote of the day 22nd July 2025

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"Labour inherited a recovering economy. One year later: it’s bleeding out. Starmer and Reeves crashed the car with their budget but haven’t learned the lesson: You can’t tax your way to growth. Britain can’t afford any more high taxes. We need to cut spending.  Now." Kemi Badenoch MP , leader of the Conservative party.

Elevating the ludicrous to an art form

I wrote yesterday, after the government devolution minister suggested that putting the election of a the first combined authority mayors in Cumbria and in Cheshire and Warrington, quote " will not affect the speed of establishment of the combined authorities in these areas ," that this was the most delusional statement I had ever heard even by the standards of the present government. I stand by that but it appears that Labour and the Lib/Dems are proposing to try to establish a Mayoral Authority without a mayor. It is difficult to find words which adequately reflect how utterly barmy this is, but at best it is like Hamlet without the Prince or a wedding without a bride, at worst this is an outrageous attempt to gerrymander the start of the new authority and usurp the power of the new mayor before he or she has even been elected, landing him or her with people and costs who may quite possibly not be at all suited to the policy and programme the new mayor could be elected with ...

Monday music spot: Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture (Fingal's Cave)

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Labour isn't working

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Those of a certain age will remember that the slogan "Labour isn't working" has been used before. It was part of Mrs Thatcher's successful campaign against a Labour government which had massively increased unemployment. But there's reason for using this slogan again. True in 1979  and still true now - Labour governments cost jobs. Every Labour government in history has increased unemployment. And it's not hard to see why. One of the first thing the present Labour government did on taking office was to break their promise not to increase National Insurance and impose the biggest tax rise in history on Employers National Insurance contributions A forty billion pounds a year tax on jobs. Is it any wonder that this is what happened to the creation of jobs?  

Quote of the day 21st July 2025

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By-election news

For the third time Reform UK has lost a by-election caused when one of their newly-elected councillors resigned a council seat within days of winning it. Congratulations to Conservative candidate Jeremy Pert, who was elected to Staffordshire county council. He comfortably won the Gnosall and Eccleshall division on Thursday night after securing 1,689 votes (44.4%) and thanked voters, adding that no one ā€œexpected to see a by-election so early on and none of us wanted thatā€. Reform UK has yet to successfully defend any of the council seats they have won. In other by-election news the Conservatives gained the Logan ward on Market Harborough District Council from the Lib/Dems on Thursday. Congratulations to Councillor Paul Bremner who won the seat. Results were as follows: Paul Bremner, Conservatives           410 votes (31.3%, up +4.1% on 2023)  Lib Dems                        ...

When your view of a piece of humour changes ...

I laughed in one way when I picked up the Sunday Times this morning at a cartoon on the front page. I  see a wholly different humour in the same cartoon now. The front page of the Sunday Times shows a policeman outside a house, talking to a man who is presumably the homeowner or tenant, with both up to their waists in water. The officer is saying "Someone been using their hosepipe, have they?" On a dry morning like this morning one would tend interpret the joke taking the officer's words at face value. However, this afternoon I and my family were drenched by extremely heavy rain while out shopping, and delayed on the way home by a traffic jam caused because the road home was nearly flooded with one lane impassable due to the water on the road. And yes, both the shopping centre where we got wet and the partly-flooded road were located in a hosepipe ban area. I noticed the paper again when I arrived home and the same cartoon had far more bite for me and a completely differe...

Cumbria Mayoral election delayed to 2027

Cumbria is one of two areas where the Mayoral elections which the government had originally planned to hold in 2026, has been put back to May 2026. The other area where the election of the first mayor has been delayed is Cheshire & Warrington. Both Cumberland Council and Westmorland & Furness Council requested a one-year delay to appoint the first mayor of Cumbria. A similar request was made by the local councils covering Cheshire & Warrington. The councils which asked for a later election argued that the mayoral vote should be held at the same time as local council elections, giving more time to prepare and to save almost Ā£1m in resources. Four other areas will go ahead with votes for new mayors in 2026, Those elections taking place next year – Greater Essex, Hampshire & the Solent, Norfolk & Suffolk, and Sussex & Brighton – will use the first past the post system. It's expected the government will change the voting system for mayoral elections held after t...

Sunday music spot: Gustav Holst, "Turn back, O man"

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Quote of the day 20th July 2025

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Saturday music spot: Bobby Pickett performs "Monster Mash"

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A recent repeat, but never mind. This was often on the radio when I was a small boy. And because I knew it from radio, I missed half the genius of the performance. The late Bobby Pickett had a face so flexible that he makes Jim Carrey look like someone on Botox - and I write that as someone who has been a judge in the World Gurning Championships. From Wikipedia: Pickett co-wrote "Monster Mash" with Leonard Capizzi in May 1962.  The song is a spoof on the dance crazes popular at the time, including the Twist and the Mashed Potato, which inspired the title. The song features Pickett's impersonations of veteran horror stars Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi (the latter with the line "Whatever happened to my Transylvania Twist?").  Every major record label declined the song, but after hearing it, Gary S. Paxton agreed to produce and engineer it. Among the musicians who contributed to the song are pianist Leon Russell and The Ventures drummer Mel Taylor.  Issued on Paxto...

On extending the vote to 16-year olds.

Cynicism warning - I'm afraid some of the opinions in this post are very cynical indeed. I do not believe there is any perfect age at which people should gain the right to vote. However I do think there are three principles which have to apply: Whatever age you pick, in the interests of fairness it has to be the same for everyone It should not be arbitrarily moved up or down to suit the convenience of a particular government. It should be old enough to ensure most voters have a reasonable degree of maturity but young enough that the vast majority of adults can vote. Personally I think you can make a decent case for the voting age being at any point between 16 and 21. Whatever arbitrary age you pick, there will be some people below it who would have been perfectly mature enough to cast a responsible and intelligently considered vote, whether I personally agree with it or not, and millions of people over that age who don't have enough majority to be trusted to do the washing-up, ...

Quote of the day 19th July 2025

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Music to start the weekend: Europe "The Final Countdown"

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The Final Countdown, sung by Europe, with video of the first battle of Geonosis, from Star Wars II, "Attack of the Clones."  Because the clones in this, their first battle, look a lot like Imperial Stormtroopers, when this film came out, many of us watching at this point thought something along the lines of  "Ah, so this is where stormtroopers come from, and when they're shooting at targets who don't have plot armour, they CAN shoot straight."  Of course, we learned much, much later in "The Bad Batch" that Republic Clone troopers and Imperial storm troopers are not in fact the same, but never mind!

Quote of the day 18th July 2025

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Quote of the day 17th July 2025

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Quote of the day 16th July 2025

ā€œI have lost count of the number of political gurus who said we should smash the system and start again from scratch.ā€ ā€œTempting though that may be, it is totally unrealistic, because all we need to do to deliver that is mobilise the alternative, anti-woke, right-wing civil service that’s waiting in the wings to take things over when the Civil Service that we currently have is got rid of. ā€œSimple. It’s also a fantasy. It’s a complete nonsense. It’s excuse-making, and it’s weak.ā€ (Sir James Cleverly MP  in a speech this week He also said the ā€œ go-to excuse for populist politicians ā€ is to pretend ā€œ difficult choices and trade-offs don’t exist ā€)

Quote of the day 15th July 2025

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Quote of the day 14th July 2025

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Quote of the day 13th July 2025

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Quote of the day 12th July 2025

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Music to start the weekend - "Baba Yetu", by Christopher Tin

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Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin was the award winning intro theme to the computer game, "Sid Meier's Civilisation IV." The words are those of the Lord's Prayer, in Swahili. Perhaps because it is so uplifting, perhaps because both in the game and in many versions since circulated it is shown with pictures depicting great scenes from the rise of civilisation, it is sometimes called the "Anthem of Humanity." 

Cumberland Council tries to gag critic

I don't always agree with Independent Carlisle councillor Bobbie Betton - we certainly had our differences when we were both members of the former Cumbria County Council. But regardless of the rights and wrongs of the issue, and equally regardless of whether the means used to block the motion were technically in order within the standing orders of the council (which they control) I think it was entirely wrong for the Labour ruling on Cumberland Council to use their majority and procedural devices prevent him from proposing a motion criticising the council as described in the Cumbria Chronic See link:  LABOUR CANCELS COUNCIL CRITIC – The Cumbria Chronic I have no view on whether his criticisms of the council are justified but I am quoting Cllr Betton's motion here in full because I take exception to Labour's refusal to debate it. "The maintenance of all council-owned parks and green spaces across both rural and urban areas, are grossly underfunded and is insufficient to...

Quote of the day11th July 2025

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Thursday music spot: Bonnie Tyler "Holding Out For A Hero"

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For years I couldn't hear this without thinking of Shrek's attack on the castle in Shrek II. Now I can't hear it without thinking of Luke Skywalker's Deus Ex Machina rescue at the climax of the Mandalorian Season II finale. But it's a great piece in it's own right ...