Wilf Batty isn’t a name from the past that provokes instant recognition. Most probably have no idea who he was or what he did. Well, he was a farmer in the Mawbanna district of Tasmania, and what he did
Continue reading →The Law of the Jungle
The Genes Genie
Parents can be a hard act to live up to. If they’ve been an immense success in their chosen field, their children entering the same field means they have to either surpass the particular parent’s achievements or
Continue reading →Class and the Common Girl.
Reading one of Moor Larkin’s excellent posts the other night, an excerpt from the Pollard report caught my eye. I had seen it before, but in isolation; now I was reading it
Continue reading →End of the Peer Show at the Maison des Crétins.
Alas poor Buttifant*! The fashion police have busted him.
On Sunday he was a mere coke snorting, tart romping Peer, barely distinguishable from his colleagues – by Monday The Sun had played their master stroke and
Continue reading →"The Daily Speculation" and "The Alarmist Times".
I’m starting to count the number of times that the early morning news contains the words ‘The Prime Minister will tell business leaders today’ or ‘George Osborne is expected to announce’; I’m counting as a means of
Milk Marketing.
A reader of this parish, a blissfully content new grandfather, which makes a change from his usual curmudgeonly, contrarian, argumentative self, in between making coochy-coo noises and blowing bubbles at his new granddaughter, decided to do something practical
The Raccoon Arms Jukebox
They’re coming to take it away ha-ha, hee-hee, boo-hoo. Yes, the Raccoon Arms Jukebox has spun its last scratchy disc. It has expired. It is an ex-jukebox. It has served us well. Many is the time a
Continue reading →As We Were Saying Earlier…
Whilst a Victorian bride was expected to be as white as a Persil bed-sheet hanging from the suburban washing line when she was led up the aisle, her husband was expected to be a little more worldly-wise regarding
Continue reading →Red Flags in the Sunset
Most of you probably didn’t notice, but a new Liberal Democrat leader was elected this week. You remember the Lib Dems, don’t you? They used to form a small and stubborn little pocket in the last
Continue reading →Trumps, Tramps, and Trims, and Peeping at Tom's.
Trumps. What Donald Trump actually said:
“I like Mexico, I love the Mexican people, I do business with Mexico,” he said. “But you have people coming through the border who are from all over
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Between a Rock and a Hard Face
Once upon a time, there was a Princess much beloved by the people, one who bemoaned the persistence of press intrusion until she wanted to showcase an exclusive couture outfit at a movie premiere or plug a
Continue reading →Tag-Tag-Tagging Along.
Adaptability might be the best way to describe how Google remains the top search engine in the world. As SEOs learn how to manipulate the system, Google constantly changes it. New technology arrives – social media – Google
Continue reading →The Filth and The Fuehrer
Viewing the past through the prism of the present is slowly becoming accepted practice. At one end of the scale, we have the conspiracy industry that has now turned its attention away from the JFK assassination and
Continue reading →School’s Out For Summer
Yesterday’s post (and for those of you with short memories, it was the one about weekends) anticipated some of what I’d intended for this one, especially in some of the comments it spawned. One opined that
Continue reading →Something for the Weekend, Sir?
I don’t believe that I have ever had work that recognised such a thing as the weekend. If I did, it was a long time ago. The idea that a Saturday or a Sunday is something profound, or
Continue reading →Sham Pain Socialists
Before American billionaires, Saudi Sheiks and Russian Oligarchs began buying up the country’s top flight football clubs, most were in the hands of local self-made men, pillars of the community who’d made a mint from industry and
Continue reading →The Culture Club
The Common Market, the Eurovision Song Contest, the European Cup, ‘Jeux Sans Frontieres’ and the European Capital of Culture – initiatives hatched on the continent with the admirable aim of creating a greater understanding and sense
Continue reading →Je Suis un Francophile
The late great Clement Freud once remarked that the British idea of Germany being the ultimate adversary is a relatively new theory, one spawned by two twentieth century World Wars. ‘France is really the enemy,’ he said.
Continue reading →Childline.
Back in July 2011, around the time that Meirion Jones was first making a move on the story of great personal interest to him and his family:
Mr Jones told me
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Who Pays the Piper?
Follow the money is a popular retort. I’ve been chasing taxpayer’s money into some very odd corners.
I’m indebted to the National Secular Society for first alerting me to something quite mysterious. Those priests you occasionally
Continue reading →The Fat Lady is Singing
Once a vital lifeline to pop-picking teenagers when the pirates had yet to set sail and the BBC Light Programme swung to terminally upbeat orchestral mood music, Radio Luxembourg finally gave up the ghost of the 208 wavelength
Continue reading →The Full Starr v. Ward Judgment.
Neutral Citation Number: [2015] EWHC 1987 (QB)
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE QUEEN’S BENCH DIVISION
Before :
MR JUSTICE NICOL
———————
Between
Continue reading →Free Philistine!
A ballerina with the Royal Ballet being interviewed on the radio the other day described the manner in which so many people outside her profession seem to assume her job is closer to a hobby. The common
Continue reading →Nothing New Under the Sun…
Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.
King James Bible Job 11:1 – 20.
There is much
Continue reading →Two Sevens Clash
It’s an over-familiar sight where TV news bulletins are concerned, one of the predominant clichés employed to emphasise what often seems a curiously testosterone-fuelled competition between broadcasters to bring the scene of the crime into the nation’s
Continue reading →Discerning Light and Darkness in the Twilight World.
The Twilight World, that chamber of horrors complete with trick mirrors distorting reality, and ghostly shrieks from memories past, that some unfortunate individuals are forced to dwell in towards the end of their days.
It is
Continue reading →The Power of Nightmares
‘White Bear’, the truly unnerving and remarkably horrific 2013 episode of Charlie Brooker’s ‘Twilight Zone’-for-the-twenty-first century series, ‘Black Mirror’, was the main topic of discussion when I saw a close friend the day after its transmission.
Continue reading →What Has America Ever Done For Us?
Bloody Americans, eh? Coming over here, taking our culture. On this day 239 years ago a bunch of ‘em got together and decided they’d be better off without us; and yet they won’t leave us alone! We
Continue reading →Straight to Hellas
With creditors at the door, Greece hovers on the brink of bankruptcy, is finally declared insolvent and then has to be bailed out by an international financial authority. No, not 2015, but 1893. I’ll refrain from saying
Continue reading →Spirit of ’76
There’s a hell of a lot more to a heat wave than a perennial disco classic from 1977. OK, so it was very warm yesterday and I was out in the worst of it. Being of Northern
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