Tag: David Hencke

Four Political Pieces

Four political pieces and some pictures.

INTRODUCTION

As well as the four pieces mentioned in the title I have some pictures to share. 

TORY ELECTION FRAUD

Although the Biased Bull****ting Conservatives (BBC for short) are still not giving this story much coverage, and have had the cheek on one of the rare occasions when they did cover it to use the word ‘mistake’, which is one thing it most certainly was not, other sources including Channel 4 have been giving it proper coverage. The Skwawkbox blog, noted for the regularity with which it beats mainstream media to the breaking of stories, and this piece, under the title “THE ‘LONGEST CONFESSION NOTE IN HISTORY’? CONHOME ADMITS WHAT CCHQ WANT TO HIDE”. The image below links to the piece on Skwawkbox.

conhome.png

THE #GIDIOT

The piece by David Hencke that I link to at the end of this section details yet more public transport problems facing Britain, and especially northern Britain. It is titled “Is George Osborne’s Northern Powerhouse about to hit the buffers?” Many of my readers will already be aware that the Downright Dishonourable Member for Tatton (in Cheshire), aka the #Gidiot, aka Gideon George Oliver Osborne has just been named as the new editor of the Evening Standard, a purely London based newspaper. Before providing the link, as usual by way of an image, I shall give in bullet form my objections to this latest example of Westminster and mainstream media getting cozy (btw although I firmly believe that Osborne should not be allowed to be both MP and newspaper editor, I can’t help wondering whether if he arrogantly stays on as MP he might not end up making what in view of his constituency I shall call a ‘Hamiltonian’ exit from parliament – unfortunately Tatton does seem to get more than its fair share of bad ‘uns!).

REASONS WHY AN MP SHOULD NOT BE AN EDITOR

  • One of the concerns highlighted in the Leveson Report was a degree of unacceptable closeness between the press and Westminster. In view of this it should not be possible for a current MP to also be a newspaper editor.
  • Conflict of interest several ways – between the role of MP and that of editor, between his southern based newspaper and his northern constituency, and between his role as editor and the several other important roles that he has had the arrogance to take.
  • It demonstrates contempt for his constituents by yet further reducing the amount of time he can spend attending to them.

Additional to the above, the Downright Dishionourable Member for Tatton has zero qualification for the task of editing a newspaper.

Click on the image below to read the David Hencke piece.

Great_Bentley_station_geograph-3890553-by-Ben-Brooksbank

Picture of Great Bentley station by Ben Brooksbank

STANDING UP TO A MEDIA MOGUL

From a newly minted media menace to one of much longer standing, namely Rupert Murdoch – embedded below is a video from 38 Degrees titled “How to stand up to a media mogul”. It is very short – enjoy!

SCOTTISH INDEPENDENCE

I recognize that this is a thorny issue. I will start by making two things clear:

  1. The future of Scotland should be decided by the Scots.
  2. Extending from my first point, while as a Sassenach I can express no personal opinion on whether Scotland should or should not vote for independence I can say for a certainty that if I was a Scot I would be voting for independence.

My link in this section is to an STV piece titled “Sturgeon refuses to rule out wildcat independence vote”, and I link to it by means of an image.

PICTURES

These pictures were all obtained by means of the scanner. These are pictures of 18 hammered coins which will be going under the hammer in April, and other than myself you are the first people to see them.

G1G2-aG2-bG3G4G5G6G7G8G9G10G11G12G13G14G15G16G17G18

More on Public Transport

Some public transport related links, accessible by means of appropriately themed photographs.

INTRODUCTION

Several of the interesting pieces I wish to share with you are related to public transport (no great surprise there). In the case of each piece that I share the link will be in the form of a picture that appears I have introduced the subject matter. In this particular post all the pictures I am using are appropriately themed ones that I have taken myself (if the post I am linking to is illustrated I will use a picture from there). More detail about where these particular pictures come from will appear in my next post.

BUSES IN CRISIS

This section links to a post from the Campaign for Better Transport detailing the way in which British bus services have been slashed since 2010. If you are ready to read the full, grim detail, please click on the picture below, which features a 505 bus on it’s way into Lynn from Spalding.

Bus1

My second link, accessed by clicking the picture of the bus depot that ends this section, is to the Campaign for Better Transport’s  response to the House of Commons Bus Services Bill Public Bill Committee. 

busdepot

TRAINS

Given the scandalous state of Britain’s railways, it is not terribly surprising to read the horrors contained in David Hencke’s latest piece, titled “Why millions of passengers will face years of overcrowded trains because of a staggering electrification blunder”, which you can read in full by clicking the picture of a train framed by willow trees.

Train

WWW.LONDONTU.BE

In addition to this blog I am the creator of the website www.londontu.be on which I today posted a piece about Greenwich. To see this piece please click on the map section below:

Greenwich statfions close up

Super Sharing Saturday – Politics 3: Bits and Bobs

A selection of political stories from the last couple of days.

INTRODUCTION

This is the third and last politically themed post in this series that I have been putting up today (although I have held some stories that might be considered political back for the next post which will be the last – I will then create a page containing links to these specific posts for ease of reference).

TORY STEALS MOD SECRETS, USES THEM TO HELP ADAM SMITH INTERNATIONAL

This story, which shows Tories at their worst and most unprincipled was brought to my attention by David Hencke. To read the full story of how MOD secrets were stolen and used to load the dice in favour of Adam Smith International click the image below.

rajadasgupta.jpg

ANOTHER ANGRY VOICE ON TORY ELECTOTRAL FRAUD

Thomas G Clark who blog as Another Angry Voice has more on the Tory electoral fraud story, in the form of whistleblowers who have admitted to unknowingly assisting the Tories to commit electoral fraud. Click the image below to read the full piece.

PIP PIP

I have two pieces on Personal Independence Payments (PIP for short) for your attention. Firstly, DPAC are asking for people who would be willing to be involved in a legal challenge to changes to PIP. If you are able to help DPAC, or would like to share their piece please click on the screenshot below.

DPACss

The second PIP comes from 38 Degrees, in the form of a petition calling for people with mental health issues to be treated fairly under PIP. Please click the image below for more.

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION

A situation that allows a party who gained 37% of the votes cast (under 25% of the electorate given the turnout) to form a “majority” government is obviously unacceptable. If you agree with this and are a UK resident please click on the screenshot below to sign and/ or share the petition, which is currently on 93,217 signatures, meaning that another 6,783will trigger a debate in the house. Just before putting up the screenshot link one final point for those who bring uop the orevious referendum on this subject: AV IS NOT PR

PR

ROWSON SKEWERS HAMMOND

To end on a lighter note, below, with a link to the original, is Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson’s take on Philip Hammond’s budget:

Martin Rowson cartoon 09.03.17

 

 

Saturday Shares

Sharing the best stuff I have found on the internet lately, and some of my own pictures.

INTRODUCTION

No – I’m not getting into financial writing! This title refers to the fact that this post is largely devoted to sharing interesting stuff I have found recently, with some pictures, mainly from work.

I STAND WITH HARRY – UPDATE

The latest stage of this campaign to get Brentwood County Hugh School to confront and deal with their bullying problem, a campaign being run by veteran anti-bullying campaigner and autism advocate Kevin Healey, is calling for people to post pictures of themselves holding an “I Stand With Harry” poster. For the record this is the one I posted:

dscn7123

MAKE VOTES MATTER

The “Make Votes Matter” campaign have launched a thunderclap as the latest stage of their efforts to get the antiquated and defective FPTP system under which British general elections are fought.

SEA WORLD PETITION

Another long standing campaign entering a new phase. The new development is a map to which you can add your presence:

A NEW INTERACTIVE MAP

I have already posted a couple of links about this on my London transport themed website, but this is so good that I am posting about it here as well:

  • The Time Out piece that set me wise to this
  • The two links posted on my website (here and here)
  • To check out the tool (I caught it out once – when although it correctly had me change at Stockwell to the Victoria line for a journey between Tooting Bec and Great Portland Street it then had me change at King;’s Cross to the Circle/ Hammersmith and City/ Metropolitan, instead of alighting at Warren Street, strolling round the corner to Euston Square and travelling one stop west – a net gain of three stops with little time difference in the interchanges) click the screenshot below:
    tubermap

OTHER LINKS

These are individual links that defy any sort of grouping:

PICTURES

As already stated, most of my pictures are from work on Thursday and yesterday.

1
Lot 1 in James and Sons auction that will take place on November 30th.

1-a1-b

154
Lot 154
293
Lot 293

3030-a30-b3737-a37-b3838-a38-b4040-a40-b4545-b6767-a67-b67-c7272-a72-b112112-a

596
Lot 596
phylogenetic-tree-pin
Finishing appropriately given the nature of the post with an image of a pin badge that I spotted on twitter. The design is a phylogenetic tree btw.

A Spectacular Recovery

An account of the dramatic finish to yesterday’s ODI between England and Sri Lanka, some links and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

This post is about the closing stages of yesterday’s ODI between England and Sri Lanka, which I listened to once I had got home from work.

A DISTANT PROSPECT

When I switched the commentary on Sri Lanka had made a respectable 286, which by that stage was looking positively mountainous since England were 39-4. When skipper Eoin Morgan was out for 42 to make the score 73-5, and Moeen Ali also fell cheaply to a poor shot the situation looked even grimmer for England, as Chris Woakes walked out to join Jos Buttler…

A GREAT PARTNERSHIP

Buttler and Woakes fared better than had seemd posssible when they came together, and gradually victory moved from the realms of fantasy to a distant but imaginable outcome to a genuine possibility. Two wickets in quick succession, Buttler and then Dvaid Willey seemed to have once again settled things in Sri Lanka’s favour, but Liam Plunkett (surely the most talented batsman ever to be at number 10 by design) played well alongside Woakes who established a record score for a number 8 in an ODI. In the end it came down to…

A SPECTACULAR FINAL OVER

At the start of this final over 14 were needed for England to win. Good bowling restricted England to seven off the first five, meaning that unless a wide or a no-ball was bowled England could no longer win. Neither was forthcoming, but Liam Plunkett did hit that final ball for six to level the scores and earn England a tie after a come-back of epic proportions.

LINKS

My first link, just to tie up the loose ends from the first part of this post is to an official account of yesterday’s ODI, courtesy of cricinfo.

My remaining links are all on the subject of referendums and one referendum in particular. I start with David Hencke’s post about why he will be voting for remain.

My next two links are both to posts from that legal eagle of the blogging world jackofkent, first a detailed analysis of what he sees as the flaws of referendums, and second, acoompanied by a screenshot below and some subsidiary comments of my own afterwards a proposal for banning referendums:

JoK

I would change clause 2 of the above act to read:

2. This Act can only be repealed by a unanimous vote in the house (for the purposes of this Act abstentions and absences count as votes against).

PHOTOS

For anyone who has read all the foregoing text here is your bonus in the form of some recent photographs:

DSCN6784DSCN6785DSCN6787DSCN6788DSCN6789DSCN6790DSCN6791DSCN6792DSCN6793DSCN6794DSCN6799DSCN6800DSCN6802DSCN6803DSCN6804DSCN6805DSCN6806DSCN6808DSCN6809

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Although the day rider plus that is my standard bus ticket specifically excludes the coasthopper whose route map is pictured here, coasthopper buses sometimes run other routes, notably the X8 between King’s Lynn and Fakenham.

 

A Pot-Pourri of a Post

Some good links to various interesting and important items, an important infographic in among them, a couple of classic recipes and some excellent images.

Before I get into my own stuff, I have some links to share…

LINKS

I start with a series of posts about the general election that has just happened:

First up, the ever reliable Mike Sivier of Vox Political. It was also Mr Sivier who provided the introduction to the my next post, written by David Hencke. Another frequent source of good material is John P Ointon who blogs as notesfromthenorth and who provided a fine response to the general election. My final piece of election related material, given that the Tories have an absolute majority in the house on 36% of the votes cast, is a petition calling for a change in the system of parliamentary representation courtesy of change.org, accompanied by a graphic showing what the the break down of MPs would be under PR…

PR

My penultimate link is to the petition currently being run via 38 Degrees by the Save Southwark Woods campaign.

My last link is to a post from Autism Mom.

IMAGING AND OTHER STUFF

A combination of two busy and eventful days and a sleepless night in between (following the election) has meant that I have not posted recently. I revisited a classic recipe of mine this week, my own customised version of Madhur Jaffrey’s Lemony Chicken and Coriander, although rather than using thighs I used a half chicken cut into managable size pieces with the aid of ‘the world’s sharpest knife’. This recipe featured, along with another that I have not used in a very long time in my first ever blog post. Here are both recipes in a graphic…

Kitchen Specialities

The ‘PR’ graphic I put up earlier of course is based on actual votes and not on how people would have voted had PR been in force (e.g. I voted labour in the general election for a combination of reasons which would not have applied under PR – the question would have been whether to vote Green – as I did in the local elections – or for the Trade Union and Socialist Coalition, TUSC). In view of the number of people who clearly did not vote the way they had told pollsters they would, here is photographic proof that I did precisely what I said I would…

DSCN4993

I have done some interesting imaging at work this week, finishing off the May stuff and imaging one piece of stock for the June sale that needed to be protected from damage…

These five images are of the medals that feature in lot 424A in our May auction. There were two pics, one taken with flash and one without, the latter of which was treated in three different ways and the former in two.
These five images are of the medals that feature in lot 424A in our May auction. There were two pics, one taken with flash and one without, the latter of which was treated in three different ways and the former in two.

Flash No Flash - edited

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No Flash

These date from Thursday, now some stuff from yesterday…

The documents that accompany the medals pictured earlier.
The documents that accompany the medals pictured earlier.
The next six images are of lot 653 in the June sale (It was mighty hard to capture every detail of something so intricate as this, hence so many pics)
The next six images are of lot 653 in the June sale (It was mighty hard to capture every detail of something so intricate as this, hence so many pics)

653a 653b 653c 653d 653e 768 768a 768b

ON SHARING

At the start of this post I shared various things from other sources, because they had made an impact on me. If you enjoyed this post I would be very grateful for you to share it, and I also encourage you to share individual items from within it if they particularly appeal to you. My final words, once rendered by the estimable Mr Bilbo Baggins as “thag you very buch” are embodied in the image with which this post concludes and apply to all who read it through to the end:

TY3