Smudgeinthebudge

Could be.Do you know the producers (of Dr Who, not the Mel Brooks film)?

He was a great writer from "The Colour of Magic" to "Down the Long Mars". Particular favourites of mine were "The Wee Free Men" and "Getting up Steam" All brilliant stuff. I wish I could have thanked him personally for all the laughter he's given me down the long years. 

It's interesting to think of how any mice left in mine workings will evolve in the next million or so years. I think a lot will die off but mice have a lot of things going for their survival, such as ability to get though small spaces. Food will obviously be a problem, but cannibalism might help in that but i don't know if other food sources may be available such as fungi on old wood etc. Mice are pretty eclectic in their diet. There is usually plenty of water, in fact too much without the pumps, that will kill off a lot. A sub species might eventually evolve, blind, aquatic, albino. cannibal mice that prey on other species that have stayed on the edge of the water. Anyway these are just idle thoughts.  

It's nice to know we've evolved such efficient photon detectors. Its a pity the brain isn't so good at interpreting the results, but hey ho we are getting better at it with the use of infra red, ultra violet, xrays, scanners, radio telescopes and large hadron colliders. 

Maggs, just as well you had hot and cold running water to hose down those ankle-biters once you got home.  A couple of generations ago it would have been a cold tap in a communal yard bounded by hovels owned by Tory slum landlords.   

 

A decent result to that challenge, me thinks!

Don't forget the cholera, polio and dysantry, cured by great politicians and reformers.

A Ukip voter didn't say something. He published it on a web forum. I'm sure you would want to mention it a Labour voter posted that the policies of Uncle Joe or Pol Pot were worth supporting.

The Queen. To misquote Monty Python "I never voted for herâ€.  I am concerned  for the Queen as she is an elderly human being but just because her ancestors could swing a sword harder than mine doesn't give her a mandate to rule. Are you implying that hereditary monarchy is right because of past use of force i.e. Might is right.

I never attempted to put words into other peoples mouths, I only stated my own opinion. I do not try to speak for other people. What has the NF (National front) having an opinion on motorway traffic got to do with any of this. (only joking)

Has little Nige not, in the last few days said something about scrapping laws against racism in the workplace, but I'm sure you will put me right on that score. 

Hitler - Yeah. He did have a big impact on the twentieth century. Pity that some in this country try to use similar tactics ad nauseam.

The death penalty - Wahoo! We agree on something.

I agree with you again in the fact that you did say prospects, because I cannot be bothered to argue semantics

As for telling everyone why I don't think Clegg etc are not guilty of high treason It's a simple matter of defining what high treason is. Under the law of the United Kingdom high treason is the crime of disloyalty to the Crown. Offences constituting high treason include plotting the murder of the sovereign; committing adultery with the sovereign's consort, with the sovereign's eldest unmarried daughter, or with the wife of the heir to the throne; levying war against the sovereign and adhering to the sovereign's enemies, giving them aid or comfort; and attempting to undermine the lawfully established line of sucession. I think under this law the majority of people in this country would be guilty at one time or another and we already had that argument when we chopped off Charles 2^nd's head

However I am not a fan of politicians in general because, as an Anarcho-syndicalist, I believe that anyone seeking power over other people should automatically not be allowed to have any. On the same vein I don't think anyone has a right to rule me and whether they do it from Brussels or Westminster or Ashington I do not care as long as they leave me alone.

True Ukip policy coming out there? Death penalty wish for politicians that oppose them. This reminds me of something, I can't think what, that previous generations in this country fought against

I nearly made a typo there, not capitalising 'English' after capitalising 'German'. Not the sort of typo I'd want to make on this site.

Funny enough when I was in Bielefeld in Germany in the early 1970s a German family used to put their minah bird out in a cage in their back garden next to the barracks. That one used some choice language in English, in fact it swore like a trooper. 

To quote somebody, I can't remember who, parking attendants are the unsung heroes of the modern age. I truly believe we would have total gridlock without them. There again I've never had a parking ticket in my life because I don't park anywhere I'd get one. There are plenty of places to park in Bedlington, all free.

Has anyone considered that the Ofsted inspectors might be correct. A strong organisation doesn't become all defensive when criticised but buckles down and puts things right.

"Deed man's baccy" was what we used to call Cow parsley or Queen Anne's Lace, a member of the umbelliferae or carrot family. We used to light the ends of the dried out hollow stalks, blow out the flame, then take a drag through the tube. It tasted terrible and all it did was make you cough and choke and sometimes burn your mouth and throat. I've never heard of anyone taking it up as a habit. It is a very common plant in this area especially in hedgerows. Tall, with small white flowers on top of umberella like stalks. 

Forst tab was me Father's players off the mantelpiece. I used to to be sent to Ester's to buy them for him and me mam. 1/11d a packet. Before that I'd smoked "deed man's baccy" and tea leaves in a pipe. It was hard work becoming a smoker but it was harder work stopping four year ago!

See what I've done, brought religion in as well. 

Ah nipped a tab ootside the chorch at wor young'ns wedding, put the dump in me pocket, went into the church and after a few minnits smelt bornin and fund that me suit was ahad! That was probably an embassy. 

Does anyone know the safety factors for building houses on ground that has been opencasted as both these fields have been in my lifetime?

That's not as sleazy as the Bluebell was at one time on a Friday night!

How about a dubbing and snuff emporium or a dedicated sleazy absinthe bar with french music?

Excellent jukebox in the sixties. I remember the whir of the milkshake machine.

The marking system in general for the good country index is worth a look at if you want to see what other countries think of yours. It is an organisation set up to help improve the lives of people everywhere and a little bit of altruism can be a nice thing. Instead of looking at political and nationalist theories to explain the markings we should try to increase our individual scores in all aspects of the chart. It is a better one to win than the olympics, world cup or european tiddlywinks championship.   

Anyone who seeks power over other people should negate any right to have any!

Good idea. I suggest local GP surgeries, community groups and societies, local business' schools, nurseries, public transport links and I'm sure there are many others.

Violence among a minority of teenage lads doesn't mean that the mining communities of the area were at each others throats. The older generation of miners tended to be gentle and the people in different villages were friendly to each other. Witness the happy revelry for the majority on picnic day. There were still fights among some of the lads but that didn't stop everybody else from enjoying themselves. Funny enough the mining school at Ashington had fifteen and sixteen year old lads from every pit village in the county there and I remember it as a very happy place with everyone telling jokes to each other. I never saw a fight there. Then, as now, most of the violent crime was fuelled by alcohol and instead of getting someone older to obtain it for them from to drink in a park the teenagers then would get the beer in pubs where certain landlords thought if your voice had broken you must be 18. 

Only telling the truth of what it was like at times then in the early and mid sixties. I have no interest or any point to make except that, in general, society was more violent then than it is now. Solving problems with your fists was socially acceptable at the time. Fights were common in school, violence was used by teachers to keep order, bullying was common, and, as we are still finding out now, child abuse was hushed up and kept quiet about. Do not get me wrong, I love Northumberland which I think is the best county in Britain but I am talking about the past. In my better moments I am able to take off my rose tinted spectacles and look at the past as it really was not as a day dreamy fantasy world where coppers kept you right with a clip across the ear and the teachers were strict but fair. As an ex regular soldier who I abhor the murder of Lee Rigby as much as anyone but I tend to agree with his mother who has publicly stated that she hates the way the rightwing in this country has hijacked his murder to justify their racist views and use his murder as propaganda for their political purposes.

In the sixties I witnessed with my own eyes lots of violence in gang fights, some of which I'm ashamed to say I took part in. However, in the seventies and eighties the extreme horror of the Spanish civil war in the thirties didn't stop people from flocking there in their millions. Just as a now an almost forgotten load of gang fights in the sixties is hardly likely to put people off from coming here. Anyway the Welfare at Ashington could be far worse and Morpeth and Blyth had their own hard lads. The battles closed about every dance in Northumberland. Yes, there has been worse violence in other parts of Britain in the recent past however most of it has been politically or weird belief system motivated not as a way of life for fun. 

It was serious violence, People talk about the kids now but a normal Friday night at the Clayton, if it happened now, would probably make the national news and the fully armoured riot police would be using tasers, baton rounds, cs gas and water cannon to sort it all out. There would be a few hundred asbos handed out and the venue would be immediately shut down. Oh for the good old days when we knew how to enjoy ourselves.