One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
Southern Westward Harlech Associated Anglia Yorkshire Granada Tyne-Tees Border
Bonus points for separate authorities running London during the week and at weekends.
Double bonus points if the same politicians run the Midlands during the week and London at weekends.
As a Granada maximalist, I note the formation of the Welsby Group PMC whose brief is to march on Port Vale, Stoke village / City irself and Wrexham.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
And, with British politics, that's why it won't happen. The small percentage of the country that doesn't fit tidily, wherever you draw the boundaries, holds back the rest of the country.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
The government has buggered it all up again, with Treasury-inspired gibberish on the supposed optimal size of a regional unit.
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
The problem with Gloucestershire is it divides, not very neatly, three ways.
The Forest, Tewkesbury and Gloucester are closely linked to the Midlands, the northern Cotswolds and the Cheltenham suburbs to the Thames Valley/London, and Stroud and Cirencester to the West Country.
So putting Gloucestershire as a whole into any area would be damn near impossible. But as for splitting it up - I don't think Starmer knows what will hit him if he tries that...
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
And, with British politics, that's why it won't happen. The small percentage of the country that doesn't fit tidily, wherever you draw the boundaries, holds back the rest of the country.
It hasn’t stopped various governments coming up with various bastardries.
On the thorny question of waste management, in Newham, for many years, we had just the two bins - one for general waste and one for all recycling including glass. However, we now have a little caddy for our food waste which is apparently a statutory requirement.
Fortunately, we are still on weekly collections for everything but we have to have all the bins by the gate or on the pavement as the poor waste management operatives don't have time to walk on to properties and take bins and then return them. Given we are adding dwellings continuously in Newham, the whole waste management operation has become complex.
Segregated fo9d waste collection becomes mandatory next year. Bradford is bringing it in in the autumn.
By contrast, in Ealing they introduced it at least 18 years ago.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
The problem with Gloucestershire is it divides, not very neatly, three ways.
The Forest, Tewkesbury and Gloucester are closely linked to the Midlands, the northern Cotswolds and the Cheltenham suburbs to the Thames Valley/London, and Stroud and Cirencester to the West Country.
So putting Gloucestershire as a whole into any area would be damn near impossible. But as for splitting it up - I don't think Starmer knows what will hit him if he tries that...
I would simply keep South Gloucs in the Bristol Metro, and the rump - ie just Gloucestershire - aligned to the West Mids region.
But as I posted earlier, my regions wouldn’t have anything as crass as assemblies or any autonomy. Power would largely lie at the Gloucestershire, and Bristol Metro, level in my example.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
The government has buggered it all up again, with Treasury-inspired gibberish on the supposed optimal size of a regional unit.
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
Were Swindon not Labour MPs their wish to combine eastwards would probably be ignored, i dont think the SE areas want them included.
Hampshire would make sense for the name, but they had to propose something. West of England was already taken, so what else? The West of England but slightly further South Mayoralty?
When I last looked at recycling (from an investment perspective), the sorting machines were all made by a Norwegian company called Tomra. The assembly lines for dealing with mixed recyclig were absolutely incredible, with cleaning systems and everything coming sorted and immaculate, and with surprisingly little human intervention.
I can see the benefit of taking food waste out of the process, but I can't really see how separating between cardboard and plastic makes a difference.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
The government has buggered it all up again, with Treasury-inspired gibberish on the supposed optimal size of a regional unit.
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
Were Swindon not Labour MPs their wish to combine eastwards would probably be ignored, i dont think the SE areas want them included.
Hampshire would make sense for the name, but they had to propose something. West of England was already taken, so what else? The West of England but slightly further South Mayoralty?
The lack of an obvious name is kind of a tell. It’s a gerrymandered, artificial idea.
As you say, the attitude toward Swindon is political and cultural. It’s a new town plonked in the middle of an unwelcoming shire.
But it exists, can’t be wished away, and the people of Swindon have as many rights as anyone.
If shires had any real autonomy they could attempt to make Swindon an ornament of Wiltshire rather than an alien intrusion.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
The government has buggered it all up again, with Treasury-inspired gibberish on the supposed optimal size of a regional unit.
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
Were Swindon not Labour MPs their wish to combine eastwards would probably be ignored, i dont think the SE areas want them included.
Hampshire would make sense for the name, but they had to propose something. West of England was already taken, so what else? The West of England but slightly further South Mayoralty?
The lack of an obvious name is kind of a tell. It’s a gerrymandered, artificial idea.
As you say, the attitude toward Swindon is political and cultural. It’s a new town plonked in the middle of an unwelcoming shire.
But it exists, can’t be wished away, and the people of Swindon have as many rights as anyone.
If shires had any real autonomy they could attempt to make Swindon an ornament of Wiltshire rather than an alien intrusion.
Even in so backward-looking a county as Wiltshire 1841 isn't *that* new.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
The government has buggered it all up again, with Treasury-inspired gibberish on the supposed optimal size of a regional unit.
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
Were Swindon not Labour MPs their wish to combine eastwards would probably be ignored, i dont think the SE areas want them included.
Hampshire would make sense for the name, but they had to propose something. West of England was already taken, so what else? The West of England but slightly further South Mayoralty?
The lack of an obvious name is kind of a tell. It’s a gerrymandered, artificial idea.
As you say, the attitude toward Swindon is political and cultural. It’s a new town plonked in the middle of an unwelcoming shire.
But it exists, can’t be wished away, and the people of Swindon have as many rights as anyone.
If shires had any real autonomy they could attempt to make Swindon an ornament of Wiltshire rather than an alien intrusion.
Wiltshire, Dorset, and Somerset might make sense on ceremonial county line. Large and rural, but each with one very big urban area BCP being contiguous at least). But existing mayors make it impossible even if Bristol was ignored.
I like the local gov reorganisation as an idea, the mayors less, but it will remain a bit of a mess with all the compromises.
When I last looked at recycling (from an investment perspective), the sorting machines were all made by a Norwegian company called Tomra. The assembly lines for dealing with mixed recyclig were absolutely incredible, with cleaning systems and everything coming sorted and immaculate, and with surprisingly little human intervention.
I can see the benefit of taking food waste out of the process, but I can't really see how separating between cardboard and plastic makes a difference.
Did my monthly soft plastics run to Morrisons today. That would be a good one to find a solution to.
Watching some channel ive never heard of it's playing an excruciatingly unfunny historic christmas 'variety' show from some blokes called Cannon and Ball. It's hellish, i refuse to believe the older generations enjoyed this crap.
Watching some channel ive never heard of it's playing an excruciatingly unfunny historic christmas 'variety' show from some blokes called Cannon and Ball. It's hellish, i refuse to believe the older generations enjoyed this crap.
Talking of Christmas movies, there's a new kid on the block: "Man versus baby" with Rowan Atkinson over on Netflix. I mention it because my daughter is among the credits, but that notwithstanding it is very good imo
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
Nothing new there, they used to have Rent-a-ghosts back in the seventies.
I feel it must be better now as when someone writes most of a book with a bigger name now they usually at least get their name included, eg Wilbur Smith or James Patterson.
That’s not quite the same as ghost writing though. In that case there is a named author who is actually writing the book and the “Wilbur Smith role” is as a plot consultant.
Yes, but i bet that they didnt use to acknowledge it, so a book by X was mostly written by uncredited Y. Which feels like ghost writing. Now we know sometimes at least.
Almost all autobiographies i assume are ghost written.
Wilbur Smith being dead makes it hard to sell a new book by him. You need to leave a bit of time a la Tolkien…
Do the people running that magazine realise that Tommy Lots Of Names *wants* to get lifted by the UAE police? That far from being a stone in his shoe, getting locked up for his racist shit there would be the trigger for pressure from his fan club in the US to get released.
So he’d get a free ride home at the end of his holiday, remind his pals in the high places he exists and burnish his rep among his online chums. Wonder how many more subscriptions to his online sewer he would get from that?
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
The government has buggered it all up again, with Treasury-inspired gibberish on the supposed optimal size of a regional unit.
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
Were Swindon not Labour MPs their wish to combine eastwards would probably be ignored, i dont think the SE areas want them included.
Hampshire would make sense for the name, but they had to propose something. West of England was already taken, so what else? The West of England but slightly further South Mayoralty?
The lack of an obvious name is kind of a tell. It’s a gerrymandered, artificial idea.
As you say, the attitude toward Swindon is political and cultural. It’s a new town plonked in the middle of an unwelcoming shire.
But it exists, can’t be wished away, and the people of Swindon have as many rights as anyone.
If shires had any real autonomy they could attempt to make Swindon an ornament of Wiltshire rather than an alien intrusion.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Westminster makes it very simple: non-recyclable rubbish (but you can split food waster optionally) and all recycling material together.
They then take the cost of separating out the recycling materials.
If you make it complicated for people some won’t bother to do it. This is just about the governments pushing work onto the residents at a cost to the total amount of recycling
The catch is the usual one. The funding the state can gather through the tax system won't pay for that, and making people sort stuff at home is considerably cheaper.
We've sorted at home in Pembrokeshire for years. It's not difficult. I also notive that recycling percentages are much higher here than in the rest of the UK.
Yes, *but that's Wales* - it hardly counts as part of the UK, so what the local Ordovician tribespersons do isn't relevant to the imperial overlords. See also: smoking bans in pubs in Scotland.
Oi!
*I* don't think that - merely quoting what some other folk think. (As the reference to the pubs should have made clear, but didn't: I'd edit it if you were a referee, no arguing.)
Edit: irony is dangerous - but I would hate to see PB without it, even though I've misinterpreted the odd post myself.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
The government has buggered it all up again, with Treasury-inspired gibberish on the supposed optimal size of a regional unit.
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
Were Swindon not Labour MPs their wish to combine eastwards would probably be ignored, i dont think the SE areas want them included.
Hampshire would make sense for the name, but they had to propose something. West of England was already taken, so what else? The West of England but slightly further South Mayoralty?
The lack of an obvious name is kind of a tell. It’s a gerrymandered, artificial idea.
As you say, the attitude toward Swindon is political and cultural. It’s a new town plonked in the middle of an unwelcoming shire.
But it exists, can’t be wished away, and the people of Swindon have as many rights as anyone.
If shires had any real autonomy they could attempt to make Swindon an ornament of Wiltshire rather than an alien intrusion.
Railway town, you know!
The railway district is nice. The high town is alright. The bit in between....bloody hell.
Do the people running that magazine realise that Tommy Lots Of Names *wants* to get lifted by the UAE police? That far from being a stone in his shoe, getting locked up for his racist shit there would be the trigger for pressure from his fan club in the US to get released.
So he’d get a free ride home at the end of his holiday, remind his pals in the high places he exists and burnish his rep among his online chums. Wonder how many more subscriptions to his online sewer he would get from that?
The video of Mitchell owning Yaxley-Lennon was a wondrous site to behold. I do find it remarkable that Islamaphobic racists and Reformers seems to be drawn to the UAE. It must be their relaxed social contract.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
The government has buggered it all up again, with Treasury-inspired gibberish on the supposed optimal size of a regional unit.
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
Were Swindon not Labour MPs their wish to combine eastwards would probably be ignored, i dont think the SE areas want them included.
Hampshire would make sense for the name, but they had to propose something. West of England was already taken, so what else? The West of England but slightly further South Mayoralty?
The lack of an obvious name is kind of a tell. It’s a gerrymandered, artificial idea.
As you say, the attitude toward Swindon is political and cultural. It’s a new town plonked in the middle of an unwelcoming shire.
But it exists, can’t be wished away, and the people of Swindon have as many rights as anyone.
If shires had any real autonomy they could attempt to make Swindon an ornament of Wiltshire rather than an alien intrusion.
Railway town, you know!
Eh? There was a perfectly good Swindon before the GWR. Been there. Old Swindon, it's called now.
The only reason there isn't a pre-Brunel town hall is that the councillors met in the pub.
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
Nothing new there, they used to have Rent-a-ghosts back in the seventies.
I feel it must be better now as when someone writes most of a book with a bigger name now they usually at least get their name included, eg Wilbur Smith or James Patterson.
That’s not quite the same as ghost writing though. In that case there is a named author who is actually writing the book and the “Wilbur Smith role” is as a plot consultant.
Yes, but i bet that they didnt use to acknowledge it, so a book by X was mostly written by uncredited Y. Which feels like ghost writing. Now we know sometimes at least.
Almost all autobiographies i assume are ghost written.
Wilbur Smith being dead makes it hard to sell a new book by him. You need to leave a bit of time a la Tolkien…
Something like a dozen have been released under his name since Smith died. Even being generous around him being consulted on plot outlines beforehand that seems an excessive number in 4 years since his passing.
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
Nothing new there, they used to have Rent-a-ghosts back in the seventies.
I feel it must be better now as when someone writes most of a book with a bigger name now they usually at least get their name included, eg Wilbur Smith or James Patterson.
That’s not quite the same as ghost writing though. In that case there is a named author who is actually writing the book and the “Wilbur Smith role” is as a plot consultant.
Yes, but i bet that they didnt use to acknowledge it, so a book by X was mostly written by uncredited Y. Which feels like ghost writing. Now we know sometimes at least.
Almost all autobiographies i assume are ghost written.
Wilbur Smith being dead makes it hard to sell a new book by him. You need to leave a bit of time a la Tolkien…
There's a variant which goes Joe 'Hardman' Bloggs interviewed by A. Ghost-that-nobody-has-heard-of, or maybe Mr Crime-Correspondent. Obviously subtleties going on there.
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
Nothing new there, they used to have Rent-a-ghosts back in the seventies.
I feel it must be better now as when someone writes most of a book with a bigger name now they usually at least get their name included, eg Wilbur Smith or James Patterson.
That’s not quite the same as ghost writing though. In that case there is a named author who is actually writing the book and the “Wilbur Smith role” is as a plot consultant.
Yes, but i bet that they didnt use to acknowledge it, so a book by X was mostly written by uncredited Y. Which feels like ghost writing. Now we know sometimes at least.
Almost all autobiographies i assume are ghost written.
Wilbur Smith being dead makes it hard to sell a new book by him. You need to leave a bit of time a la Tolkien…
Something like a dozen have been released under his name since Smith died. Even being generous around him being consulted on plot outlines beforehand that seems an excessive number in 4 years since his passing.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon and Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
One mayoralty proposal was for Wiltshire (with or without Swindon), Dorset and BCP Councils in a 'Heart of Wessex' with somerset (sans Bath, already in West of England, and north somerset, likely to join the latter).
The government has buggered it all up again, with Treasury-inspired gibberish on the supposed optimal size of a regional unit.
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
Were Swindon not Labour MPs their wish to combine eastwards would probably be ignored, i dont think the SE areas want them included.
Hampshire would make sense for the name, but they had to propose something. West of England was already taken, so what else? The West of England but slightly further South Mayoralty?
The lack of an obvious name is kind of a tell. It’s a gerrymandered, artificial idea.
As you say, the attitude toward Swindon is political and cultural. It’s a new town plonked in the middle of an unwelcoming shire.
But it exists, can’t be wished away, and the people of Swindon have as many rights as anyone.
If shires had any real autonomy they could attempt to make Swindon an ornament of Wiltshire rather than an alien intrusion.
Even in so backward-looking a county as Wiltshire 1841 isn't *that* new.
If it isn’t in the History of Modern Wiltshire, 1822-44, then it doesn’t count. They had 7 volumes and that was more than enough to cover the important bits
Do the people running that magazine realise that Tommy Lots Of Names *wants* to get lifted by the UAE police? That far from being a stone in his shoe, getting locked up for his racist shit there would be the trigger for pressure from his fan club in the US to get released.
So he’d get a free ride home at the end of his holiday, remind his pals in the high places he exists and burnish his rep among his online chums. Wonder how many more subscriptions to his online sewer he would get from that?
The video of Mitchell owning Yaxley-Lennon was a wondrous site to behold. I do find it remarkable that Islamaphobic racists and Reformers seems to be drawn to the UAE. It must be their relaxed social contract.
It’s because the UAE is like a hot dry version of Croydon. And because they quite like autocracies.
I actually marginally prefer the Canary Wharf of the tropics with added corporal punishment of Singapore to the Croydon of the Gulf with its patrol cars checking for shaggers on the fake beach.
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
Nothing new there, they used to have Rent-a-ghosts back in the seventies.
I feel it must be better now as when someone writes most of a book with a bigger name now they usually at least get their name included, eg Wilbur Smith or James Patterson.
That’s not quite the same as ghost writing though. In that case there is a named author who is actually writing the book and the “Wilbur Smith role” is as a plot consultant.
Yes, but i bet that they didnt use to acknowledge it, so a book by X was mostly written by uncredited Y. Which feels like ghost writing. Now we know sometimes at least.
Almost all autobiographies i assume are ghost written.
Wilbur Smith being dead makes it hard to sell a new book by him. You need to leave a bit of time a la Tolkien…
Something like a dozen have been released under his name since Smith died. Even being generous around him being consulted on plot outlines beforehand that seems an excessive number in 4 years since his passing.
It’s really just using the brand and paying royalties. It’s the same with Victor Hugo’s Cosette, for example.
Do the people running that magazine realise that Tommy Lots Of Names *wants* to get lifted by the UAE police? That far from being a stone in his shoe, getting locked up for his racist shit there would be the trigger for pressure from his fan club in the US to get released.
So he’d get a free ride home at the end of his holiday, remind his pals in the high places he exists and burnish his rep among his online chums. Wonder how many more subscriptions to his online sewer he would get from that?
The video of Mitchell owning Yaxley-Lennon was a wondrous site to behold. I do find it remarkable that Islamaphobic racists and Reformers seems to be drawn to the UAE. It must be their relaxed social contract.
It’s because the UAE is like a hot dry version of Croydon. And because they quite like autocracies.
I actually marginally prefer the Canary Wharf of the tropics with added corporal punishment of Singapore to the Croydon of the Gulf with its patrol cars checking for shaggers on the fake beach.
I wasn't aware that an extra-marital affair could result in state administered beating in Croydon.
Do the people running that magazine realise that Tommy Lots Of Names *wants* to get lifted by the UAE police? That far from being a stone in his shoe, getting locked up for his racist shit there would be the trigger for pressure from his fan club in the US to get released.
So he’d get a free ride home at the end of his holiday, remind his pals in the high places he exists and burnish his rep among his online chums. Wonder how many more subscriptions to his online sewer he would get from that?
The video of Mitchell owning Yaxley-Lennon was a wondrous site to behold. I do find it remarkable that Islamaphobic racists and Reformers seems to be drawn to the UAE. It must be their relaxed social contract.
It’s because the UAE is like a hot dry version of Croydon. And because they quite like autocracies.
I actually marginally prefer the Canary Wharf of the tropics with added corporal punishment of Singapore to the Croydon of the Gulf with its patrol cars checking for shaggers on the fake beach.
The original Croydon police care about dogging in the Wandle Valley? Really?
Do the people running that magazine realise that Tommy Lots Of Names *wants* to get lifted by the UAE police? That far from being a stone in his shoe, getting locked up for his racist shit there would be the trigger for pressure from his fan club in the US to get released.
So he’d get a free ride home at the end of his holiday, remind his pals in the high places he exists and burnish his rep among his online chums. Wonder how many more subscriptions to his online sewer he would get from that?
The video of Mitchell owning Yaxley-Lennon was a wondrous site to behold. I do find it remarkable that Islamaphobic racists and Reformers seems to be drawn to the UAE. It must be their relaxed social contract.
It’s because the UAE is like a hot dry version of Croydon. And because they quite like autocracies.
I actually marginally prefer the Canary Wharf of the tropics with added corporal punishment of Singapore to the Croydon of the Gulf with its patrol cars checking for shaggers on the fake beach.
I wasn't aware that an extra-marital affair could result in state administered beating in Croydon.
Do the people running that magazine realise that Tommy Lots Of Names *wants* to get lifted by the UAE police? That far from being a stone in his shoe, getting locked up for his racist shit there would be the trigger for pressure from his fan club in the US to get released.
So he’d get a free ride home at the end of his holiday, remind his pals in the high places he exists and burnish his rep among his online chums. Wonder how many more subscriptions to his online sewer he would get from that?
The video of Mitchell owning Yaxley-Lennon was a wondrous site to behold. I do find it remarkable that Islamaphobic racists and Reformers seems to be drawn to the UAE. It must be their relaxed social contract.
It’s because the UAE is like a hot dry version of Croydon. And because they quite like autocracies.
I actually marginally prefer the Canary Wharf of the tropics with added corporal punishment of Singapore to the Croydon of the Gulf with its patrol cars checking for shaggers on the fake beach.
Back in the day, when the Islamofascist types first started becoming noticeable in the U.K. (90s) both the fuckwit extreme left and the fuckwit extreme right tried to ally with them.
Admiring the propaganda of the deed, I suppose.
Fuckwits of the World Unite! You have only your sanity to lose!
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
David Walliams is widely known as a creepy, sick fuck. Open secret for years and years.
His kid’s books suck, too.
Old comics writing books, and often children's books, seems quite a recent fad. Do they really write them or is there a whole army of ghost writers in play?
Nothing new there, they used to have Rent-a-ghosts back in the seventies.
I feel it must be better now as when someone writes most of a book with a bigger name now they usually at least get their name included, eg Wilbur Smith or James Patterson.
That’s not quite the same as ghost writing though. In that case there is a named author who is actually writing the book and the “Wilbur Smith role” is as a plot consultant.
Yes, but i bet that they didnt use to acknowledge it, so a book by X was mostly written by uncredited Y. Which feels like ghost writing. Now we know sometimes at least.
Almost all autobiographies i assume are ghost written.
As a kid I used to like the Hardy Boys books by Franklin W Dixon.
Was quite disappointing to realise there was no such person.
Just popping in to say hello and to report that the St John Xmas Xword is “oven ready” and will be served on time, as in previous years. I hope as many of you as possible will have a look at it and share in the communal solving activity. 😀
Memories. I failed my first driving test in the days when doing hand signals was part of it. I had my hand out of the window indicating right, and as I changed gears at the same time, for some inexplicable reason the examiner grabbed hold of the steering wheel.
I'm in the pub and people are wondering why I am laughing.
They've every right to wonder. If you're in the pub, be 'in the pub' not on your mobile browsing the internet!
I often take my phone or a book to the pub for a quiet pint before dinner. I don't read it when I am in company. Seems like a civilised thing to do. Giggling while by yourself though does look strange.
Memories. I failed my first driving test in the days when doing hand signals was part of it. I had my hand out of the window indicating right, and as I changed gears at the same time, for some inexplicable reason the examiner grabbed hold of the steering wheel.
I'm in the pub and people are wondering why I am laughing.
They've every right to wonder. If you're in the pub, be 'in the pub' not on your mobile browsing the internet!
I often take my phone or a book to the pub for a quiet pint before dinner. I don't read it when I am in company. Seems like a civilised thing to do. Giggling while by yourself though does look strange.
Naturally the new head of Unison is very concerned about Gaza. Not that any of the suffering people anywhere else in the world get a mention.
Her campaign statement made sure to mention Israeli genocide, but in fairness came about 3/4 of the way through, after some workers policy stuff and about 6 references to how awful Starmer is.
Memories. I failed my first driving test in the days when doing hand signals was part of it. I had my hand out of the window indicating right, and as I changed gears at the same time, for some inexplicable reason the examiner grabbed hold of the steering wheel.
I'm in the pub and people are wondering why I am laughing.
They've every right to wonder. If you're in the pub, be 'in the pub' not on your mobile browsing the internet!
I often take my phone or a book to the pub for a quiet pint before dinner. I don't read it when I am in company. Seems like a civilised thing to do. Giggling while by yourself though does look strange.
I like to be by myself with other people sometimes.
Naturally the new head of Unison is very concerned about Gaza. Not that any of the suffering people anywhere else in the world get a mention.
Early reference to Thatcherite politicians is also a discouraging sign of someone thinking for this century. Yes, some historical background can be helpful, but union officials tend to mire in the history a bit.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
Memories. I failed my first driving test in the days when doing hand signals was part of it. I had my hand out of the window indicating right, and as I changed gears at the same time, for some inexplicable reason the examiner grabbed hold of the steering wheel.
I'm in the pub and people are wondering why I am laughing.
They've every right to wonder. If you're in the pub, be 'in the pub' not on your mobile browsing the internet!
I often take my phone or a book to the pub for a quiet pint before dinner. I don't read it when I am in company. Seems like a civilised thing to do. Giggling while by yourself though does look strange.
I like to be by myself with other people sometimes.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Westminster makes it very simple: non-recyclable rubbish (but you can split food waster optionally) and all recycling material together.
They then take the cost of separating out the recycling materials.
If you make it complicated for people some won’t bother to do it. This is just about the governments pushing work onto the residents at a cost to the total amount of recycling
The catch is the usual one. The funding the state can gather through the tax system won't pay for that, and making people sort stuff at home is considerably cheaper.
The difficult question you have is "what is recycling?"
To which there are a nearly infinite set of answers, depending on process.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
Naturally the new head of Unison is very concerned about Gaza. Not that any of the suffering people anywhere else in the world get a mention.
Her campaign statement made sure to mention Israeli genocide, but in fairness came about 3/4 of the way through, after some workers policy stuff and about 6 references to how awful Starmer is.
I thought it was the button mushroom they were redacting?
(Autocorrect actually did try to make that 'erecting.')
Very strange redactions are happening.
They redacted two children of a famous person, who did not need reacting, but did not redact Bill Clinton in the same picture, so giving the impression that Bill Clinton was in a picture with minor "victims".
This is all going through the Courts, and it will be starting quickly.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
Naturally the new head of Unison is very concerned about Gaza. Not that any of the suffering people anywhere else in the world get a mention.
Early reference to Thatcherite politicians is also a discouraging sign of someone thinking for this century. Yes, some historical background can be helpful, but union officials tend to mire in the history a bit.
In her defence, I think she's probably including Starmer as Thatcherite...
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
Hardy knew:
So these ideas of Wessex's boundaries are hardly new?
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
Honestly, if Avatar: Fire & Water sucked any more, I would have orgasmed in the cinema.
Shame, as the trailer looked like it might be slightly more interesting.
The movies take 10 years to make but seem like they were written in 5 minutes - a very quick redraft would have removed several glaring issues in the last one (even if it would still have been bad).
I thought it was the button mushroom they were redacting?
(Autocorrect actually did try to make that 'erecting.')
Very strange redactions are happening.
They redacted two children of a famous person, who did not need reacting, but did not redact Bill Clinton in the same picture, so giving the impression that Bill Clinton was in a picture with minor "victims".
This is all going through the Courts, and it will be starting quickly.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
A source said: “This is the ultimate snub in 2025 – it shows just how deep their rift is.”
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
Hardy knew:
Cricket fielding positions
Silly point
More of a slip.
Ah, a third man has entered the debate.
Swindon is silly mid wessex.
I like the fact that Hardy, a Dorset man, named Somerset 'Outer Wessex', even though it's the most central Wessex county.
One of the few good things this government has announced is more funds for Crown courts to sit on more days each year. Given the amount of extra tax this government has raised at least a fraction of it is being spent sensibly
There seems to be another good thing around, which is standardisation of recycling materials and bins across England.
Oh FFS. Dump the lot in one bin and let the recyclers sort it out, rather than continue with silly games and fines for putting red litter in the green bin, if we really need the same rules in Carshalton as Carlisle, which tbh is not immediately clear.
ETA what Alphabet_Soup said.
One of the reasons for fines and over-enforcement is horribly complex and different rules for different places, and for different types of recycling.
I think standardisation will be far better.
Unfortunately there isn't an English Government to do that
There is, tbf, it's called the one in Downing St. They just devolve the non-English bits. They even have a dept for overseeing local government in the rest and all (I forget what it's called these days, I can never keep up). But historically it used to oversee local gmt in Scotland and Wales as well, before the administrative devolutions a century and a quarter ago in the panic over Irish demands for independence and what would the nearer locals think?
It's about time we had a proper Federal system.
In most federations, "territories" ie the bits directly ruled by the Federal government, are marginal and underpopulated places.
In the UK it is England with maybe 85% of the population.
The current local government reorganisation is a complete dog's breakfast, and unlike the Scots, Norm Irish and Welsh, we are not allowed to say how to do it ourselves and have to be directed by the Imperial parliament at Westminster
Indeed. Labours attempt failed over trying to draw too many regions. Let’s not mess about - everyone knows England consists of the South, the Midlands, and the North, with London on one side. Or Wessex, Mercia and Northumbria, as once was. Carve the country outside London into three chunks, and just get on with it.
West Country Wessex Thames Valley & Estuary East Anglia & the Levels West Midlands & the Marches East Midlands (Five Boroughs) Lancashire & Cheshire (Counties Palatine?) Yorkshire Northumbria Cumbria
The West Country and Wessex are the same surely?
I was thinking of Wessex as Hampshire, Wiltshire and Dorset; and West Country as Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, and Greater Bristol.
(Gloucestershire I put into the West Mids, which obviously wouldn’t be popular, but that region is in my view unfairly truncated away from its Severn outlet).
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
A source said: “This is the ultimate snub in 2025 – it shows just how deep their rift is.”
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers. It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
A source said: “This is the ultimate snub in 2025 – it shows just how deep their rift is.”
Can we go back to arguing about trans trains, please?
This is the Transport For Wales Class 398 tram-train. Because the network in Wales is multi-mode, it can travel on tracks like a train using onboard batteries, or tracks with overhead power like an electrified train, or tram rails down the road like a tram. It can in fact transition from mode to mode as it travels to and from its destination.
Comments
Late Soviet Britain strikes once more.
Swindon is part of Wiltshire, whether it likes it or not, even if it is essentially a post-war exurb of Bristol.
Seems daft to have a Heart of Wessex without Winchester, ie Hampshire.
The Forest, Tewkesbury and Gloucester are closely linked to the Midlands, the northern Cotswolds and the Cheltenham suburbs to the Thames Valley/London, and Stroud and Cirencester to the West Country.
So putting Gloucestershire as a whole into any area would be damn near impossible. But as for splitting it up - I don't think Starmer knows what will hit him if he tries that...
I've set it to record.
But as I posted earlier, my regions wouldn’t have anything as crass as assemblies or any autonomy. Power would largely lie at the Gloucestershire, and Bristol Metro, level in my example.
Hampshire would make sense for the name, but they had to propose something. West of England was already taken, so what else? The West of England but slightly further South Mayoralty?
I can see the benefit of taking food waste out of the process, but I can't really see how separating between cardboard and plastic makes a difference.
It’s a gerrymandered, artificial idea.
As you say, the attitude toward Swindon is political and cultural. It’s a new town plonked in the middle of an unwelcoming shire.
But it exists, can’t be wished away, and the people of Swindon have as many rights as anyone.
If shires had any real autonomy they could attempt to make Swindon an ornament of Wiltshire rather than an alien intrusion.
I like the local gov reorganisation as an idea, the mayors less, but it will remain a bit of a mess with all the compromises.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/wYwDIbLih0o
December 15th this year
A Nakatomi employee ponders: Is this a Christmas hostage situation?
Tan Smith just referred to Stephen Yaxley-Lennon as Ewok Powell. Well it made me laugh.
https://searchlightmagazine.com/2025/12/robinsons-dubai-trip-a-challenge-to-emirates-law
Been going for half a century and it never gets stale. A quite remarkable work.
So he’d get a free ride home at the end of his holiday, remind his pals in the high places he exists and burnish his rep among his online chums. Wonder how many more subscriptions to his online sewer he would get from that?
Edit: irony is dangerous - but I would hate to see PB without it, even though I've misinterpreted the odd post myself.
The only reason there isn't a pre-Brunel town hall is that the councillors met in the pub.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Town_Hall,_Swindon
I actually marginally prefer the Canary Wharf of the tropics with added corporal punishment of Singapore to the Croydon of the Gulf with its patrol cars checking for shaggers on the fake beach.
(Spoiler: it wasn’t really by him.)
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cosette-Time-Illusion-Francois-Ceresa/dp/0333908759
Even so, I'm surprised it's taken half a century.
https://bsky.app/profile/robdenbleyker.com/post/3magzott4jk2o
Admiring the propaganda of the deed, I suppose.
Fuckwits of the World Unite! You have only your sanity to lose!
Was quite disappointing to realise there was no such person.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/dec/19/new-head-unison-politicians-unions-labour?CMP=share_btn_url
Naturally the new head of Unison is very concerned about Gaza. Not that any of the suffering people anywhere else in the world get a mention.
To which there are a nearly infinite set of answers, depending on process.
They redacted two children of a famous person, who did not need reacting, but did not redact Bill Clinton in the same picture, so giving the impression that Bill Clinton was in a picture with minor "victims".
This is all going through the Courts, and it will be starting quickly.
On "Wessex", am I incorrect to think it originated as "Wazzocks"?
James Cameron naming DIE HARD as his favorite action movie ever - and deeming it the greatest Christmas movie ever 🔥
https://x.com/Todd_Spence/status/2002465573738062031?s=20
The more people say it then it just increases the chance I use the Farage photo in an upcoming header.
https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-lost-generation/
TLDR - an older generation of white men screwed over a younger generation of white men for reasons of greed and self interest (preservation?).
Avatar: Fire and Ash review: The latest in the sci-fi adventure series is the longest and worst yet
https://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/article/20251215-avatar-fire-and-ash-review
Honestly, if Avatar: Fire & Water sucked any more, I would have orgasmed in the cinema.
'UNFRIEND IT LIKE BECKHAM Fresh twist in Beckham family feud as David and Victoria unfollow son Brooklyn on Instagram after snub from brothers.
It comes after their sons Romeo, 23, and Cruz, 20, unfollowed their brother and his wife on the app in July.
A source said: “This is the ultimate snub in 2025 – it shows just how deep their rift is.”
https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/37697315/brooklyn-beckham-unfollows-david-victoria-instagram-family-feud/
The movies take 10 years to make but seem like they were written in 5 minutes - a very quick redraft would have removed several glaring issues in the last one (even if it would still have been bad).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrxCqER3sCo
Christmas has come for some.
Epstein, US attacking Syria, and arresting another ship in international waters off Venezuala is
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cMalKP4c4s
NEW THREAD
This would make it a trans tram train
I thank you (bows to the audience)