This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
Sweet
But there is quite a climatic difference between Lancashire and london. So maybe it’s just that
It certainly feels like a very nice summer to me. Almost every day is above “the average temp” - and there’s been very few of those miserable rainy weeks when it’s like autumn again
I chose the right summer to stay home. For once
It was also, I would add, a little grey and grizzly in parts in Cornwall. Not enough to spoil a holiday, but we've had better years. Maybe there's an east/west split.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
I've just been off blackberry picking with my daughter.
I then had a swift one, and am now cooking fish fingers for the kids and will shortly put on David Attenborough.
Perfect.
Poor David. I am sure the fish fingers would have been enough.
Why do people “go on holiday” anyway? All that hassle. When it’s lovely here at home
TWATS
Our son, his wife, his 2 daughters and son have just left us (Llandudno) in their campervan with their bicycles attached to the rear bicycle rack to catch the 7.50 am Dover to Calais ferry tomorrow on their journey through Europe to Venice and back over the next two and a half weeks
He is following in his fathers footseps when I drove him, his brother and sister, and my wife to Venice when they were his chidren's ages now
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
Sweet
But there is quite a climatic difference between Lancashire and london. So maybe it’s just that
It certainly feels like a very nice summer to me. Almost every day is above “the average temp” - and there’s been very few of those miserable rainy weeks when it’s like autumn again
I chose the right summer to stay home. For once
It was also, I would add, a little grey and grizzly in parts in Cornwall. Not enough to spoil a holiday, but we've had better years. Maybe there's an east/west split.
There has, but not that way. The Met Office stats for July show the SW and South Wales were the driest regions in the UK vs average.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
When Farage is PM every day will be like 1950s England.
Rationing, smog, hangings, power cuts, conscription. Looking forward to it.
How you've got the warped idea into your head that it's Farage's way that leads to power cuts is almost a masterpiece of self-deception.
I didn't. You read far too much into my post. It was just a bit of humour re the reference to taking us back to the 50s. Not sure why you picked on just power cuts either, unless you think he will bring back rationing, hanging, smog and conscription. I don't think he will, but you now have me worried that you didn't challenge those as well. I mean power cuts is the least dramatic of that list.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
The trouble with temperature averages is that, while we remember the warm sunny days they can be balanced by cool clear nights. A day with a maximum of 26deg and a night minimum of 8deg will have the same average as a day with a maximum of 20deg and a minimum of 14deg. If I had the time and the inclination I would compare the daily maxima between 1976 and 2025. I suspect 2025 will still be warmer than 1976, but significantly more humid. So now we need to compare wet bulb temperatures.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
On the topic of summer 2025, it’s been pretty hot in Europe too, after the warmest spring on record.
I’ve just left our house in Burgundy after a couple of weeks’ holiday. Last 4 days have been 34, 36, 37 and 35C, but the following week promises - according to the latest models - 36, 40, 39, 37, 36, 34, 32.
The whole region is browned to a crisp. The wine harvest is planned for the 3rd week of August! No cicadas yet in our little corner of the Clunysois but they’ve been creeping up the Saone valley and have been heard a few times trilling away in the trees in Mâcon.
Scottish seasons. Mid May to Mid June - spring. Mid to end June - summer. July and August - monsoon season (coinciding with the school holidays). September - autumn. October to mid May - winter.
Scottish seasons. Mid May to Mid June - spring. Mid to end June - summer. July and August - monsoon season (coinciding with the school holidays). September - autumn. October to mid May - winter.
Weirdly I think August is generally now consistently a worse month than September for Scottish weather.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
In England
Yes, the Central England temperature record is in England.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
And, it will probably be one of the coolest years this century.
Scottish seasons. Mid May to Mid June - spring. Mid to end June - summer. July and August - monsoon season (coinciding with the school holidays). September - autumn. October to mid May - winter.
Weirdly I think August is generally now consistently a worse month than September for Scottish weather.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
When Farage is PM every day will be like 1950s England.
Rationing, smog, hangings, power cuts, conscription. Looking forward to it.
How you've got the warped idea into your head that it's Farage's way that leads to power cuts is almost a masterpiece of self-deception.
I didn't. You read far too much into my post. It was just a bit of humour re the reference to taking us back to the 50s. Not sure why you picked on just power cuts either, unless you think he will bring back rationing, hanging, smog and conscription. I don't think he will, but you now have me worried that you didn't challenge those as well. I mean power cuts is the least dramatic of that list.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
When Farage is PM every day will be like 1950s England.
Rationing, smog, hangings, power cuts, conscription. Looking forward to it.
How you've got the warped idea into your head that it's Farage's way that leads to power cuts is almost a masterpiece of self-deception.
I didn't. You read far too much into my post. It was just a bit of humour re the reference to taking us back to the 50s. Not sure why you picked on just power cuts either, unless you think he will bring back rationing, hanging, smog and conscription. I don't think he will, but you now have me worried that you didn't challenge those as well. I mean power cuts is the least dramatic of that list.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
In England
Yes, the Central England temperature record is in England.
Compared to average Scotland did equally well as England in July. The average is the problem.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
The trouble with temperature averages is that, while we remember the warm sunny days they can be balanced by cool clear nights. A day with a maximum of 26deg and a night minimum of 8deg will have the same average as a day with a maximum of 20deg and a minimum of 14deg. If I had the time and the inclination I would compare the daily maxima between 1976 and 2025. I suspect 2025 will still be warmer than 1976, but significantly more humid. So now we need to compare wet bulb temperatures.
The mean maximum anomaly for most of the UK this summer so far has been warmer than the mean temperature or mean minimum. So it’s been a summer of very warm days and not quite so exceptional nights.
My own vineyard stats bear that out. A number of pretty cool night minima.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
"Lashings of"?
I have blackberries everywhere, just on a close by estate within a mile or so where I sometimes walk or cycle.
Quite interesting - spin it round and there's a wild bit which has been built on since Google came that way in 2009. The other one was like that before. Now the Council do the grass in area for flowers and wildlife - it saves money not cutting it all.
That's how they handled all the public footpaths that were here before, quite respectfully making it attractive- it used to be fields and skylarks in the 1970s when I was at primary school in the area. They all have hawthorns, sloes and blackberries on both sides and there are miles of it.
(Yes that anti-wheelchair barrier is on the target list, as are the lack of drop kerbs. That should have been planning conditions, but there is neither the resource to be thorough, or the resource to enforce, or the expertise to drive good practice everywhere. So it is all compromised to a degree.)
Ministers have “lost track” of more than 150,000 migrants who have come to the UK on social care visas, The Telegraph can disclose.
The Government has admitted it has no idea how many foreign workers hired to plug gaps in Britain’s crisis-hit social care system are still working in the industry. It is not even known if they remain in the UK, as there is no official data directly linking visa status with ongoing residence in Britain.
Another Conservative inheritance. Why did the Tories talk so much about immigration while doing so little?
It's a great question. They could hardly have rolled a better pitch for Farage if they had been working for him.
Starmer is benefiting from falling net migration to the UK due to the tighter visa wage requirements and restrictions on dependents, including for social care workers, Sunak and Cleverly brought in. Even Boris ended EEA free movement.
Foreign workers brought in to work in social care and fill a vacancy for a social care job were also here legally, there is no requirement they have to always work in social care
Scottish seasons. Mid May to Mid June - spring. Mid to end June - summer. July and August - monsoon season (coinciding with the school holidays). September - autumn. October to mid May - winter.
I think you've mistaken yearly months for daily hours. I still think the difference between summer and winter in Scotland is that in summer you can see the rain at night, as well as during the day.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
In England
Yes, the Central England temperature record is in England.
Compared to average Scotland did equally well as England in July. The average is the problem.
Some people don't like the heat and would be happy to summer in Scotland which has temperatures in southern England now closer to what used to be Mediterranean temperatures now frequently in June and July and August.
The Mediterranean though is too hot to do much in the summer now bar stay by the pool and aircon, with close to 40 degree North Africa and Middle East temperatures regularly
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
I just bought a handsome William IV mahogany table for £129
wtf. A friend tells me “antique prices have collapsed”. “Especially for old brown stuff”
Is this true? It seems true from this deal
OTOH I might get it and find it collapses on arrival
Yes, for quite a long time.
It's also driven by large furniture and houses getting smaller, and fashion.
Mum and dad were in a 5000sqft former manor house for their last 40 years, of which restoration took 25 years. They had at least 3 full size (8 person) dining tables from relatives, and had amassed a collection of Guy Rogers 1960s Manhattan teak furniture of 3 full size double bed converting sofas, and about 9 chairs, as old friends moved to smaller houses - different period, same principle.
Estate sales of boomers (OK: former boomers) are one place to be.
Big and brown has been difficult to give away for a long time.
When the LAB LEAKED covid killed my mother I burned most of her antique furniture in the paddock of her house in North Yorks because getting rid of it was such a tiresome pain in the dick. There is literally no way to get rid of a massive 300kg 18th C. Flemish oak wardrobe other than burning it.
We've been clearing my late MIL's house most of the year, it seems never ending. Most of the furniture has gone to charity. Attempts to sell stuff online have not really been worth the hassle. Problems like the 4 piece suite which doesn't have fire certificates on it (meaning charities will not trust it) have had us pulling our hair out. . Dinning room table with 6 matching chairs, crockery sideboards, glass cabinets, we literally cannot give them away.
We did ours via an auction house - they took all the stuff we did not want as a package, sold the good and the rest went to a charity they worked with for the purpose.
We ended up with about 3k, but it was 3 decent sized vans of furniture - so low prices.
And there was a gorgeous 1880s mirror backed sideboard which was about 8ft long and 8ft high, with arts and crafts decoration, but which just would not fit in a modern house and would need to go to the type of house for which it was made.
Most people will come across this problem sometime. The game ought to have rules.
Rule 1: Price is what you can get.There is no other measure. Madness follows if you overlook this. Rule 2: It is massively in the public interest that Local Authorities have a statutory duty to collect and dispose of otherwise impossible items from domestic premises at no or small charge. (This prevents fly tipping). Rule 3: What you can get depends on whether you want to make getting maximum price your full time job for an indefinite period. This especially applies to books. Rule 4: The piano should never have been invented. It should be a criminal offence to try to own a grand piano. Rule 5: No-one ever moves house/clears a house without leaving behind at least one piece of unfinished business.
I have had several friends say that they were reduced almost to tears when doing house clearance for their late parents, items of furniture and china that their parents really treasured and were convinced were worth a lot went for peanuts at auction because currently they are not fashionable.
When my old dad finally died his house on S.Harris was full of brown furniture from my then recently deceased gran. Out of sentimental attachment we spent quite a lot on transporting it back to the mainland, even then we were aware it wasn’t really financially sensible. Ironically there was quite a lot of modular Ercol furniture bought from the previous owner (widow of the retired head of SOE as it happens) which we left for the new owner, it would be worth a handy chunk of money now.
Ercol is definitely popular, including with younger generation. Has a bit of that Scandi design shtick abiut it. And it fits!
OTOH you simply cannot give away pianos, as am discovering with a perfectly nice upright that I'm trying to find a home for. Depressing really.
I think charity shops refuse to take exercise bikes.
Where have the saddles been?
Presumably; but they don't take underwear that's not in its original packaging, etc.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
Only with the boost of North Sea oil, though. Any fool could do a lot with North Sea oil money.
No sovereign wealth fund, either. Compare and contrast: Norway.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
"Lashings of"?
I have blackberries everywhere, just on a close by estate within a mile or so where I sometimes walk or cycle.
Quite interesting - spin it round and there's a wild bit which has been built on since Google came that way in 2009. The other one was like that before. Now the Council do the grass in area for flowers and wildlife - it saves money not cutting it all.
That's how they handled all the public footpaths that were here before, quite respectfully making it attractive- it used to be fields and skylarks in the 1970s when I was at primary school in the area. They all have hawthorns, sloes and blackberries on both sides and there are miles of it.
(Yes that anti-wheelchair barrier is on the target list, as are the lack of drop kerbs. That should have been planning conditions, but there is neither the resource to be thorough, or the resource to enforce, or the expertise to drive good practice everywhere. So it is all compromised to a degree.)
I've picked oodles of blackberries this year and the slor crop looks huge as well. Waiting a few weeks before picking them.
I have also picked a lot of mulberries for the first time this year and the medlar tree looks full of fruit. Expect to pick them in November.
I just bought a handsome William IV mahogany table for £129
wtf. A friend tells me “antique prices have collapsed”. “Especially for old brown stuff”
Is this true? It seems true from this deal
OTOH I might get it and find it collapses on arrival
Yes, for quite a long time.
It's also driven by large furniture and houses getting smaller, and fashion.
Mum and dad were in a 5000sqft former manor house for their last 40 years, of which restoration took 25 years. They had at least 3 full size (8 person) dining tables from relatives, and had amassed a collection of Guy Rogers 1960s Manhattan teak furniture of 3 full size double bed converting sofas, and about 9 chairs, as old friends moved to smaller houses - different period, same principle.
Estate sales of boomers (OK: former boomers) are one place to be.
Big and brown has been difficult to give away for a long time.
When the LAB LEAKED covid killed my mother I burned most of her antique furniture in the paddock of her house in North Yorks because getting rid of it was such a tiresome pain in the dick. There is literally no way to get rid of a massive 300kg 18th C. Flemish oak wardrobe other than burning it.
We've been clearing my late MIL's house most of the year, it seems never ending. Most of the furniture has gone to charity. Attempts to sell stuff online have not really been worth the hassle. Problems like the 4 piece suite which doesn't have fire certificates on it (meaning charities will not trust it) have had us pulling our hair out. . Dinning room table with 6 matching chairs, crockery sideboards, glass cabinets, we literally cannot give them away.
We did ours via an auction house - they took all the stuff we did not want as a package, sold the good and the rest went to a charity they worked with for the purpose.
We ended up with about 3k, but it was 3 decent sized vans of furniture - so low prices.
And there was a gorgeous 1880s mirror backed sideboard which was about 8ft long and 8ft high, with arts and crafts decoration, but which just would not fit in a modern house and would need to go to the type of house for which it was made.
Most people will come across this problem sometime. The game ought to have rules.
Rule 1: Price is what you can get.There is no other measure. Madness follows if you overlook this. Rule 2: It is massively in the public interest that Local Authorities have a statutory duty to collect and dispose of otherwise impossible items from domestic premises at no or small charge. (This prevents fly tipping). Rule 3: What you can get depends on whether you want to make getting maximum price your full time job for an indefinite period. This especially applies to books. Rule 4: The piano should never have been invented. It should be a criminal offence to try to own a grand piano. Rule 5: No-one ever moves house/clears a house without leaving behind at least one piece of unfinished business.
I have had several friends say that they were reduced almost to tears when doing house clearance for their late parents, items of furniture and china that their parents really treasured and were convinced were worth a lot went for peanuts at auction because currently they are not fashionable.
When my old dad finally died his house on S.Harris was full of brown furniture from my then recently deceased gran. Out of sentimental attachment we spent quite a lot on transporting it back to the mainland, even then we were aware it wasn’t really financially sensible. Ironically there was quite a lot of modular Ercol furniture bought from the previous owner (widow of the retired head of SOE as it happens) which we left for the new owner, it would be worth a handy chunk of money now.
Ercol is definitely popular, including with younger generation. Has a bit of that Scandi design shtick abiut it. And it fits!
OTOH you simply cannot give away pianos, as am discovering with a perfectly nice upright that I'm trying to find a home for. Depressing really.
I think charity shops refuse to take exercise bikes.
Where have the saddles been?
Presumably; but they don't take underwear that's not in its original packaging, etc.
Is an exercise bike from a private home (say max 5 sweaty arses on it over a number of months/years) worse than going to the gym (hundreds of sweaty arsed every day)?
Been quite a dry summer over here in the east. Had a few downpours with thunder and lightning but that's about it - been out with the hose looking after the plants for several weeks now.
I spent a week in Cumbria and didn't get much rain at all. Bizarre - usually a wet part of the world.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
She increased considerably the wealth generation but also internationalised it. Ultimately she created a serf country with British workers competing with inward migration workers for smaller wages to generate larger and larger wealth for foreign nationals living in Dubai. It's anti-British.
[Amanda] Clare was a member of the Labour Party when she was first elected in Winsford Dene ward in 2019, but left in March 2022 to join the Socialist Labour Party.
She then became a member of the Party of Women, before joining the Winsford Salt of the Earth Party, ultimately settling as an Independent in July 2024.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
Only with the boost of North Sea oil, though. Any fool could do a lot with North Sea oil money.
No sovereign wealth fund, either. Compare and contrast: Norway.
Yes and no. Compare Norways population vs Britains population. Spreads the sovereign wealth a lot more thinly.
Thatcher wanted the country to live within its means, not to destroy its industry try. She wanted to kill inflation and the country suffered to achieve it, but then the good times came again. Thatcher is a demon for many on the left, so much so that they ignore cold, hard facts and hang on their narrative. It’s comfort ting, but someone had to break the union dinosaurs of the seventies.
I just bought a handsome William IV mahogany table for £129
wtf. A friend tells me “antique prices have collapsed”. “Especially for old brown stuff”
Is this true? It seems true from this deal
OTOH I might get it and find it collapses on arrival
Yes, for quite a long time.
It's also driven by large furniture and houses getting smaller, and fashion.
Mum and dad were in a 5000sqft former manor house for their last 40 years, of which restoration took 25 years. They had at least 3 full size (8 person) dining tables from relatives, and had amassed a collection of Guy Rogers 1960s Manhattan teak furniture of 3 full size double bed converting sofas, and about 9 chairs, as old friends moved to smaller houses - different period, same principle.
Estate sales of boomers (OK: former boomers) are one place to be.
Big and brown has been difficult to give away for a long time.
When the LAB LEAKED covid killed my mother I burned most of her antique furniture in the paddock of her house in North Yorks because getting rid of it was such a tiresome pain in the dick. There is literally no way to get rid of a massive 300kg 18th C. Flemish oak wardrobe other than burning it.
We've been clearing my late MIL's house most of the year, it seems never ending. Most of the furniture has gone to charity. Attempts to sell stuff online have not really been worth the hassle. Problems like the 4 piece suite which doesn't have fire certificates on it (meaning charities will not trust it) have had us pulling our hair out. . Dinning room table with 6 matching chairs, crockery sideboards, glass cabinets, we literally cannot give them away.
We did ours via an auction house - they took all the stuff we did not want as a package, sold the good and the rest went to a charity they worked with for the purpose.
We ended up with about 3k, but it was 3 decent sized vans of furniture - so low prices.
And there was a gorgeous 1880s mirror backed sideboard which was about 8ft long and 8ft high, with arts and crafts decoration, but which just would not fit in a modern house and would need to go to the type of house for which it was made.
Most people will come across this problem sometime. The game ought to have rules.
Rule 1: Price is what you can get.There is no other measure. Madness follows if you overlook this. Rule 2: It is massively in the public interest that Local Authorities have a statutory duty to collect and dispose of otherwise impossible items from domestic premises at no or small charge. (This prevents fly tipping). Rule 3: What you can get depends on whether you want to make getting maximum price your full time job for an indefinite period. This especially applies to books. Rule 4: The piano should never have been invented. It should be a criminal offence to try to own a grand piano. Rule 5: No-one ever moves house/clears a house without leaving behind at least one piece of unfinished business.
I have had several friends say that they were reduced almost to tears when doing house clearance for their late parents, items of furniture and china that their parents really treasured and were convinced were worth a lot went for peanuts at auction because currently they are not fashionable.
When my old dad finally died his house on S.Harris was full of brown furniture from my then recently deceased gran. Out of sentimental attachment we spent quite a lot on transporting it back to the mainland, even then we were aware it wasn’t really financially sensible. Ironically there was quite a lot of modular Ercol furniture bought from the previous owner (widow of the retired head of SOE as it happens) which we left for the new owner, it would be worth a handy chunk of money now.
Ercol is definitely popular, including with younger generation. Has a bit of that Scandi design shtick abiut it. And it fits!
OTOH you simply cannot give away pianos, as am discovering with a perfectly nice upright that I'm trying to find a home for. Depressing really.
I think charity shops refuse to take exercise bikes.
Where have the saddles been?
Presumably; but they don't take underwear that's not in its original packaging, etc.
It probably depend on the exercise bike. They are shrewd.
Offer them a Schwinn and they will take it - it will probably go on Ebay for several hundred.
[Amanda] Clare was a member of the Labour Party when she was first elected in Winsford Dene ward in 2019, but left in March 2022 to join the Socialist Labour Party.
She then became a member of the Party of Women, before joining the Winsford Salt of the Earth Party, ultimately settling as an Independent in July 2024.
Been quite a dry summer over here in the east. Had a few downpours with thunder and lightning but that's about it - been out with the hose looking after the plants for several weeks now.
I spent a week in Cumbria and didn't get much rain at all. Bizarre - usually a wet part of the world.
Different in the West of Scotland. Haven’t needed to water the garden for weeks and the reservoirs are all full.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
You trot your last paragraph out all the time. Small economic pits were replaced by Superpits. This was an extension of the late Tory Government of 1951 to 64. My Grandfather worked at Carway Colliery. This closed on economic grounds and all the men went to the Cynheidre Superpit.
I almost mentioned that Thatcher did replace manufacturing production with the City of London. I don't believe that was a great trade off.
The Nissan example was a unique success, and a result of us being within the EU. Thatcher attracted all sorts of Japanese production particularly Panasonic, Sony, Aiwa and a number of other names checked in an early Sean Thomas novel. All now closed!
Been quite a dry summer over here in the east. Had a few downpours with thunder and lightning but that's about it - been out with the hose looking after the plants for several weeks now.
I spent a week in Cumbria and didn't get much rain at all. Bizarre - usually a wet part of the world.
My wife’s first visit to a place will usually result in dry sunny weather, which she believes is typical for said place. Subsequent trips revert to the mean, and this has been the case for the lakes and Scotland on several occasions.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
In England
Yes, the Central England temperature record is in England.
Compared to average Scotland did equally well as England in July. The average is the problem.
Some people don't like the heat and would be happy to summer in Scotland which has temperatures in southern England now closer to what used to be Mediterranean temperatures now frequently in June and July and August.
The Mediterranean though is too hot to do much in the summer now bar stay by the pool and aircon, with close to 40 degree North Africa and Middle East temperatures regularly
Yes. I have now felt this two summers in a row
It is surely subjective but last summer I was in Provence with my older daughter and it was consistently close to, or even over 40C and it was HIDEOUS
It was great when we fled north to l'Aveyron
I have just been to Tavira, the Algarve, staying at a friend's beautiful loaned house. But there was no pool. It was too hot to do ANYTHING until about 8pm. I stayed indoors in the aircon and worked
Where's the fun in that?
The Med is a bit screwed in terms of July-August holidays.They aren't fun any more
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
Only with the boost of North Sea oil, though. Any fool could do a lot with North Sea oil money.
No sovereign wealth fund, either. Compare and contrast: Norway.
I remember Eddie George making a bit of a slip about the north/south fall out of the 80s/90s policies, then a frantic effort to dodge it by the treasury.
Jeez - there's still hints of it on ye olde BBC news site in fact :
"George attracted controversy in 1998 when he was widely reported to have made a statement to London newspaper executives implying that unemployment in the north of England was a price worth paying to preserve affluence in the south of the country. He later claimed that his remarks had been misconstrued."
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
"Lashings of"?
I have blackberries everywhere, just on a close by estate within a mile or so where I sometimes walk or cycle.
Quite interesting - spin it round and there's a wild bit which has been built on since Google came that way in 2009. The other one was like that before. Now the Council do the grass in area for flowers and wildlife - it saves money not cutting it all.
That's how they handled all the public footpaths that were here before, quite respectfully making it attractive- it used to be fields and skylarks in the 1970s when I was at primary school in the area. They all have hawthorns, sloes and blackberries on both sides and there are miles of it.
(Yes that anti-wheelchair barrier is on the target list, as are the lack of drop kerbs. That should have been planning conditions, but there is neither the resource to be thorough, or the resource to enforce, or the expertise to drive good practice everywhere. So it is all compromised to a degree.)
I've picked oodles of blackberries this year and the slor crop looks huge as well. Waiting a few weeks before picking them.
I have also picked a lot of mulberries for the first time this year and the medlar tree looks full of fruit. Expect to pick them in November.
While we're on fruit, we have about 300 plums on our tree. At least one bough has grown so laden with fruit that the tree can no longer support its weight and it has snapped off ( though I have attempted to reattach with gaffer tape). Various branches are propped up with wooden stakes. Middle daughter is planning on making jam [and here we break from the 1950s] to raise funds for her voluntary work trip to Cambodia in a couple of years.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
You trot your last paragraph out all the time. Small economic pits were replaced by Superpits. This was an extension of the late Tory Government of 1951 to 64. My Grandfather worked at Carway Colliery. This closed on economic grounds and all the men went to the Cynheidre Superpit.
I almost mentioned that Thatcher did replace manufacturing production with the City of London. I don't believe that was a great trade off.
The Nissan example was a unique success, and a result of us being within the EU. Thatcher attracted all sorts of Japanese production particularly Panasonic, Sony, Aiwa and a number of other names checked in an early Sean Thomas novel. All now closed!
Quite right re the mines. Tiddly little partly worked out ones were replaced en masse by a very few superpits hereabouts. It's a process I well remember from when I were younger. The superpits were really impressive.
[Amanda] Clare was a member of the Labour Party when she was first elected in Winsford Dene ward in 2019, but left in March 2022 to join the Socialist Labour Party.
She then became a member of the Party of Women, before joining the Winsford Salt of the Earth Party, ultimately settling as an Independent in July 2024.
She joined Reform UK in March this year.
That's quite old now. And has taken some time to come to court.
The incident was in June, and there's (not very conclusive) video. I don't see anything on a security guard. Perhaps it was "asked to leave and refused" - like the silent pray-ers .
I just bought a handsome William IV mahogany table for £129
wtf. A friend tells me “antique prices have collapsed”. “Especially for old brown stuff”
Is this true? It seems true from this deal
OTOH I might get it and find it collapses on arrival
Yes, for quite a long time.
It's also driven by large furniture and houses getting smaller, and fashion.
Mum and dad were in a 5000sqft former manor house for their last 40 years, of which restoration took 25 years. They had at least 3 full size (8 person) dining tables from relatives, and had amassed a collection of Guy Rogers 1960s Manhattan teak furniture of 3 full size double bed converting sofas, and about 9 chairs, as old friends moved to smaller houses - different period, same principle.
Estate sales of boomers (OK: former boomers) are one place to be.
Big and brown has been difficult to give away for a long time.
When the LAB LEAKED covid killed my mother I burned most of her antique furniture in the paddock of her house in North Yorks because getting rid of it was such a tiresome pain in the dick. There is literally no way to get rid of a massive 300kg 18th C. Flemish oak wardrobe other than burning it.
We've been clearing my late MIL's house most of the year, it seems never ending. Most of the furniture has gone to charity. Attempts to sell stuff online have not really been worth the hassle. Problems like the 4 piece suite which doesn't have fire certificates on it (meaning charities will not trust it) have had us pulling our hair out. . Dinning room table with 6 matching chairs, crockery sideboards, glass cabinets, we literally cannot give them away.
We did ours via an auction house - they took all the stuff we did not want as a package, sold the good and the rest went to a charity they worked with for the purpose.
We ended up with about 3k, but it was 3 decent sized vans of furniture - so low prices.
And there was a gorgeous 1880s mirror backed sideboard which was about 8ft long and 8ft high, with arts and crafts decoration, but which just would not fit in a modern house and would need to go to the type of house for which it was made.
Most people will come across this problem sometime. The game ought to have rules.
Rule 1: Price is what you can get.There is no other measure. Madness follows if you overlook this. Rule 2: It is massively in the public interest that Local Authorities have a statutory duty to collect and dispose of otherwise impossible items from domestic premises at no or small charge. (This prevents fly tipping). Rule 3: What you can get depends on whether you want to make getting maximum price your full time job for an indefinite period. This especially applies to books. Rule 4: The piano should never have been invented. It should be a criminal offence to try to own a grand piano. Rule 5: No-one ever moves house/clears a house without leaving behind at least one piece of unfinished business.
I have had several friends say that they were reduced almost to tears when doing house clearance for their late parents, items of furniture and china that their parents really treasured and were convinced were worth a lot went for peanuts at auction because currently they are not fashionable.
When my old dad finally died his house on S.Harris was full of brown furniture from my then recently deceased gran. Out of sentimental attachment we spent quite a lot on transporting it back to the mainland, even then we were aware it wasn’t really financially sensible. Ironically there was quite a lot of modular Ercol furniture bought from the previous owner (widow of the retired head of SOE as it happens) which we left for the new owner, it would be worth a handy chunk of money now.
Ercol is definitely popular, including with younger generation. Has a bit of that Scandi design shtick abiut it. And it fits!
OTOH you simply cannot give away pianos, as am discovering with a perfectly nice upright that I'm trying to find a home for. Depressing really.
I think charity shops refuse to take exercise bikes.
Where have the saddles been?
Presumably; but they don't take underwear that's not in its original packaging, etc.
Is an exercise bike from a private home (say max 5 sweaty arses on it over a number of months/years) worse than going to the gym (hundreds of sweaty arsed every day)?
Well, I wouldn't know. *I* don't go to gyms to catch crotch crickets, intimate fungus, etc.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
I think you're seeing the pre-1979 period through rose-tinted spectacles (oddly, the same charge that gets levelled at Reform supporters).
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
"Lashings of"?
I have blackberries everywhere, just on a close by estate within a mile or so where I sometimes walk or cycle.
Quite interesting - spin it round and there's a wild bit which has been built on since Google came that way in 2009. The other one was like that before. Now the Council do the grass in area for flowers and wildlife - it saves money not cutting it all.
That's how they handled all the public footpaths that were here before, quite respectfully making it attractive- it used to be fields and skylarks in the 1970s when I was at primary school in the area. They all have hawthorns, sloes and blackberries on both sides and there are miles of it.
(Yes that anti-wheelchair barrier is on the target list, as are the lack of drop kerbs. That should have been planning conditions, but there is neither the resource to be thorough, or the resource to enforce, or the expertise to drive good practice everywhere. So it is all compromised to a degree.)
I've picked oodles of blackberries this year and the slor crop looks huge as well. Waiting a few weeks before picking them.
I have also picked a lot of mulberries for the first time this year and the medlar tree looks full of fruit. Expect to pick them in November.
While we're on fruit, we have about 300 plums on our tree. At least one bough has grown so laden with fruit that the tree can no longer support its weight and it has snapped off ( though I have attempted to reattach with gaffer tape). Various branches are propped up with wooden stakes. Middle daughter is planning on making jam [and here we break from the 1950s] to raise funds for her voluntary work trip to Cambodia in a couple of years.
The amount of fruit, this year, has been staggering.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
You trot your last paragraph out all the time. Small economic pits were replaced by Superpits. This was an extension of the late Tory Government of 1951 to 64. My Grandfather worked at Carway Colliery. This closed on economic grounds and all the men went to the Cynheidre Superpit.
I almost mentioned that Thatcher did replace manufacturing production with the City of London. I don't believe that was a great trade off.
The Nissan example was a unique success, and a result of us being within the EU. Thatcher attracted all sorts of Japanese production particularly Panasonic, Sony, Aiwa and a number of other names checked in an early Sean Thomas novel. All now closed!
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
Only with the boost of North Sea oil, though. Any fool could do a lot with North Sea oil money.
No sovereign wealth fund, either. Compare and contrast: Norway.
Yes and no. Compare Norways population vs Britains population. Spreads the sovereign wealth a lot more thinly.
Thatcher wanted the country to live within its means, not to destroy its industry try. She wanted to kill inflation and the country suffered to achieve it, but then the good times came again. Thatcher is a demon for many on the left, so much so that they ignore cold, hard facts and hang on their narrative. It’s comfort ting, but someone had to break the union dinosaurs of the seventies.
Compare Norway's population with Scotland, though ... and Scotland caught a lot of the Thatcher flak.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
In England
Yes, the Central England temperature record is in England.
Compared to average Scotland did equally well as England in July. The average is the problem.
Some people don't like the heat and would be happy to summer in Scotland which has temperatures in southern England now closer to what used to be Mediterranean temperatures now frequently in June and July and August.
The Mediterranean though is too hot to do much in the summer now bar stay by the pool and aircon, with close to 40 degree North Africa and Middle East temperatures regularly
Yes. I have now felt this two summers in a row
It is surely subjective but last summer I was in Provence with my older daughter and it was consistently close to, or even over 40C and it was HIDEOUS
It was great when we fled north to l'Aveyron
I have just been to Tavira, the Algarve, staying at a friend's beautiful loaned house. But there was no pool. It was too hot to do ANYTHING until about 8pm. I stayed indoors in the aircon and worked
Where's the fun in that?
The Med is a bit screwed in terms of July-August holidays.They aren't fun any more
Agree. I am not someone who likes it hot and I don't like the crowds hence I holiday in April/May/June/September/October. Hence going to the Algarve in late September, France in early September and Italy and Spain earlier in the year.
I thought your friend was a billionaire. What on earth is he/she doing without a pool in the Algarve.
As a pro flint knapper and part time pro travel writer, I would no longer recommend a Med holiday in July August. Simple as that
Go to:
Northern Portugal Galicia Inland Basque Country Upland southern France (the Cevennes, Aveyron) Far Southern Brittany Slovenian Alps Higher slopes of Alpine Italy Zagoriou mountains of Greece Iceland Greenland Suffolk
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
You trot your last paragraph out all the time. Small economic pits were replaced by Superpits. This was an extension of the late Tory Government of 1951 to 64. My Grandfather worked at Carway Colliery. This closed on economic grounds and all the men went to the Cynheidre Superpit.
I almost mentioned that Thatcher did replace manufacturing production with the City of London. I don't believe that was a great trade off.
The Nissan example was a unique success, and a result of us being within the EU. Thatcher attracted all sorts of Japanese production particularly Panasonic, Sony, Aiwa and a number of other names checked in an early Sean Thomas novel. All now closed!
So, the point still stands.
The UK did not lead in manufacturing production in the 1970s either, Germany did and at least she ensured manufacturing wasn't being destroyed by union militancy as was the case at Leyland etc.
By 1990 the City of London was the main western financial centre rival to NYC and a global city, in the 1970s London was not only well behind NYC but also Paris and Tokyo
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
You trot your last paragraph out all the time. Small economic pits were replaced by Superpits. This was an extension of the late Tory Government of 1951 to 64. My Grandfather worked at Carway Colliery. This closed on economic grounds and all the men went to the Cynheidre Superpit.
I almost mentioned that Thatcher did replace manufacturing production with the City of London. I don't believe that was a great trade off.
The Nissan example was a unique success, and a result of us being within the EU. Thatcher attracted all sorts of Japanese production particularly Panasonic, Sony, Aiwa and a number of other names checked in an early Sean Thomas novel. All now closed!
Manufacturing output, in 1997, was well above the level in 1979. It only levelled off, after 2000.
But, yes, far fewer people were employed in coal mining, and that is a good thing.
[Amanda] Clare was a member of the Labour Party when she was first elected in Winsford Dene ward in 2019, but left in March 2022 to join the Socialist Labour Party.
She then became a member of the Party of Women, before joining the Winsford Salt of the Earth Party, ultimately settling as an Independent in July 2024.
She joined Reform UK in March this year.
That's quite old now. And has taken some time to come to court.
The incident was in June, and there's (not very conclusive) video. I don't see anything on a security guard. Perhaps it was "asked to leave and refused" - like the silent pray-ers .
What we can state without prejudicing a trial: This is a Reform councillor who tweets under the name "MandyClareTERF" and showed up at a pride event, where a disturbance happened, after which she was escorted out of by security and charged by the police with assault and criminal damage.
What we can infer, both from the above, and the extant social media posts around the event, might be more than what is stated - but I will refrain from commenting further until after the trial, as I would advise all others to do.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
In England
Yes, the Central England temperature record is in England.
Compared to average Scotland did equally well as England in July. The average is the problem.
Some people don't like the heat and would be happy to summer in Scotland which has temperatures in southern England now closer to what used to be Mediterranean temperatures now frequently in June and July and August.
The Mediterranean though is too hot to do much in the summer now bar stay by the pool and aircon, with close to 40 degree North Africa and Middle East temperatures regularly
Yes. I have now felt this two summers in a row
It is surely subjective but last summer I was in Provence with my older daughter and it was consistently close to, or even over 40C and it was HIDEOUS
It was great when we fled north to l'Aveyron
I have just been to Tavira, the Algarve, staying at a friend's beautiful loaned house. But there was no pool. It was too hot to do ANYTHING until about 8pm. I stayed indoors in the aircon and worked
Where's the fun in that?
The Med is a bit screwed in terms of July-August holidays.They aren't fun any more
Yes, may as well holiday in Cornwall, Devon, Scotland, Suffolk, Norfolk, Brittany, Normandy, Blackpool, Pembrokeshire, Dorset, Margate etc in the summer and take a Mediterranean break in the spring or autumn if you can afford that as well.
The woman in Roger's video is rather terrifying, but the basic point that the current conflict is a PR disaster for Israel is sound.
However, I don't see a future for Gaza as a Palestinian enclave surrounded on all sides by Israel, and I am not sure it's worth saving. It isn't good for Israel, and it's not great for the Palestinians in it.
More and more, I am convinced that a policy of getting behind a Palestinian State in the West Bank, moving the Gazans there, and moving the settlers out, is a just and sustainable solution.
Israel gets integrity as a state, with borders it can defend and control. The Gazans get a new start and to live under a more legitimate Government. The Palestinians get a proper state. The settlers get a place to live within Israel or the new Gaza - there's churn. They don't get to settle the West Bank but they knew what they were getting into when they moved there. They will probably burn the settlements rather than give them to Palestinians, but so be it.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
She increased considerably the wealth generation but also internationalised it. Ultimately she created a serf country with British workers competing with inward migration workers for smaller wages to generate larger and larger wealth for foreign nationals living in Dubai. It's anti-British.
GDP per capita in the UK was $7,804 equivalent in 1979, $19,095 by 1990. So most workers saw big rises in their paypackets
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
In England
Yes, the Central England temperature record is in England.
Compared to average Scotland did equally well as England in July. The average is the problem.
Some people don't like the heat and would be happy to summer in Scotland which has temperatures in southern England now closer to what used to be Mediterranean temperatures now frequently in June and July and August.
The Mediterranean though is too hot to do much in the summer now bar stay by the pool and aircon, with close to 40 degree North Africa and Middle East temperatures regularly
Yes. I have now felt this two summers in a row
It is surely subjective but last summer I was in Provence with my older daughter and it was consistently close to, or even over 40C and it was HIDEOUS
It was great when we fled north to l'Aveyron
I have just been to Tavira, the Algarve, staying at a friend's beautiful loaned house. But there was no pool. It was too hot to do ANYTHING until about 8pm. I stayed indoors in the aircon and worked
Where's the fun in that?
The Med is a bit screwed in terms of July-August holidays.They aren't fun any more
Agree. I am not someone who likes it hot and I don't like the crowds hence I holiday in April/May/June/September/October. Hence going to the Algarve in late September, France in early September and Italy and Spain earlier in the year.
I thought your friend was a billionaire. What on earth is he/she doing without a pool in the Algarve.
Centi-millionaire - he's on the Sunday Times list
He has about ten houses
eg he has two in the Algarve, one is his main base (with pool etc) and on a whim he bought a large and lovely house in Tavira - which is a charming town, probably the most charming on the Algarve, but there is no pool and I was simply bored in the heat (which meant I did lots of work as I escaped the painters at home)
Notably as I was there he was texting me from one of his other homes - on an island in County Kerry where he was with his kids. For August
Chur, a town mostly useful for being the junction between the Bernina Express and Glacier Express. We are staying above a whorehouse, Swiss August hotel prices being what they are.
Bernina Express today diverted due to object on the line, so missed half the good stuff. High hopes for Glacier Express tomorrow.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
I think you're seeing the pre-1979 period through rose-tinted spectacles (oddly, the same charge that gets levelled at Reform supporters).
Not at all. I am not claiming that there wasn't horrendous industrial strife from circa 1968 to 1979. I don't believe as the poster claimed Wilson managed decline. Now Thatcher I am sure did lots of marvellous things, most of which passed me by, but her industrial relations policy was one of replacing primary and tertiary manufacturing with imported from Europe and Japan assembly manufacturing, and of course a burgeoning service sector.
You may think that was fantastic, I say that defines "managed decline".
[Amanda] Clare was a member of the Labour Party when she was first elected in Winsford Dene ward in 2019, but left in March 2022 to join the Socialist Labour Party.
She then became a member of the Party of Women, before joining the Winsford Salt of the Earth Party, ultimately settling as an Independent in July 2024.
She joined Reform UK in March this year.
A not entirely untypical cv from what I've seen.
I think Reform may be burying quite a few anti-personnel mines ahead of their own planned route of advance.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
I think you're seeing the pre-1979 period through rose-tinted spectacles (oddly, the same charge that gets levelled at Reform supporters).
Not at all. I am not claiming that there wasn't horrendous industrial strife from circa 1968 to 1979. I don't believe as the poster claimed Wilson managed decline. Now Thatcher I am sure did lots of marvellous things, most of which passed me by, but her industrial relations policy was one of replacing primary and tertiary manufacturing with imported from Europe and Japan assembly manufacturing, and of course a burgeoning service sector.
You may think that was fantastic, I say that defines "managed decline".
No, we had 'managed decline' with most PMs and governments in the postwar period, Labour or Conservative. The only real exceptions were the Thatcher and Blair governments when the UK had energy and strong economic growth overall and was recognised globally as having strong leadership with vision
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
I think you're seeing the pre-1979 period through rose-tinted spectacles (oddly, the same charge that gets levelled at Reform supporters).
Not at all. I am not claiming that there wasn't horrendous industrial strife from circa 1968 to 1979. I don't believe as the poster claimed Wilson managed decline. Now Thatcher I am sure did lots of marvellous things, most of which passed me by, but her industrial relations policy was one of replacing primary and tertiary manufacturing with imported from Europe and Japan assembly manufacturing, and of course a burgeoning service sector.
You may think that was fantastic, I say that defines "managed decline".
I'd say her policy was one of replacing loss-making crap, with activities that were profitable.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
Only with the boost of North Sea oil, though. Any fool could do a lot with North Sea oil money.
No sovereign wealth fund, either. Compare and contrast: Norway.
Yes and no. Compare Norways population vs Britains population. Spreads the sovereign wealth a lot more thinly.
Thatcher wanted the country to live within its means, not to destroy its industry try. She wanted to kill inflation and the country suffered to achieve it, but then the good times came again. Thatcher is a demon for many on the left, so much so that they ignore cold, hard facts and hang on their narrative. It’s comfort ting, but someone had to break the union dinosaurs of the seventies.
The heavy industry that died was already dead. At the end, it would have been cheaper to my down imported stainless steel cutlery, in Sheffield than make the steel locally.
The ship building industry was even more farcical - they even refused contracts that would have meant changing working practises.
Just down the road from the Leyland car factories, Nissan etc arrived and were making cars - good quality and a good price. Same workforce….
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
In England
Yes, the Central England temperature record is in England.
Compared to average Scotland did equally well as England in July. The average is the problem.
Some people don't like the heat and would be happy to summer in Scotland which has temperatures in southern England now closer to what used to be Mediterranean temperatures now frequently in June and July and August.
The Mediterranean though is too hot to do much in the summer now bar stay by the pool and aircon, with close to 40 degree North Africa and Middle East temperatures regularly
Yes. I have now felt this two summers in a row
It is surely subjective but last summer I was in Provence with my older daughter and it was consistently close to, or even over 40C and it was HIDEOUS
It was great when we fled north to l'Aveyron
I have just been to Tavira, the Algarve, staying at a friend's beautiful loaned house. But there was no pool. It was too hot to do ANYTHING until about 8pm. I stayed indoors in the aircon and worked
Where's the fun in that?
The Med is a bit screwed in terms of July-August holidays.They aren't fun any more
Yes, may as well holiday in Cornwall, Devon, Scotland, Suffolk, Norfolk, Brittany, Normandy, Blackpool, Pembrokeshire, Dorset, Margate etc in the summer and take a Mediterranean break in the spring or autumn if you can afford that as well.
Blackpool is pushing it
The key will be to find somewhere that's agreeably warm AND sunny, without the high intense heat of the New Mediterranean (in June-August)
Plus you want nice food, some history, pleasant towns, culture, landscapes
France should do well. Burgundy, the Massif Central, the Atlantic Coast from Carnac down to Bayonne. The Alps will return as a summertime destination (lower slopes). Bits of Eastern Europe - up in the altitudes - eg the mountains of Greece or Croatia or Slovakia, higher villages in the Pyrenees ahd Dolomites
Plus the nicer bits of southern England, Ireland and Scandinavia
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
Anecdatish, but it doesn't feel it. It's nice - today was nice - but the last six weeks have been warm but not that sunny. Not unsunny - just no better than average for the time of year. And after a remarkably sunny Mar-Jun, it feels a bit hohum. My solar generatiom for May this year was my biggest month ever - better than any June. And there were very few days' play lost in the T20 Blast, and almost none before midsummer.
But today was a perfect summer's day. Oldest daughter has been to the park to meet friends and indulge in the teen summer pasttime of letting a chocolate bar belt and dipping strawberries in it. Younger two daughters have been off to the Mersey Valley to pick blackberries. The wifeand I did some gardening then relaxed in the afterglow of our exertions with a ginger beer. We are, today, living in an idealised 1950s England.
"Lashings of"?
I have blackberries everywhere, just on a close by estate within a mile or so where I sometimes walk or cycle.
Quite interesting - spin it round and there's a wild bit which has been built on since Google came that way in 2009. The other one was like that before. Now the Council do the grass in area for flowers and wildlife - it saves money not cutting it all.
That's how they handled all the public footpaths that were here before, quite respectfully making it attractive- it used to be fields and skylarks in the 1970s when I was at primary school in the area. They all have hawthorns, sloes and blackberries on both sides and there are miles of it.
(Yes that anti-wheelchair barrier is on the target list, as are the lack of drop kerbs. That should have been planning conditions, but there is neither the resource to be thorough, or the resource to enforce, or the expertise to drive good practice everywhere. So it is all compromised to a degree.)
I've picked oodles of blackberries this year and the slor crop looks huge as well. Waiting a few weeks before picking them.
I have also picked a lot of mulberries for the first time this year and the medlar tree looks full of fruit. Expect to pick them in November.
While we're on fruit, we have about 300 plums on our tree. At least one bough has grown so laden with fruit that the tree can no longer support its weight and it has snapped off ( though I have attempted to reattach with gaffer tape). Various branches are propped up with wooden stakes. Middle daughter is planning on making jam [and here we break from the 1950s] to raise funds for her voluntary work trip to Cambodia in a couple of years.
Thing One has been doing much the same with our greengages today. Unfortunately, we seem to have ended the day with more fruits than we started with.
Calgie @christiancalgie · 4h If you don’t understand how close tens of millions of Britons are to wanting a full-blown revolution, let alone fail to understand why, then you have no value as a political commentator
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
You trot your last paragraph out all the time. Small economic pits were replaced by Superpits. This was an extension of the late Tory Government of 1951 to 64. My Grandfather worked at Carway Colliery. This closed on economic grounds and all the men went to the Cynheidre Superpit.
I almost mentioned that Thatcher did replace manufacturing production with the City of London. I don't believe that was a great trade off.
The Nissan example was a unique success, and a result of us being within the EU. Thatcher attracted all sorts of Japanese production particularly Panasonic, Sony, Aiwa and a number of other names checked in an early Sean Thomas novel. All now closed!
Manufacturing output, in 1997, was well above the level in 1979. It only levelled off, after 2000.
But, yes, far fewer people were employed in coal mining, and that is a good thing.
The nature of large scale manufacturing changed under Thatcher. I am looking at the legacy from Thatcher's industrial strategy, and I think that is fair. She undoubtedly sold the notion of Britain as a gateway to the EU incredibly well, but this was all but over within 15 to 20 years.
The woman in Roger's video is rather terrifying, but the basic point that the current conflict is a PR disaster for Israel is sound.
However, I don't see a future for Gaza as a Palestinian enclave surrounded on all sides by Israel, and I am not sure it's worth saving. It isn't good for Israel, and it's not great for the Palestinians in it.
More and more, I am convinced that a policy of getting behind a Palestinian State in the West Bank, moving the Gazans there, and moving the settlers out, is a just and sustainable solution.
Israel gets integrity as a state, with borders it can defend and control. The Gazans get a new start and to live under a more legitimate Government. The Palestinians get a proper state. The settlers get a place to live within Israel or the new Gaza - there's churn. They don't get to settle the West Bank but they knew what they were getting into when they moved there. They will probably burn the settlements rather than give them to Palestinians, but so be it.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
Only with the boost of North Sea oil, though. Any fool could do a lot with North Sea oil money.
No sovereign wealth fund, either. Compare and contrast: Norway.
As any housewife knows when balancing the household accounts, if you get a massive windfall you splurge on a shiny new suite and tv while letting parts of the house go to wrack and ruin.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
You trot your last paragraph out all the time. Small economic pits were replaced by Superpits. This was an extension of the late Tory Government of 1951 to 64. My Grandfather worked at Carway Colliery. This closed on economic grounds and all the men went to the Cynheidre Superpit.
I almost mentioned that Thatcher did replace manufacturing production with the City of London. I don't believe that was a great trade off.
The Nissan example was a unique success, and a result of us being within the EU. Thatcher attracted all sorts of Japanese production particularly Panasonic, Sony, Aiwa and a number of other names checked in an early Sean Thomas novel. All now closed!
Manufacturing output, in 1997, was well above the level in 1979. It only levelled off, after 2000.
But, yes, far fewer people were employed in coal mining, and that is a good thing.
The nature of large scale manufacturing changed under Thatcher. I am looking at the legacy from Thatcher's industrial strategy, and I think that is fair. She undoubtedly sold the notion of Britain as a gateway to the EU incredibly well, but this was all but over within 15 to 20 years.
Dominic Sandbrook makes the point about Britain that it was the First Nation to industrialise and in the 60’s and 70’s became the first to deindustrialise too. It stood out from other western nations, not because it was inherently different, but because it was first. (See the sick man of Europe etc). Globalisation was always going to challenge traditional industries in the west. Add in poor labour practices and you had a perfect storm. Choices might have been made differently about how to manage the transition, but anyone who thinks Britain could have carried on as it had in the seventies is a deluded fool, or Jeremy Corbyn.
Calgie @christiancalgie · 4h If you don’t understand how close tens of millions of Britons are to wanting a full-blown revolution, let alone fail to understand why, then you have no value as a political commentator
The collapse of the Tories is sending certain media types to the funny farm.
The thing is that this repeated demand for strife is actually getting to the point where it is absurd. Of course it is dangerous to stir the pot in the way that too many right wingers are doing at the moment, but apart from some of my more militant Tory mates, very few are taking the bait.
Calgie @christiancalgie · 4h If you don’t understand how close tens of millions of Britons are to wanting a full-blown revolution, let alone fail to understand why, then you have no value as a political commentator
The Daily Express is read by people who think that the country should be run as it was. The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think that it still is.
(The Express didn't make the Yes, Prime Minister version of that routine.)
That was getting on for fifty years ago, and the Express probably hasn't acquired any new readers in that time. Once they stopped having Giles cartoons, what was the point?
The woman in Roger's video is rather terrifying, but the basic point that the current conflict is a PR disaster for Israel is sound.
However, I don't see a future for Gaza as a Palestinian enclave surrounded on all sides by Israel, and I am not sure it's worth saving. It isn't good for Israel, and it's not great for the Palestinians in it.
More and more, I am convinced that a policy of getting behind a Palestinian State in the West Bank, moving the Gazans there, and moving the settlers out, is a just and sustainable solution.
Israel gets integrity as a state, with borders it can defend and control. The Gazans get a new start and to live under a more legitimate Government. The Palestinians get a proper state. The settlers get a place to live within Israel or the new Gaza - there's churn. They don't get to settle the West Bank but they knew what they were getting into when they moved there. They will probably burn the settlements rather than give them to Palestinians, but so be it.
The Government’s own estimate of the cost of giving away the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius is almost £35bn, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act – far higher than the £3.4bn figure Sir Keir has previously used in public.
The document shows that civil servants were first instructed to lower the cost of the deal on paper to £10bn, to account for an estimated annual inflation rate of 2.3 per cent over 99 years.
Then it was reduced again by between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent per year using the Treasury’s Social Time Preference Rate, a principle that money spent immediately has more value than funds earmarked for future spending.
The final figure was calculated to be 90 per cent lower than the cash value of the payments the UK will make to Mauritius over the next century
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
Only with the boost of North Sea oil, though. Any fool could do a lot with North Sea oil money.
No sovereign wealth fund, either. Compare and contrast: Norway.
As any housewife knows when balancing the household accounts, if you get a massive windfall you splurge on a shiny new suite and tv while letting parts of the house go to wrack and ruin.
You jest but one of my neighbours has a shiny new BMW even as the slates slide off and the buddleia obscure the windows.
The Government’s own estimate of the cost of giving away the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius is almost £35bn, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act – far higher than the £3.4bn figure Sir Keir has previously used in public.
The document shows that civil servants were first instructed to lower the cost of the deal on paper to £10bn, to account for an estimated annual inflation rate of 2.3 per cent over 99 years.
Then it was reduced again by between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent per year using the Treasury’s Social Time Preference Rate, a principle that money spent immediately has more value than funds earmarked for future spending.
The final figure was calculated to be 90 per cent lower than the cash value of the payments the UK will make to Mauritius over the next century
Calgie @christiancalgie · 4h If you don’t understand how close tens of millions of Britons are to wanting a full-blown revolution, let alone fail to understand why, then you have no value as a political commentator
The collapse of the Tories is sending certain media types to the funny farm.
The thing is that this repeated demand for strife is actually getting to the point where it is absurd. Of course it is dangerous to stir the pot in the way that too many right wingers are doing at the moment, but apart from some of my more militant Tory mates, very few are taking the bait.
What I don't understand is senior authority figures have also been briefing the media on the record of this.
We just don't have the culture of say the French, where it is a given that if you are having a protest, the riot comes later on. Even at the Bell Inn where knuckle draggers starting smashing up a police car, that is what the French would call a quiet night.
Calgie @christiancalgie · 4h If you don’t understand how close tens of millions of Britons are to wanting a full-blown revolution, let alone fail to understand why, then you have no value as a political commentator
The woman in Roger's video is rather terrifying, but the basic point that the current conflict is a PR disaster for Israel is sound.
However, I don't see a future for Gaza as a Palestinian enclave surrounded on all sides by Israel, and I am not sure it's worth saving. It isn't good for Israel, and it's not great for the Palestinians in it.
More and more, I am convinced that a policy of getting behind a Palestinian State in the West Bank, moving the Gazans there, and moving the settlers out, is a just and sustainable solution.
Israel gets integrity as a state, with borders it can defend and control. The Gazans get a new start and to live under a more legitimate Government. The Palestinians get a proper state. The settlers get a place to live within Israel or the new Gaza - there's churn. They don't get to settle the West Bank but they knew what they were getting into when they moved there. They will probably burn the settlements rather than give them to Palestinians, but so be it.
a. Ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity.
b. Israel seems unlikely to agree to that.
No they won't agree immediately, but it is a great deal harder for them to disagree with it. If the rest of the world got behind that as a vision, enough Israelis might concede that the rewards were worth the drawbacks.
The Government’s own estimate of the cost of giving away the British Indian Ocean Territory to Mauritius is almost £35bn, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act – far higher than the £3.4bn figure Sir Keir has previously used in public.
The document shows that civil servants were first instructed to lower the cost of the deal on paper to £10bn, to account for an estimated annual inflation rate of 2.3 per cent over 99 years.
Then it was reduced again by between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent per year using the Treasury’s Social Time Preference Rate, a principle that money spent immediately has more value than funds earmarked for future spending.
The final figure was calculated to be 90 per cent lower than the cash value of the payments the UK will make to Mauritius over the next century
World's best negotiator, somehow started with Mauritius wanting far less than £10bn, then press reports that somehow they had agreed £10bn, and finally managed to do a deal for £35bn.
The sort of people who go into a Turkish Bazaar and buy a fake Rolex for "first price" and also give them a tip.
Calgie @christiancalgie · 4h If you don’t understand how close tens of millions of Britons are to wanting a full-blown revolution, let alone fail to understand why, then you have no value as a political commentator
The collapse of the Tories is sending certain media types to the funny farm.
The thing is that this repeated demand for strife is actually getting to the point where it is absurd. Of course it is dangerous to stir the pot in the way that too many right wingers are doing at the moment, but apart from some of my more militant Tory mates, very few are taking the bait.
Maybe it is this long hot summer, but loads of people seem to have gone off their heads.
I don't know how long you've been following football for but Liverpool have booed the national anthem since the eighties at least after the rest of the country, led by the Tories, left them to out to dry.
Seriously, you spend so much time clutching your pearls I'm amazed your fingers have enough strength left to type,
Given lots of the country suffered from de-industrialisation, why do you think it is only Liverpool that take this view?
Because of this, I don't think anything has emerged about similar being said about other areas.
Margaret Thatcher was secretly urged to consider abandoning Liverpool to a fate of "managed decline" after the Toxteth riots in 1981, official papers reveal.
To his credit Michael Heseltine refused to countenance managed decline for Liverpool & has been, I think, proven right in the long term.
To her credit, so did Thatcher.
"She was urged" doesn't mean "she decided".
She was quite good at figuring out when the “experts” were being fuckwits.
In the aftermath of the Brighton Bombing, they advocated all kinds of idiocy. Most of which would have made things 1000x worse - reintroduction of internment?!!. Thatcher, with the dust on her from the bombing, initiated the twin track policy. Track one - peace process, Track Two - infiltrate and destroy the paramilitaries from within. Which culminated in double agents in the PIRA killing off those opposed to the peace process.
On the flip side, she went against her personal instincts to go with the highly effective socio-medical campaign against AIDS - because the medical advice was coherent and cogent.
This is why she was such a brilliant PM.
She's possibly the most intelligent one we've ever had.
I would quibble slightly.
Harold Wilson, one of the youngest Oxford dons of the century at the age of 21, a lecturer in Economic History at New College from 1937, and a research fellow at University College, was probably more intelligent academically.
But he had terrible judgement, and consigned Britain to managed decline.
Mrs Thatcher had a good, upper-second class mind. But great judgement, self-confidence and perseverance, so the country flourished.
Judgement and intelligence are no more than loosely associated, as Noam Chomsky and all the rest of the Commie intelligensia show all the time.
A smallish country colonising a third of the planet consigns itself thereafter to (relative) decline. So if his contribution was the 'managed' bit then that's a plus.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Wilson was an incredibly shrewd politician. And the poster accusing Wilson of managing decline in the same post as eulogising Thatcher.
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
Hardly, Thatcher made the City of London into the economic powerhouse of Europe, revived Docklands and ended union domination and took the UK from one of the lowest per capita nations in Europe to one of the highest, plus investment in the NE from the likes of Nissan.
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
She increased considerably the wealth generation but also internationalised it. Ultimately she created a serf country with British workers competing with inward migration workers for smaller wages to generate larger and larger wealth for foreign nationals living in Dubai. It's anti-British.
GDP per capita in the UK was $7,804 equivalent in 1979, $19,095 by 1990. So most workers saw big rises in their paypackets
The woman in Roger's video is rather terrifying, but the basic point that the current conflict is a PR disaster for Israel is sound.
However, I don't see a future for Gaza as a Palestinian enclave surrounded on all sides by Israel, and I am not sure it's worth saving. It isn't good for Israel, and it's not great for the Palestinians in it.
More and more, I am convinced that a policy of getting behind a Palestinian State in the West Bank, moving the Gazans there, and moving the settlers out, is a just and sustainable solution.
Israel gets integrity as a state, with borders it can defend and control. The Gazans get a new start and to live under a more legitimate Government. The Palestinians get a proper state. The settlers get a place to live within Israel or the new Gaza - there's churn. They don't get to settle the West Bank but they knew what they were getting into when they moved there. They will probably burn the settlements rather than give them to Palestinians, but so be it.
a. Ethnic cleansing is a crime against humanity.
b. Israel seems unlikely to agree to that.
Somethings going to have to give in the end.
Most likely we'll all just be complicit in a genocide, as we have been multiple times before throughout history.
This must now be one of the sunniest and maybe warmest summers on record? And spring was remarkably nice
Not 1976 but very pleasant
On Starmer's watch.
Feels like almost every day is “nice” or “really nice”
Not “nice but a bit fucking hot” like Italy or Spain or indeed Nice
Just highly agreeable. 25C and a few clouds
So far we’re tracking pretty similar to 1976, but a bit warmer if you include May.
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976: May 12.0C June 16.9C July 18.6C August 17.6C September 13.3C
2025: May 13.2C (1.2C warmer) June 17.0C (0.1C warmer) July 18.4C (0.2C cooler) August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much? September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
In England
Yes, the Central England temperature record is in England.
Compared to average Scotland did equally well as England in July. The average is the problem.
Some people don't like the heat and would be happy to summer in Scotland which has temperatures in southern England now closer to what used to be Mediterranean temperatures now frequently in June and July and August.
The Mediterranean though is too hot to do much in the summer now bar stay by the pool and aircon, with close to 40 degree North Africa and Middle East temperatures regularly
Yes. I have now felt this two summers in a row
It is surely subjective but last summer I was in Provence with my older daughter and it was consistently close to, or even over 40C and it was HIDEOUS
It was great when we fled north to l'Aveyron
I have just been to Tavira, the Algarve, staying at a friend's beautiful loaned house. But there was no pool. It was too hot to do ANYTHING until about 8pm. I stayed indoors in the aircon and worked
Where's the fun in that?
The Med is a bit screwed in terms of July-August holidays.They aren't fun any more
Yes, may as well holiday in Cornwall, Devon, Scotland, Suffolk, Norfolk, Brittany, Normandy, Blackpool, Pembrokeshire, Dorset, Margate etc in the summer and take a Mediterranean break in the spring or autumn if you can afford that as well.
After a very late spring the Baltic is having a very pleasant summer. It is comfortably warm, today 24, and so sparking more use of the untranslatable Finnish word kalsarikänit- roughly meaning sitting at home in your underwear getting drunk.
Comments
1976 vs 2025 so far, in the CET:
1976:
May 12.0C
June 16.9C
July 18.6C
August 17.6C
September 13.3C
2025:
May 13.2C (1.2C warmer)
June 17.0C (0.1C warmer)
July 18.4C (0.2C cooler)
August TBA - likely to be above 17 but how much?
September TBA
It’s been exceptionally sunny too, the sunniest spring on record followed by well above average sunshine in June and July. Rainfall has been less uniformly low than 1976 though - record breaking dry in parts of the West country but quite wet in July in the SE.
The next 3 weeks will determine where 2025 ends up in the record books.
He is following in his fathers footseps when I drove him, his brother and sister, and my wife to Venice when they were his chidren's ages now
Childhood memories that last a lifetime
https://www.metoffice.gov.uk/binaries/content/assets/metofficegovuk/pdf/weather/learn-about/uk-past-events/summaries/mwr_2025_07_for_print.pdf
They were the sunniest too.
Kent by contrast got an absolute deluge in July. 201mm at my vineyard.
I was joking!
A day with a maximum of 26deg and a night minimum of 8deg will have the same average as a day with a maximum of 20deg and a minimum of 14deg.
If I had the time and the inclination I would compare the daily maxima between 1976 and 2025. I suspect 2025 will still be warmer than 1976, but significantly more humid. So now we need to compare wet bulb temperatures.
I’ve just left our house in Burgundy after a couple of weeks’ holiday. Last 4 days have been 34, 36, 37 and 35C, but the following week promises - according to the latest models - 36, 40, 39, 37, 36, 34, 32.
The whole region is browned to a crisp. The wine harvest is planned for the 3rd week of August! No cicadas yet in our little corner of the Clunysois but they’ve been creeping up the Saone valley and have been heard a few times trilling away in the trees in Mâcon.
The new betting tax will apply to online slots, not horse racing.
But you're correct on the main point. Wilson was our cleverest PM. A brain with a pipe, basically.
Excellent.
My own vineyard stats bear that out. A number of pretty cool night minima.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/T90NnJorWf4
https://x.com/theobertram/status/1953343483609006311
For example, this swathe of green:
https://maps.app.goo.gl/LZRdG5UEXWTPAKFD7
Quite interesting - spin it round and there's a wild bit which has been built on since Google came that way in 2009. The other one was like that before. Now the Council do the grass in area for flowers and wildlife - it saves money not cutting it all.
That's how they handled all the public footpaths that were here before, quite respectfully making it attractive- it used to be fields and skylarks in the 1970s when I was at primary school in the area. They all have hawthorns, sloes and blackberries on both sides and there are miles of it.
(Yes that anti-wheelchair barrier is on the target list, as are the lack of drop kerbs. That should have been planning conditions, but there is neither the resource to be thorough, or the resource to enforce, or the expertise to drive good practice everywhere. So it is all compromised to a degree.)
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/may/22/net-migration-to-uk-down-by-half-in-2024-compared-with-year-before
Foreign workers brought in to work in social care and fill a vacancy for a social care job were also here legally, there is no requirement they have to always work in social care
Thather's USP was managed decline, see the destruction of manufacturing, the replacement of primary and tertiary domestic production with that of the Common Market countries and Japan, and the sale of national economic treasures to foreign asset strippers.
The Mediterranean though is too hot to do much in the summer now bar stay by the pool and aircon, with close to 40 degree North Africa and Middle East temperatures regularly
More mines closed under Wilson than Thatcher
Presumably; but they don't take underwear that's not in its original packaging, etc.
No sovereign wealth fund, either. Compare and contrast: Norway.
I have also picked a lot of mulberries for the first time this year and the medlar tree looks full of fruit. Expect to pick them in November.
I spent a week in Cumbria and didn't get much rain at all. Bizarre - usually a wet part of the world.
I like this detail from the piece...
[Amanda] Clare was a member of the Labour Party when she was first elected in Winsford Dene ward in 2019, but left in March 2022 to join the Socialist Labour Party.
She then became a member of the Party of Women, before joining the Winsford Salt of the Earth Party, ultimately settling as an Independent in July 2024.
She joined Reform UK in March this year.
Thatcher wanted the country to live within its means, not to destroy its industry try. She wanted to kill inflation and the country suffered to achieve it, but then the good times came again.
Thatcher is a demon for many on the left, so much so that they ignore cold, hard facts and hang on their narrative. It’s comfort ting, but someone had to break the union dinosaurs of the seventies.
Offer them a Schwinn and they will take it - it will probably go on Ebay for several hundred.
I almost mentioned that Thatcher did replace manufacturing production with the City of London. I don't believe that was a great trade off.
The Nissan example was a unique success, and a result of us being within the EU. Thatcher attracted all sorts of Japanese production particularly Panasonic, Sony, Aiwa and a number of other names checked in an early Sean Thomas novel. All now closed!
It is surely subjective but last summer I was in Provence with my older daughter and it was consistently close to, or even over 40C and it was HIDEOUS
It was great when we fled north to l'Aveyron
I have just been to Tavira, the Algarve, staying at a friend's beautiful loaned house. But there was no pool. It was too hot to do ANYTHING until about 8pm. I stayed indoors in the aircon and worked
Where's the fun in that?
The Med is a bit screwed in terms of July-August holidays.They aren't fun any more
Jeez - there's still hints of it on ye olde BBC news site in fact :
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/198830.stm
Edit: I see it's referenced on wikipedia too
"George attracted controversy in 1998 when he was widely reported to have made a statement to London newspaper executives implying that unemployment in the north of England was a price worth paying to preserve affluence in the south of the country. He later claimed that his remarks had been misconstrued."
🤔
Middle daughter is planning on making jam [and here we break from the 1950s] to raise funds for her voluntary work trip to Cambodia in a couple of years.
The incident was in June, and there's (not very conclusive) video. I don't see anything on a security guard. Perhaps it was "asked to leave and refused" - like the silent pray-ers .
Facebook (sorry): https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1356475602105958
I thought your friend was a billionaire. What on earth is he/she doing without a pool in the Algarve.
Go to:
Northern Portugal
Galicia
Inland Basque Country
Upland southern France (the Cevennes, Aveyron)
Far Southern Brittany
Slovenian Alps
Higher slopes of Alpine Italy
Zagoriou mountains of Greece
Iceland
Greenland
Suffolk
The UK did not lead in manufacturing production in the 1970s either, Germany did and at least she ensured manufacturing wasn't being destroyed by union militancy as was the case at Leyland etc.
By 1990 the City of London was the main western financial centre rival to NYC and a global city, in the 1970s London was not only well behind NYC but also Paris and Tokyo
But, yes, far fewer people were employed in coal mining, and that is a good thing.
What we can infer, both from the above, and the extant social media posts around the event, might be more than what is stated - but I will refrain from commenting further until after the trial, as I would advise all others to do.
However, I don't see a future for Gaza as a Palestinian enclave surrounded on all sides by Israel, and I am not sure it's worth saving. It isn't good for Israel, and it's not great for the Palestinians in it.
More and more, I am convinced that a policy of getting behind a Palestinian State in the West Bank, moving the Gazans there, and moving the settlers out, is a just and sustainable solution.
Israel gets integrity as a state, with borders it can defend and control. The Gazans get a new start and to live under a more legitimate Government. The Palestinians get a proper state. The settlers get a place to live within Israel or the new Gaza - there's churn. They don't get to settle the West Bank but they knew what they were getting into when they moved there. They will probably burn the settlements rather than give them to Palestinians, but so be it.
@reshetz
Wonder how long it will take for Americans to realize why russian officials are posting this
https://x.com/reshetz/status/1954416041045459150
He has about ten houses
eg he has two in the Algarve, one is his main base (with pool etc) and on a whim he bought a large and lovely house in Tavira - which is a charming town, probably the most charming on the Algarve, but there is no pool and I was simply bored in the heat (which meant I did lots of work as I escaped the painters at home)
Notably as I was there he was texting me from one of his other homes - on an island in County Kerry where he was with his kids. For August
Chur, a town mostly useful for being the junction between the Bernina Express and Glacier Express. We are staying above a whorehouse, Swiss August hotel prices being what they are.
Bernina Express today diverted due to object on the line, so missed half the good stuff. High hopes for Glacier Express tomorrow.
You may think that was fantastic, I say that defines "managed decline".
I think Reform may be burying quite a few anti-personnel mines ahead of their own planned route of advance.
The ship building industry was even more farcical - they even refused contracts that would have meant changing working practises.
Just down the road from the Leyland car factories, Nissan etc arrived and were making cars - good quality and a good price. Same workforce….
The key will be to find somewhere that's agreeably warm AND sunny, without the high intense heat of the New Mediterranean (in June-August)
Plus you want nice food, some history, pleasant towns, culture, landscapes
France should do well. Burgundy, the Massif Central, the Atlantic Coast from Carnac down to Bayonne. The Alps will return as a summertime destination (lower slopes). Bits of Eastern Europe - up in the altitudes - eg the mountains of Greece or Croatia or Slovakia, higher villages in the Pyrenees ahd Dolomites
Plus the nicer bits of southern England, Ireland and Scandinavia
Send empty jars. Please.
Calgie
@christiancalgie
·
4h
If you don’t understand how close tens of millions of Britons are to wanting a full-blown revolution, let alone fail to understand why, then you have no value as a political commentator
https://x.com/christiancalgie/status/1954576751071265184
b. Israel seems unlikely to agree to that.
Choices might have been made differently about how to manage the transition, but anyone who thinks Britain could have carried on as it had in the seventies is a deluded fool, or Jeremy Corbyn.
The thing is that this repeated demand for strife is actually getting to the point where it is absurd. Of course it is dangerous to stir the pot in the way that too many right wingers are doing at the moment, but apart from some of my more militant Tory mates, very few are taking the bait.
The Daily Express is read by people who think that the country should be run as it was. The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think that it still is.
(The Express didn't make the Yes, Prime Minister version of that routine.)
That was getting on for fifty years ago, and the Express probably hasn't acquired any new readers in that time. Once they stopped having Giles cartoons, what was the point?
The document shows that civil servants were first instructed to lower the cost of the deal on paper to £10bn, to account for an estimated annual inflation rate of 2.3 per cent over 99 years.
Then it was reduced again by between 2.5 and 3.5 per cent per year using the Treasury’s Social Time Preference Rate, a principle that money spent immediately has more value than funds earmarked for future spending.
The final figure was calculated to be 90 per cent lower than the cash value of the payments the UK will make to Mauritius over the next century
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2025/08/10/revealed-chagos-deal-to-cost-10-times-what-starmer-claimed/
We just don't have the culture of say the French, where it is a given that if you are having a protest, the riot comes later on. Even at the Bell Inn where knuckle draggers starting smashing up a police car, that is what the French would call a quiet night.
The sort of people who go into a Turkish Bazaar and buy a fake Rolex for "first price" and also give them a tip.
And GDP is not the same thing as family income.