Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
Not so. Around half of all the churches in England are predominantly or wholly medieval structures. The most common later change is the replacement of the roof but if the main structure of the building remains then it is quite rightly considered to be medieval. The biggest change/crime committed by the Victorians was scouring the walls to remove a thin layer from the surface of the stone - usually to remove the dirt and graffiti that had built up over centuries of use.
There is a very good project being undertaken across Eastern England to record the remaining medieval graffiti.
Indeed, England has the most pre 1500 non Catholic or Orthodox churches in the world
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
It’s sensible expectation management too after the party massively over enthused before the last election.
The downside is it leaves a number of potentially winnable seats where Labour might also stake a claim and makes it harder to present the Lib Dems as the obvious challenger there. I am hopeful that the council results this May will clarify things somewhat.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
They can't ever overlap. Candlemas is always 2 February, and the earliest Shrove Tuesday can be is 3 February.
40 days of Christmas feast, then 40 days of Lenten fast, it's elegant and symmetrical...
Would sharing buildings be that transformative for rural churches, though? I think the limiting factor is clergy rather than buildings, and we're some way from agreeing that CofE and RC ministers are interchangeable.
For Shrove Tuesday on 3rd February you are going to have to wait till 2285. The last was 1818.
I propose an update to the Easter Act 1928, to encompass all liturgical seasons and provide much more limited variation.
I think (unless someone else knows differently...) that all the other moveable feasts are tied to Easter anyway, so once that's fixed, all will be well.
What's been really heartening on here today is to see how many posters have held their hands-up and admit the EU got this wrong 4 years ago when they said it was "impossible" due to the need to protect the integrity of the single market.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
Not so. Around half of all the churches in England are predominantly or wholly medieval structures. The most common later change is the replacement of the roof but if the main structure of the building remains then it is quite rightly considered to be medieval. The biggest change/crime committed by the Victorians was scouring the walls to remove a thin layer from the surface of the stone - usually to remove the dirt and graffiti that had built up over centuries of use.
There is a very good project being undertaken across Eastern England to record the remaining medieval graffiti.
I come from the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border. I worked as an organist across those counties and Worcestershire for several years. I also quite an interest in church architecture.
If you asked me to name one church in that area where over 50% of the main structure was medieval I would give you Tewkesbury Abbey and Hereford Cathedral. After that I would be struggling. Even very ancient foundations like Ledbury, Newent, Dursley, Linton, Cirencester, Dymock, Berkeley, Deerhurst and Fairford have been extensively modified since Tudor times.
Edit - this doesn't mean they are not very beautiful and architecturally interesting. Just that they look nothing like they way they did in 1500.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
He hasn't quite cottoned on to what was meant by the word.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
Not so. Around half of all the churches in England are predominantly or wholly medieval structures. The most common later change is the replacement of the roof but if the main structure of the building remains then it is quite rightly considered to be medieval. The biggest change/crime committed by the Victorians was scouring the walls to remove a thin layer from the surface of the stone - usually to remove the dirt and graffiti that had built up over centuries of use.
There is a very good project being undertaken across Eastern England to record the remaining medieval graffiti.
I donated to the National Churches Trust in memory of Queen Elizabeth, as opposed to flowers.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
Not so. Around half of all the churches in England are predominantly or wholly medieval structures. The most common later change is the replacement of the roof but if the main structure of the building remains then it is quite rightly considered to be medieval. The biggest change/crime committed by the Victorians was scouring the walls to remove a thin layer from the surface of the stone - usually to remove the dirt and graffiti that had built up over centuries of use.
There is a very good project being undertaken across Eastern England to record the remaining medieval graffiti.
I donated to the National Churches Trust in memory of Queen Elizabeth, as opposed to flowers.
I am thinking of keeping it going.
You must be very rich indeed if you can contemplate keeping it going on your lonesome, but as a heritage buff you would have my enthusiastic support.
No Hazel Grove? Or is that a quid pro quo for a free run next door in Cheadle?
I'm sure there's no squalid deal, good heavens no. But if Labour activists in Cheadle were to decide they would rather help out in Hazel Grove, that might be more satisfying for them.
Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all had a good festive season.
So for the first time ever I've done my top 10 albums of the year (which will hopefully be of interest to at least a couple of other PB'ers ). I ended 2022 with 21 albums (2020 was 18, and 2021 30).
1. First Aid Kit, Palomino 2. Taylor Swift, Midnights 3. Weyes Blood, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow 4. Pixies, Doggerel 5. The Big Moon, Here Is Everything 6. Arctic Monkeys, The Car 7. Beabadoobee. Beatopia 8. Muna, Muna 9. Mitski, Laurel Hell 10. Wet Leg, Wet Leg
Just missing out at places 11-13 were Beyonce, Nina Nesbitt, and Tears For Fears, while making up slots 14-21 were Poster Paints, Sharon Van Etten, Foals, Placebo, Muse, George Ezra, Bloc Party, and Rival Consoles.
The first 2023 album is already in the bag, Gabrielle Aplin (and already a likely top 10 of the year for me), Ellie Goulding and Paramore are out in February, and Lana Del Rey and Depeche Mode are released in March. Also awaited are Bat For Lashes, London Grammar, Haim, U2, and potentially PB's favourite, Radiohead.
2023 elections
These are the ones I'll be keeping an eye on (all parliamentary unless shown otherwise), although I'm sure Stodge will probably have a few more:
13-14 January, Czech presidential 2 April, Finland 18 June, Turkey presidential & parliamentary July, Greece 22 October, Switzerland 29 October, Argentina presidential Autumn (likely), New Zealand November, Poland December, Spain
As with album releases, there will probably be one or two unexpected ones popping up.
Anyway, very best wishes for 2023 to everyone, and prosperous betting!
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
No Hazel Grove? Or is that a quid pro quo for a free run next door in Cheadle?
I'm sure there's no squalid deal, good heavens no. But if Labour activists in Cheadle were to decide they would rather help out in Hazel Grove, that might be more satisfying for them.
Labour will actively canvas for the Tories in both seats because of a longstanding council rivalry. It’s weird.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
Not so. Around half of all the churches in England are predominantly or wholly medieval structures. The most common later change is the replacement of the roof but if the main structure of the building remains then it is quite rightly considered to be medieval. The biggest change/crime committed by the Victorians was scouring the walls to remove a thin layer from the surface of the stone - usually to remove the dirt and graffiti that had built up over centuries of use.
There is a very good project being undertaken across Eastern England to record the remaining medieval graffiti.
I come from the Gloucestershire/Herefordshire border. I worked as an organist across those counties and Worcestershire for several years. I also quite an interest in church architecture.
If you asked me to name one church in that area where over 50% of the main structure was medieval I would give you Tewkesbury Abbey and Hereford Cathedral. After that I would be struggling. Even very ancient foundations like Ledbury, Newent, Dursley, Linton, Cirencester, Dymock, Berkeley, Deerhurst and Fairford have been extensively modified since Tudor times.
Edit - this doesn't mean they are not very beautiful and architecturally interesting. Just that they look nothing like they way they did in 1500.
My local bike ride in the Flatlands takes me past:
Church. C12, C14 and C16 with later additions, restored 1864 (II*) Church. Early C14 and C15; chancel rebuilt 1860 (I) Church. C12 south door and chancel arch otherwise mostly C14 and C15. (II*) Church. C12 origins with C13 nave and north aisle, early C14 south aisle, porch, transepts, tower and spire. (I) Church. C12, C13, C14 and C15, heavily restored in 1864 (II*) Church. C12, C13, C14 and C15 (I) - [allegedly where Robin Hood married Maid Marion] Church. C11 origin, C13, C14 and C15; chancel restored 1872/73 by Sir George Gilbert Scott (I) Church. C10-Cll and C12 with C14-C16 alterations; restored 1864 (I)
Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all had a good festive season.
So for the first time ever I've done my top 10 albums of the year (which will hopefully be of interest to at least a couple of other PB'ers ). I ended 2022 with 21 albums (2020 was 18, and 2021 30).
1. First Aid Kit, Palomino 2. Taylor Swift, Midnights 3. Weyes Blood, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow 4. Pixies, Doggerel 5. The Big Moon, Here Is Everything 6. Arctic Monkeys, The Car 7. Beabadoobee. Beatopia 8. Muna, Muna 9. Mitski, Laurel Hell 10. Wet Leg, Wet Leg
Just missing out at places 11-13 were Beyonce, Nina Nesbitt, and Tears For Fears, while making up slots 14-21 were Poster Paints, Sharon Van Etten, Foals, Placebo, Muse, George Ezra, Bloc Party, and Rival Consoles.
The first 2023 album is already in the bag, Gabrielle Aplin (and already a likely top 10 of the year for me), Ellie Goulding and Paramore are out in February, and Lana Del Rey and Depeche Mode are released in March. Also awaited are Bat For Lashes, London Grammar, Haim, U2, and potentially PB's favourite, Radiohead.
2023 elections
These are the ones I'll be keeping an eye on (all parliamentary unless shown otherwise), although I'm sure Stodge will probably have a few more:
13-14 January, Czech presidential 2 April, Finland 18 June, Turkey presidential & parliamentary July, Greece 22 October, Switzerland 29 October, Argentina presidential Autumn (likely), New Zealand November, Poland December, Spain
As with album releases, there will probably be one or two unexpected ones popping up.
Anyway, very best wishes for 2023 to everyone, and prosperous betting!
Many thanks,
DC
Nice lists - my fave album of last year, excluding the Lee Perry retrospective, was probably Ezra Collective’s Where I’m Meant To Be. Jazzy, kind of, so maybe not everyone’s cup of tea.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Is Arsenal kit some kinda of meta advertising....white shirt with white text.
Anti knife crime kit. Did it last year too apparently.
I am surprised the FA let them get away with the number / name on the back not being clearly visible, as the referee needs to be able to identify players.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
'A complete renovation of a church' is inferior to some interior changes?
It's a view.
A wrong one, as it happens, but a view.
The fabric of a building is the material making up the structure. That's what's used in heritage terms anyway. A faculty, for example, will ask if there is any change to 'the fabric of a building,' meaning the structure of it or the materials in that structure.
If you are right and the dioceses of Hereford, Gloucester, St David's and Lichfield where I have managed faculty applications for heritage projects of one sort or another for the last twenty years are wrong, it would be kind of you to enlighten them.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all had a good festive season.
So for the first time ever I've done my top 10 albums of the year (which will hopefully be of interest to at least a couple of other PB'ers ). I ended 2022 with 21 albums (2020 was 18, and 2021 30).
1. First Aid Kit, Palomino 2. Taylor Swift, Midnights 3. Weyes Blood, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow 4. Pixies, Doggerel 5. The Big Moon, Here Is Everything 6. Arctic Monkeys, The Car 7. Beabadoobee. Beatopia 8. Muna, Muna 9. Mitski, Laurel Hell 10. Wet Leg, Wet Leg
Just missing out at places 11-13 were Beyonce, Nina Nesbitt, and Tears For Fears, while making up slots 14-21 were Poster Paints, Sharon Van Etten, Foals, Placebo, Muse, George Ezra, Bloc Party, and Rival Consoles.
The first 2023 album is already in the bag, Gabrielle Aplin (and already a likely top 10 of the year for me), Ellie Goulding and Paramore are out in February, and Lana Del Rey and Depeche Mode are released in March. Also awaited are Bat For Lashes, London Grammar, Haim, U2, and potentially PB's favourite, Radiohead.
2023 elections
These are the ones I'll be keeping an eye on (all parliamentary unless shown otherwise), although I'm sure Stodge will probably have a few more:
13-14 January, Czech presidential 2 April, Finland 18 June, Turkey presidential & parliamentary July, Greece 22 October, Switzerland 29 October, Argentina presidential Autumn (likely), New Zealand November, Poland December, Spain
As with album releases, there will probably be one or two unexpected ones popping up.
Anyway, very best wishes for 2023 to everyone, and prosperous betting!
Many thanks,
DC
London Grammar is a strange one to me. I like the name, the image and the values. But the music I find utterly turgid. I’ll keep the faith with LDR though, and buy her new album. After the truly wonderful Norman FR, I found the following two albums rather disappointing. But I believe she’s still capable of creating something beautiful.
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Not necessarily. There are a number of legitimate uses for shell companies. Making donations to politicians from one, is a slightly different matter.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
They can't ever overlap. Candlemas is always 2 February, and the earliest Shrove Tuesday can be is 3 February.
40 days of Christmas feast, then 40 days of Lenten fast, it's elegant and symmetrical...
Would sharing buildings be that transformative for rural churches, though? I think the limiting factor is clergy rather than buildings, and we're some way from agreeing that CofE and RC ministers are interchangeable.
For Shrove Tuesday on 3rd February you are going to have to wait till 2285. The last was 1818.
I propose an update to the Easter Act 1928, to encompass all liturgical seasons and provide much more limited variation.
I think (unless someone else knows differently...) that all the other moveable feasts are tied to Easter anyway, so once that's fixed, all will be well.
Yes. The entire shape of the year from Jan/Feb to Nov/Dec is formed by the date of Easter which can fall on 35 days (22 March to 25 April). End Nov/Dec to Jan is fixed by Christmas being fixed to 25 December.
I like it that way; it gives variation, and respects the natural world - Christmas being placed close to the shortest day, and Easter linked to both the full moon and the equinox.
Tourism and the quotidien world of drudgery would of course prefer a rationalist approach, with Easter always early April, and perhaps Christmas always on a Sunday in late December. (Both to be renamed in honour of Richard Dawkins)
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
They can't ever overlap. Candlemas is always 2 February, and the earliest Shrove Tuesday can be is 3 February.
40 days of Christmas feast, then 40 days of Lenten fast, it's elegant and symmetrical...
Would sharing buildings be that transformative for rural churches, though? I think the limiting factor is clergy rather than buildings, and we're some way from agreeing that CofE and RC ministers are interchangeable.
For Shrove Tuesday on 3rd February you are going to have to wait till 2285. The last was 1818.
I propose an update to the Easter Act 1928, to encompass all liturgical seasons and provide much more limited variation.
I think (unless someone else knows differently...) that all the other moveable feasts are tied to Easter anyway, so once that's fixed, all will be well.
Yes. The entire shape of the year from Jan/Feb to Nov/Dec is formed by the date of Easter which can fall on 35 days (22 March to 25 April). End Nov/Dec to Jan is fixed by Christmas being fixed to 25 December.
I like it that way; it gives variation, and respects the natural world - Christmas being placed close to the shortest day, and Easter linked to both the full moon and the equinox.
Tourism and the quotidien world of drudgery would of course prefer a rationalist approach, with Easter always early April, and perhaps Christmas always on a Sunday in late December. (Both to be renamed in honour of Richard Dawkins)
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Not necessarily. There are a number of legitimate uses for shell companies. Making donations to politicians from one, is a slightly different matter.
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Not necessarily. There are a number of legitimate uses for shell companies. Making donations to politicians from one, is a slightly different matter.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
'A complete renovation of a church' is inferior to some interior changes?
It's a view.
A wrong one, as it happens, but a view.
The fabric of a building is the material making up the structure. That's what's used in heritage terms anyway. A faculty, for example, will ask if there is any change to 'the fabric of a building,' meaning the structure of it or the materials in that structure.
If you are right and the dioceses of Hereford, Gloucester, St David's and Lichfield where I have managed faculty applications for heritage projects of one sort or another for the last twenty years are wrong, it would be kind of you to enlighten them.
If you tell those dioceses they have no Medieval churches, they are all Victorian it would also be interesting to see the response you get.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
Not so. Around half of all the churches in England are predominantly or wholly medieval structures. The most common later change is the replacement of the roof but if the main structure of the building remains then it is quite rightly considered to be medieval. The biggest change/crime committed by the Victorians was scouring the walls to remove a thin layer from the surface of the stone - usually to remove the dirt and graffiti that had built up over centuries of use.
There is a very good project being undertaken across Eastern England to record the remaining medieval graffiti.
I donated to the National Churches Trust in memory of Queen Elizabeth, as opposed to flowers.
I am thinking of keeping it going.
You must be very rich indeed if you can contemplate keeping it going on your lonesome, but as a heritage buff you would have my enthusiastic support.
I was thinking of £50 a year, but hey ho.
Probably just buys a slate or a small seal of lead these days.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
In building terms fabric is always known as the building structure no matter how you try to redefine it
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
Since when do pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass and memorial tablets all represent the building structure? They are certainly not the walls of the building
The conservative party should not rejoice at losing supporters, previous or otherwise, and should ask why
It's not unusual for ex-MP's to quit Parties. Rather more for them to big up the opposition so much. Suggests it would be a defection, were she still an MP.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
'A complete renovation of a church' is inferior to some interior changes?
It's a view.
A wrong one, as it happens, but a view.
The fabric of a building is the material making up the structure. That's what's used in heritage terms anyway. A faculty, for example, will ask if there is any change to 'the fabric of a building,' meaning the structure of it or the materials in that structure.
If you are right and the dioceses of Hereford, Gloucester, St David's and Lichfield where I have managed faculty applications for heritage projects of one sort or another for the last twenty years are wrong, it would be kind of you to enlighten them.
If you tell those dioceses they have no Medieval churches, they are all Victorian it would also be interesting to see the response you get.
Well, since I did discuss it once with the diocesan heritage officer for Hereford and he lamented that almost all his churches had been 'vandalised' (his word) by the Victorians when the original fabric (also his word) would have been much more interesting on the surviving evidence he had...
...I'm thinking they would nod in sad agreement that on *your* definition they have no medieval churches.
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Not necessarily. There are a number of legitimate uses for shell companies. Making donations to politicians from one, is a slightly different matter.
One of them runs a string of petrol stations.
Do they sell Riesling?
And if so, from the pumps or the shops?
Sadly Riesling is being phased out due to particulate emissions.
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Not necessarily. There are a number of legitimate uses for shell companies. Making donations to politicians from one, is a slightly different matter.
One of them runs a string of petrol stations.
Do they sell Riesling?
And if so, from the pumps or the shops?
Sadly Riesling is being phased out due to particulate emissions.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
'A complete renovation of a church' is inferior to some interior changes?
It's a view.
A wrong one, as it happens, but a view.
The fabric of a building is the material making up the structure. That's what's used in heritage terms anyway. A faculty, for example, will ask if there is any change to 'the fabric of a building,' meaning the structure of it or the materials in that structure.
If you are right and the dioceses of Hereford, Gloucester, St David's and Lichfield where I have managed faculty applications for heritage projects of one sort or another for the last twenty years are wrong, it would be kind of you to enlighten them.
If you tell those dioceses they have no Medieval churches, they are all Victorian it would also be interesting to see the response you get.
Well, since I did discuss it once with the diocesan heritage officer for Hereford and he lamented that almost all his churches had been 'vandalised' (his word) by the Victorians when the original fabric (also his word) would have been much more interesting on the surviving evidence he had...
...I'm thinking they would nod in sad agreement that on *your* definition they have no medieval churches.
If the walls are primarily Medieval then they are still Medieval churches whatever changes to the interior
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
In building terms fabric is always known as the building structure no matter how you try to redefine it
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
Since when do pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass and memorial tablets all represent the building structure? They are certainly not the walls of the building
I have to say @Big_G_NorthWales i did admire the triumph of hope over experience in your comment.
Edit - incidentally in most churches those things are in fact part of the structure. In the sense that they are affixed to it, and therefore any changes will affect the aforesaid structure.
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
"Shell company" is bad airport thriller speak. There's a hilarious bit in a F Forsyth novel where the baddies just need a limited company and they elaborately defraud a widow of one for only £10,000 or something because they don't realise you can get a brand new one for £50.
Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all had a good festive season.
So for the first time ever I've done my top 10 albums of the year (which will hopefully be of interest to at least a couple of other PB'ers ). I ended 2022 with 21 albums (2020 was 18, and 2021 30).
1. First Aid Kit, Palomino 2. Taylor Swift, Midnights 3. Weyes Blood, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow 4. Pixies, Doggerel 5. The Big Moon, Here Is Everything 6. Arctic Monkeys, The Car 7. Beabadoobee. Beatopia 8. Muna, Muna 9. Mitski, Laurel Hell 10. Wet Leg, Wet Leg
Just missing out at places 11-13 were Beyonce, Nina Nesbitt, and Tears For Fears, while making up slots 14-21 were Poster Paints, Sharon Van Etten, Foals, Placebo, Muse, George Ezra, Bloc Party, and Rival Consoles.
The first 2023 album is already in the bag, Gabrielle Aplin (and already a likely top 10 of the year for me), Ellie Goulding and Paramore are out in February, and Lana Del Rey and Depeche Mode are released in March. Also awaited are Bat For Lashes, London Grammar, Haim, U2, and potentially PB's favourite, Radiohead.
2023 elections
These are the ones I'll be keeping an eye on (all parliamentary unless shown otherwise), although I'm sure Stodge will probably have a few more:
13-14 January, Czech presidential 2 April, Finland 18 June, Turkey presidential & parliamentary July, Greece 22 October, Switzerland 29 October, Argentina presidential Autumn (likely), New Zealand November, Poland December, Spain
As with album releases, there will probably be one or two unexpected ones popping up.
Anyway, very best wishes for 2023 to everyone, and prosperous betting!
Many thanks,
DC
London Grammar is a strange one to me. I like the name, the image and the values. But the music I find utterly turgid. I’ll keep the faith with LDR though, and buy her new album. After the truly wonderful Norman FR, I found the following two albums rather disappointing. But I believe she’s still capable of creating something beautiful.
Aaah I love London Grammar, their last outing Californian Soil was my top album of 2021. Hannah Reid (along with Adele and Abba) is one of my all time favourite female vocalists. I have to say I enjoyed both the LDR 2021 albums, even if they were a bit more chilled than some of her previous work. I will be making my first release day record store trip of 2023 on 10 March to buy her new album Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd - as with Taylor Swift and Paul Weller (but unlike Adele, Dido or Tears For Fears!) her work rate is impressive.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
'A complete renovation of a church' is inferior to some interior changes?
It's a view.
A wrong one, as it happens, but a view.
The fabric of a building is the material making up the structure. That's what's used in heritage terms anyway. A faculty, for example, will ask if there is any change to 'the fabric of a building,' meaning the structure of it or the materials in that structure.
If you are right and the dioceses of Hereford, Gloucester, St David's and Lichfield where I have managed faculty applications for heritage projects of one sort or another for the last twenty years are wrong, it would be kind of you to enlighten them.
If you tell those dioceses they have no Medieval churches, they are all Victorian it would also be interesting to see the response you get.
Whoosh and there go those jet propelled goalposts again.
Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all had a good festive season.
So for the first time ever I've done my top 10 albums of the year (which will hopefully be of interest to at least a couple of other PB'ers ). I ended 2022 with 21 albums (2020 was 18, and 2021 30).
1. First Aid Kit, Palomino 2. Taylor Swift, Midnights 3. Weyes Blood, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow 4. Pixies, Doggerel 5. The Big Moon, Here Is Everything 6. Arctic Monkeys, The Car 7. Beabadoobee. Beatopia 8. Muna, Muna 9. Mitski, Laurel Hell 10. Wet Leg, Wet Leg
Just missing out at places 11-13 were Beyonce, Nina Nesbitt, and Tears For Fears, while making up slots 14-21 were Poster Paints, Sharon Van Etten, Foals, Placebo, Muse, George Ezra, Bloc Party, and Rival Consoles.
The first 2023 album is already in the bag, Gabrielle Aplin (and already a likely top 10 of the year for me), Ellie Goulding and Paramore are out in February, and Lana Del Rey and Depeche Mode are released in March. Also awaited are Bat For Lashes, London Grammar, Haim, U2, and potentially PB's favourite, Radiohead.
2023 elections
These are the ones I'll be keeping an eye on (all parliamentary unless shown otherwise), although I'm sure Stodge will probably have a few more:
13-14 January, Czech presidential 2 April, Finland 18 June, Turkey presidential & parliamentary July, Greece 22 October, Switzerland 29 October, Argentina presidential Autumn (likely), New Zealand November, Poland December, Spain
As with album releases, there will probably be one or two unexpected ones popping up.
Anyway, very best wishes for 2023 to everyone, and prosperous betting!
Many thanks,
DC
London Grammar is a strange one to me. I like the name, the image and the values. But the music I find utterly turgid. I’ll keep the faith with LDR though, and buy her new album. After the truly wonderful Norman FR, I found the following two albums rather disappointing. But I believe she’s still capable of creating something beautiful.
Aaah I love London Grammar, their last outing Californian Soil was my top album of 2021. Hannah Reid (along with Adele and Abba) is one of my all time favourite female vocalists. I have to say I enjoyed both the LDR 2021 albums, even if they were a bit more chilled than some of her previous work. I will be making my first release day record store trip of 2023 on 10 March to buy her new album Did You Know That There's a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd - as with Taylor Swift and Paul Weller (but unlike Adele, Dido or Tears For Fears!) her work rate is impressive.
Most talented singer songwriter of her generation by a mile, even though I sometimes get frustrated with some of her output. Still recall seeing Video Games for the first time on YouTube, and being utterly blown away by it.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
I said this for years on here, whoever was in government when interest rates finally start to return to more historical norms will get absolutely shellacked at the ballot box (regardless of other performances). A whole generation of people have never experienced any normal interest rates and thus budgeted / mortgaged themselves accordingly.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
In building terms fabric is always known as the building structure no matter how you try to redefine it
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
Since when do pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass and memorial tablets all represent the building structure? They are certainly not the walls of the building
I have to say @Big_G_NorthWales i did admire the triumph of hope over experience in your comment.
Edit - incidentally in most churches those things are in fact part of the structure. In the sense that they are affixed to it, and therefore any changes will affect the aforesaid structure.
Affect not remove.
The only cases of a Medieval church becoming a Victorian church would be if the original Medieval church completely burnt down or was demolished and a new one was built in its place by the Victorians, like my parents' church https://speldhurstchurch.org/about/building/history/
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
In building terms fabric is always known as the building structure no matter how you try to redefine it
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
Since when do pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass and memorial tablets all represent the building structure? They are certainly not the walls of the building
The fabric in building terms relates to foundations, walls, roofs, and anything required for the structural integrity of the building
Anything inside is not termed fabric unless it has a structural purpose
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
Do you wish to join my trade union - The Amalgamated Hedge Fund Owners and Boiler Makers?
Getting things going, but we will have Fortnums doing the hampers for the picket lines and the brasiers will be handcrafted from stainless steel 55 gallon drums by a collaboration between a noted Caribbean Calypso drum artist and a bespoke Japanese barbecue maker.
I said this for years on here, whoever was in government when interest rates finally start to return to more historical norms will get absolutely shellacked at the ballot box.
Although, these days, rump Tory voters tend not to have mortgages.
All this means is that people who might in other times be Tory-curious just ain’t coming back.
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
"Shell company" is bad airport thriller speak. There's a hilarious bit in a F Forsyth novel where the baddies just need a limited company and they elaborately defraud a widow of one for only £10,000 or something because they don't realise you can get a brand new one for £50.
IIRC, they needed a company with a plausible history.
I said this for years on here, whoever was in government when interest rates finally start to return to more historical norms will get absolutely shellacked at the ballot box.
Although, these days, rump Tory voters tend not to have mortgages.
All this means is that people who might in other times be Tory-curious just ain’t coming back.
Those with mortgages voted mostly Tory in the last 4 general elections, a 5th term would be stretching the elastic beyond breaking point historically whatever the state of the economy
I said this for years on here, whoever was in government when interest rates finally start to return to more historical norms will get absolutely shellacked at the ballot box.
Although, these days, rump Tory voters tend not to have mortgages.
All this means is that people who might in other times be Tory-curious just ain’t coming back.
Tories need a strong retail offer.
If you think about why they got so many young voters in 1979, and a pretty good number throughout the 80s, it was because they offered them homes, more opportunity and more freedom.
I said this for years on here, whoever was in government when interest rates finally start to return to more historical norms will get absolutely shellacked at the ballot box.
Although, these days, rump Tory voters tend not to have mortgages.
All this means is that people who might in other times be Tory-curious just ain’t coming back.
Rising interest rates help Tory voters unless they have second houses they're planning to sell. More interest on their savings. Better returns on their pension pots, if they haven't taken them. Better annuities if they have taken them with the right policies.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Not necessarily. There are a number of legitimate uses for shell companies. Making donations to politicians from one, is a slightly different matter.
One of them runs a string of petrol stations.
Do they sell Riesling?
And if so, from the pumps or the shops?
Sadly Riesling is being phased out due to particulate emissions.
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Not necessarily. There are a number of legitimate uses for shell companies. Making donations to politicians from one, is a slightly different matter.
One of them runs a string of petrol stations.
Do they sell Riesling?
And if so, from the pumps or the shops?
Sadly Riesling is being phased out due to particulate emissions.
One of the things I (used to) like to do when driving in England was find a random endangered church from the National Churches Trust and take a detour to go check it out.
They are usually in a sad state, though of course, that’s often the charm.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
In building terms fabric is always known as the building structure no matter how you try to redefine it
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
Since when do pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass and memorial tablets all represent the building structure? They are certainly not the walls of the building
The fabric in building terms relates to foundations, walls, roofs, and anything required for the structural integrity of the building
Anything inside is not termed fabric unless it has a structural purpose
What if the wallpaper is holding the plaster on the wall, which in turn is preventing the wall falling over? Asking for a friend.....
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Just to finish my quick analysis of the Redfield & Wilton numbers, the poll for England only (excluding Don't Knows) has Labour on 50%, the Conservatives on 28% and the LDs on 10%.
That's a swing of 17,5% from Conservative to Labour.
That takes down to the 238th most marginal Conservative seat - Bedfordshire South West - currently held with a majority of 18,583.
The geography of the next election could be fascinating. If England ex-London really is swinging away more from the government than London, Scotland or wales then all the assumptions we have on the new boundaries may be way out.
What is clear is Rishi is more popular in London than Boris now (and in Scotland too so the Tories might save some seats there) and in the bluewall Home Counties but less popular than Boris in the North, the Midlands and Wales and redwall seats. So the latter is where the biggest swing to Labour will be.
The net result is the Tory MPs left will represent much posher areas on average under Rishi than they did under Boris
According to Redfield & Wilton data, the Conservative to Labour swing is 24% in the SE outside London, 19% in the South West and 17% in the East Midlands so perhaps Sunak isn't doing as well as you think in the "Blue Wall" though we do need some more detailed polling before we can form a definitive view.
I said this for years on here, whoever was in government when interest rates finally start to return to more historical norms will get absolutely shellacked at the ballot box.
Although, these days, rump Tory voters tend not to have mortgages.
All this means is that people who might in other times be Tory-curious just ain’t coming back.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
In building terms fabric is always known as the building structure no matter how you try to redefine it
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
Since when do pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass and memorial tablets all represent the building structure? They are certainly not the walls of the building
The fabric in building terms relates to foundations, walls, roofs, and anything required for the structural integrity of the building
Anything inside is not termed fabric unless it has a structural purpose
What if the wallpaper is holding the plaster on the wall, which in turn is preventing the wall falling over? Asking for a friend.....
I doubt it would last long before it did fall over
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Not necessarily. There are a number of legitimate uses for shell companies. Making donations to politicians from one, is a slightly different matter.
One of them runs a string of petrol stations.
Do they sell Riesling?
And if so, from the pumps or the shops?
Sadly Riesling is being phased out due to particulate emissions.
A brilliant exposition of how the art of the con is that the "mark" cons themselves.
I have seen that documentary, its really good.
The moment the pluperfect asshole (since revealed to be a Harvey Weinstein en petite) opens the "genuine" bottle his friend the fraudster sold him.... and the wine expert tells him the truth...
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
In building terms fabric is always known as the building structure no matter how you try to redefine it
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
Since when do pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass and memorial tablets all represent the building structure? They are certainly not the walls of the building
The fabric in building terms relates to foundations, walls, roofs, and anything required for the structural integrity of the building
Anything inside is not termed fabric unless it has a structural purpose
What if the wallpaper is holding the plaster on the wall, which in turn is preventing the wall falling over? Asking for a friend.....
Advise your friend to stay well away from it in case his/her breathing causes a major structural collapse...
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Express: Yvette Cooper, Wes Streeting and Dan Jarvis raked in hundreds of thousands of pounds from MPM Connect Ltd in the past two years. Overall the firm has dished out £345,217 to the three high-profile since February 2020.
MPM Connect has no internet presence and is owned by two low-profile millionaires, Peter Hearn and Simon Murphy.
Details of the colossal individual donations emerged after Sky News and the Tortoise news website launched a new database of MPs' outside earnings and donations.
MPM's company's accounts offer few clues as to what the firm does, although it does note that for the year ending December 2021, "the number of employees during the year was NIL". Its head office is an unremarkable semi-detached house in Broxbourne, Hertfordshire.
Raked in is a judgey way to present things, but it does seem another example of why the rules on donations should be made vastly stricter and simpler - it should be immediately clear who has donated something, since by doing so they are seeking to support or influence a public official. It might be totally above board, but it is clearly hard to find out.
Just as a starter thought - No one person should be able to donate more than £1000, and no one group more than £10,000, per MP (to a maximum of £10,000 or £50,000 total).
Do they need more than that to get by and perform their role effectively? If not, then they don't need it. If they do, then we have big problems since they should not be reliant upon singular large donations from people or groups to operate.
I would be happy for MPs to be paid more or to provide for a basic level of staffing (not sinecures for family members) and sundries to compensate.
Assuming the facts as presented are accurate (and it is the Express, after all), the concern here is that the company making the donations looks like a shell - two directors, no employees, apparently no business activity - which does raise the question as to how and from where the money being paid out to the MPs came in, in the first place.
It is from a Sky investigation they are reporting on all week
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
Anyone using such a shell company has something to hide, and it needs to be exposed. Otherwise corruption should be assumed true.
Not necessarily. There are a number of legitimate uses for shell companies. Making donations to politicians from one, is a slightly different matter.
One of them runs a string of petrol stations.
Do they sell Riesling?
And if so, from the pumps or the shops?
Sadly Riesling is being phased out due to particulate emissions.
A brilliant exposition of how the art of the con is that the "mark" cons themselves.
I have seen that documentary, its really good.
The moment the pluperfect asshole (since revealed to be a Harvey Weinstein en petite) opens the "genuine" bottle his friend the fraudster sold him.... and the wine expert tells him the truth...
It flew under the radar as a doc, which is a shame....which reminds me on the flights past couple of weeks, a podcast called Pretend that has investigated Frank Abagnale (Catch Me If You Can movie fame)...I highly recommend it, the real story is absolutely crazy for all the wrong reasons....the con man is not the con man he pretends to be.
The data in that Opinion MRP suggested that the LibDems have a reasonable potential target list, including a few surprising ones.
The list is a bit suspect since not all the seats will exist next year - I doubt if the LibDems expect an election before the boundary changes. For example, SW Surrey will split into Farnham-based and Godalming based seats. Jeremy Hunt will I suspect take the Farnham one, as the LibDem threat is stronger in the Godalming one.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
In building terms fabric is always known as the building structure no matter how you try to redefine it
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
Since when do pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass and memorial tablets all represent the building structure? They are certainly not the walls of the building
The fabric in building terms relates to foundations, walls, roofs, and anything required for the structural integrity of the building
Anything inside is not termed fabric unless it has a structural purpose
What if the wallpaper is holding the plaster on the wall, which in turn is preventing the wall falling over? Asking for a friend.....
Advise your friend to stay well away from it in case his/her breathing causes a major structural collapse...
It was one of those classics. He had the builders in to do some work. They found stuff. It ended up as gutting the house.
As he put it at one point, they were removing layers of crap. One of the guys, in a whisper, said to the other - "Get *all* the fucking Acrow props. NOW."
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
In building terms fabric is always known as the building structure no matter how you try to redefine it
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
Since when do pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass and memorial tablets all represent the building structure? They are certainly not the walls of the building
The fabric in building terms relates to foundations, walls, roofs, and anything required for the structural integrity of the building
Anything inside is not termed fabric unless it has a structural purpose
What if the wallpaper is holding the plaster on the wall, which in turn is preventing the wall falling over? Asking for a friend.....
I doubt it would last long before it did fall over
In the case I am thinking of, it had stayed up for years. The builders were frank - they had no idea why the back of the house hadn't collapsed.
Our village's Catholic priest has been campaigning for this since he assumed the job. His house (right opposite the church the Anglicans took from us 500 years ago) is now the only building in the village still displaying an external Christmas tree: till last Friday there were dozens.
With Lent almost always starting in February, there's lots of opportunity coming up for giving up booze and doing more exercise than you really need. Why add to the misery of this January by doing all than self-denial sooner than you have to?
Christmas should still end at Ephiphany in my view, otherwise you cross over into Shrove Tuesday and then Lent.
As for Anglicans stealing their pre 16th century churches from the Roman Catholics, I think there is a case for allowing Catholic parishes to use and share village Medieval Anglican churches, especially in more remote rural areas if there is not a big enough Anglican congregation to use them alone for a service every Sunday. That would also reduce cases of ever more rural Church of England parishes being combined, certainly if more than 5 Church of England parishes would be combined otherwise
What is a 'medieval' church? There are plenty of churches where the site has been occupied continuously since the Middle Ages but the building itself is Victorian.
If the building, or at least the majority of the building, is not Medieval then it is not a Medieval Church.
A Medieval church which burnt down for example and was rebuilt by the Victorians is not a Medieval Church even though there may originally have been a church there in Medieval times
In that case there are almost no medieval churches in this country. Most of them even where original features remain the majority of the fabric is eighteenth century or later, especially Victorian.
The fabric of the interior is not the building itself is it. About half of C of E churches, especially in rural areas, are Medieval and taken over from the original Roman Catholic churches at the Reformation, the rest are mainly Stuart, Georgian, Victorian or 20th century
You have no idea what 'fabric' is, have you?
In terms of a Church of England faculty, 'fabric' changes are defined as 'complete renovations of churches, pews and seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
Comments
Is quite interesting - the crypt looks like some archeologists should do some investigating, IMHO
The downside is it leaves a number of potentially winnable seats where Labour might also stake a claim and makes it harder to present the Lib Dems as the obvious challenger there. I am hopeful that the council results this May will clarify things somewhat.
Or is that a quid pro quo for a free run next door in Cheadle?
Sunak replacing Boris is bad news for the LDs overall but good news for Labour in terms of their target seats
Really pleasing to see.
If you asked me to name one church in that area where over 50% of the main structure was medieval I would give you Tewkesbury Abbey and Hereford Cathedral. After that I would be struggling. Even very ancient foundations like Ledbury, Newent, Dursley, Linton, Cirencester, Dymock, Berkeley, Deerhurst and Fairford have been extensively modified since Tudor times.
Edit - this doesn't mean they are not very beautiful and architecturally interesting. Just that they look nothing like they way they did in 1500.
I am thinking of keeping it going.
Happy New Year to everyone and I hope you all had a good festive season.
So for the first time ever I've done my top 10 albums of the year (which will hopefully be of interest to at least a couple of other PB'ers
1. First Aid Kit, Palomino
2. Taylor Swift, Midnights
3. Weyes Blood, And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow
4. Pixies, Doggerel
5. The Big Moon, Here Is Everything
6. Arctic Monkeys, The Car
7. Beabadoobee. Beatopia
8. Muna, Muna
9. Mitski, Laurel Hell
10. Wet Leg, Wet Leg
Just missing out at places 11-13 were Beyonce, Nina Nesbitt, and Tears For Fears, while making up slots 14-21 were Poster Paints, Sharon Van Etten, Foals, Placebo, Muse, George Ezra, Bloc Party, and Rival Consoles.
The first 2023 album is already in the bag, Gabrielle Aplin (and already a likely top 10 of the year for me), Ellie Goulding and Paramore are out in February, and Lana Del Rey and Depeche Mode are released in March. Also awaited are Bat For Lashes, London Grammar, Haim, U2, and potentially PB's favourite, Radiohead.
2023 elections
These are the ones I'll be keeping an eye on (all parliamentary unless shown otherwise), although I'm sure Stodge will probably have a few more:
13-14 January, Czech presidential
2 April, Finland
18 June, Turkey presidential & parliamentary
July, Greece
22 October, Switzerland
29 October, Argentina presidential
Autumn (likely), New Zealand
November, Poland
December, Spain
As with album releases, there will probably be one or two unexpected ones popping up.
Anyway, very best wishes for 2023 to everyone, and prosperous betting!
Many thanks,
DC
Church. C12, C14 and C16 with later additions, restored 1864 (II*)
Church. Early C14 and C15; chancel rebuilt 1860 (I)
Church. C12 south door and chancel arch otherwise mostly C14 and C15. (II*)
Church. C12 origins with C13 nave and north aisle, early C14 south aisle, porch, transepts, tower and spire. (I)
Church. C12, C13, C14 and C15, heavily restored in 1864 (II*)
Church. C12, C13, C14 and C15 (I) - [allegedly where Robin Hood married Maid Marion]
Church. C11 origin, C13, C14 and C15; chancel restored 1872/73 by Sir George Gilbert Scott (I)
Church. C10-Cll and C12 with C14-C16 alterations; restored 1864 (I)
There's definitely a few old churches about...
I guess it does depend what 'restored' means.
Did it last year too apparently.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/jan/09/ex-tory-minister-quits-party-and-lavishes-praise-on-starmer
seating, re-roofing, organs, pulpits, lofts, galleries, stained glass, memorial tablets, churchyards, and
alterations to other building belonging to the church, for instance parsonage houses.'
So in Church terms primarily interior changes and some exterior repairs
https://www.york.ac.uk/media/borthwick/documents/Faculties and other church fabric.pdf
I expect eyebrows were raised when it was revealed Lammy received over £313,000, Cooper £252,000, and Streeting £236,000
Source - Sky news - Westminster Accounts
And don't try to correct me, it was my occupation for 38 years
https://twitter.com/MrBenSellers/status/1612029913397084164
The conservative party should not rejoice at losing supporters, previous or otherwise, and should ask why
It's a view.
A wrong one, as it happens, but a view.
The fabric of a building is the material making up the structure. That's what's used in heritage terms anyway. A faculty, for example, will ask if there is any change to 'the fabric of a building,' meaning the structure of it or the materials in that structure.
If you are right and the dioceses of Hereford, Gloucester, St David's and Lichfield where I have managed faculty applications for heritage projects of one sort or another for the last twenty years are wrong, it would be kind of you to enlighten them.
I like it that way; it gives variation, and respects the natural world - Christmas being placed close to the shortest day, and Easter linked to both the full moon and the equinox.
Tourism and the quotidien world of drudgery would of course prefer a rationalist approach, with Easter always early April, and perhaps Christmas always on a Sunday in late December. (Both to be renamed in honour of Richard Dawkins)
Anyone too close to that gets a bit of a shock...
And if so, from the pumps or the shops?
Probably just buys a slate or a small seal of lead these days.
Rather more for them to big up the opposition so much.
Suggests it would be a defection, were she still an MP.
...I'm thinking they would nod in sad agreement that on *your* definition they have no medieval churches.
Edit - incidentally in most churches those things are in fact part of the structure. In the sense that they are affixed to it, and therefore any changes will affect the aforesaid structure.
About bloody time. Place is falling to bits and a death trap.
And no Hyufd that's not a reference to the leather benches!
The only cases of a Medieval church becoming a Victorian church would be if the original Medieval church completely burnt down or was demolished and a new one was built in its place by the Victorians, like my parents' church
https://speldhurstchurch.org/about/building/history/
If you had hot dinners from the age of 2 years old about 75% of the time, all year round, then you should have had about 21,626 hot dinners.
Have you read at least 21,627 surveyors reports?
Anything inside is not termed fabric unless it has a structural purpose
Getting things going, but we will have Fortnums doing the hampers for the picket lines and the brasiers will be handcrafted from stainless steel 55 gallon drums by a collaboration between a noted Caribbean Calypso drum artist and a bespoke Japanese barbecue maker.
All this means is that people who might in other times be Tory-curious just ain’t coming back.
If you think about why they got so many young voters in 1979, and a pretty good number throughout the 80s, it was because they offered them homes, more opportunity and more freedom.
79 and I have read many thousands of surveyors reports in my time
A brilliant exposition of how the art of the con is that the "mark" cons themselves.
They are usually in a sad state, though of course, that’s often the charm.
Maybe you've had about 4 or 5 times as many hot dinners as surveyors reports that you've read. Still pretty impressive.
You've probably read more surveyors reports than you've had sirloin steak dinners though?
One must specify.
Tennis pros had to pay £150 a match to get their own Hawkeye data (and not allowed to have other peoples).
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tennis/2023/01/09/tennis-data-revolution-can-level-playing-field/
https://www.bigissue.com/opinion/what-an-unnervingly-viral-map-of-housing-data-can-tell-us-about-uk-politics/
and this?
https://twitter.com/undertheraedar/status/1611298314955153410?s=20
Sounds like someone who should be MP for Stroud.
As lunch is usually a sandwich, or a salad, or perhaps sushi, then I’ve probably had reasonably few “hot dinners”.
Lunch is lunch.
As he put it at one point, they were removing layers of crap. One of the guys, in a whisper, said to the other - "Get *all* the fucking Acrow props. NOW."
@YouGov poll.
64% have a negative view of the Duke of Sussex.
26% hold a positive view.
Prince Harry's score among 18-24-year-olds has fallen to 0 (his lowest ever with this age group)
https://twitter.com/CameronDLWalker/status/1612414468851437568?s=20&t=AeK0dzbPqizZeSmico685g