Symptoms

Hire a Tardis (you can do this), stock it with historic Bedders lookalikes (Daniel Gooch and others) in costume, have them emerge from the time machine to turn the lekky on. Perhaps a Dr Who lookalike could use a sonic screwdriver to do the deed ... obviously, this bit would be an act and would need somebody with the real switch hiding in sight of the Doctor.

Variations on this theme - Martians emerging from mock flying saucer could do the deed on his/her/its way for a haircut; for our younger viewers somebody will be along soon to explain this one.

Now over to the Thatcher apologists perhaps ....

Yeh, even tramping across Russia's endless, snow-covered birch forests would have been a blessed relief from her horrible deeds. At the time, even reading Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago and One day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich suggested there may have been a more comfortable place to be than under the Thatcher jackboot.

I'm not so sure that 'making these images' or even having them saved on you PCs, is a wise thing to do ... if you know what I mean.

Adam - trouble is that many of us here would love to get involved but we aren't Bedders based ... quite a few of us aren't even in Blighty.

Eggs wrote: "... with the rest of the world.".

I take this to mean that you were comparing the sunlit countries beyond our shores with the shadow-filled place created here by that vile, evil witch?

Today marks the centenary of the Britain's worst pit disaster when 439 miners were killed in an underground explosion ... it happened in Wales but miners everywhere faced the same risks.

Read more here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24516312

and here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-24506122

Higgs was shown on Newsnight earlier in the week trying to explain what the thing was ... he couldn't! Anyway, old Heinz Wolff (remember him?) was interviewed by Paxo about it and gave a great explanation ... he said it was like a missing bit of Leggo in a block of lots of Leggo - in other words a HOLE. This hole was where the mass was. Obviously, I've simplified the explanation for our younger viewers - those identified this week as being near the bottom of the international '3Rs' list.

Find it here on the Beeb's iplayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03cp264/Newsnight_08_10_2013/

Had you been on Blue Peter maybe Operation Yewtree would have been interested in a witness statement from you.

Maggs wrote: "Mine brought to life a bride doll ..."

Like this ...?

Rumours from Allied HQ that a small unit of the Forces of Darkness, formally based in that dank cellar above a disused colliery, have been spotted trying to re-group under the leadership of a fella from a small South American country. Uruguay was a former bolt-hole for the escaping former bosses of the earlier evil fascist regime of the 30s and 40s.

The small enemy force, made-up mainly of old men and boys, have been charged by their new leader to defend "until the death", their ruined bunker of plight. Our brave agent managed to smuggle-out a couple of photos taken at this meeting which show the speech ...

Keith wrote: "...and eventually by rail ...". Does this mean that there are plans to regularly send a passenger service through B/Station?

i can clearly remember the stacks of props in the pit yard and playing on and in them ... they never seemed to roll away or collapse, I suppose this was due to the guys who stacked them knowing what they were doing. I can also remember the pit pond at the yard - it seemed (at the time us lads) to be huge and deep area of water contained in a massive riveted iron tank. I'm not sure it was used for anything in the 60s apart from housing vast colonies of frogs and spawn ... I suppose it was originally used as a water reservoir for the various steam engines used at the pit in earlier times.

One year for bonfire night we nicked all the new fencing from the back of the council offices (Front St) to build a monster bonfire ... it sure burned well. The earlier fencing boards we had away for our fortified camp which was on my Dad's allotment 'down the cut' ... The Cut was a collection of allotments and waste land which ran from the Council Office's rear car park near Clovelly Gardens and down between the back of East Riggs & Windsor Gardens to Acorn Avenue - there were two rough footpaths running the length of this area, hence 'The Cut' (shortcut). The area is now built over - Windsor Court according to Google Earth. We also used this area as a motor bike scramble track ... down one cut (Riggs side) across the bottom (Acorn) and back up the other cut (Windsor) to the car park and repeated again and again and again. The bikes were things like old James Cadets, Velocettes, and similar - lots of Villiers engines. I have some 8mm film footage (now on DVD) taken by my Dad from a rear bedroom window of us riding the motor bikes - I didn't know this footage existed until quite recently when I converted all the film discovered when clearing my Mum's house after she died.

Yep, a good story teller ... but, but, but a rabid Republican!

That centre forward was a little fella ... that borrowed jacket of his you've got on would just look daft on him. Just shows what a cheepo outfit those from that dark place were ... a job lot of XXXL blazers from Man-at-C&A.

This is being written at half-time ... Everton 3 Toon 0 (watching it on Sky) so I've got to get my scraps of comfort from somewhere.

He couldn't be away that long if he'd been lifted by aliens ... they're pretty quick with their probings; he'd have been back ages ago. Nah, I'm going with the bluebottles.

GGG ... "Peking" is fine but "slitty-eyed commie" is probably in race crime territory. However, MK should always be read in the original German.

Oh no, Wonk! Now you've got me worried ... not the buzzing of flies and the horrible honk when the Peelers go knocking.

Pencil my ar*e!!! Only the finest goose quill will do for 'Wise Owl' Sym. We rely on false promises from the lot of them but what's important is the illusion of 'clear water' between to two of them so that when we're led by the nose to the ballot box there appears to be a meaningful choice.

Anyway, back to what really matters ... an article in the beloved Guardian this morning. The Thoughts of Chairman Mao are being republished (The Little Red Book). When I was in the 6th Form some of us wrote to the Chinese Embassy in London requesting free copies of the original imprint ... these duly arrived; I'm glad to say that I still have mine ... it lives on my bookshelf alongside, among other seminal works, 'On The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union' by J. Stalin, 'Mein Kamph' by A. Hitler.

Wonk - are you going soft in your old age? Keep the ankle-biters away from lekky.

According to his profile he last posted at the beginning of July. When you look at the member's list it's a suprise just how many there are yet only a few seem to post regularly ... I suppose it's the nature of the web - transient.

How about doing it remotely via the fleecebook, twatter or even the steamweb? That way you could get a worthy exile to do the deed via a local stooge who's finger could be on the button; this could be headline grabbing stuff in the Chronicle or Look North (is this still transmitted?). Perhaps a link-in with our alien friends ... Bedders Xmas lights switched on from space.

Operation Yewtree might be interested in this snap as part of their 'historic' enquiries.

At least Ed is pledging to help small businesses if he wins in eighteen months time. Perhaps some 'clear water' is beginning to emerge between Labour and the vile Tories. Over to you GGG ....

Eggs wrote: "An email has been made and the pics on their way to NUFC faithful - swings and round-a-bouts, enjoy it whilst it lasts."

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