Symptoms

Where's all the biomass going to come from? Monster ships with their gigantic belching diesel engines hauling the stuff all the way from South America. Stuff that's been grown on cleared virgin rainforests. Burn coal I say!!!!!

Our reporter in Afganistan has just sent this image of Abu AlWilf's joyous return to the North West Frontier after he had been on a 9 month long undercover mission to the viper's nest that is Betty Windsor's base. His mission was to impregnate some concubine called Katie so implanting a future Manchurian Candidate into the centre of the evil Yankee's running-dog-jackal poodle-state.

My "true beliefs" are a synthesis of life's experiences and being widely read (from Adolf's Mein Kampf to Mao's Little Red Book and all stations in between). Plenty of stuff in the Guardian I don't agree with, including what Polly Toynbee advocated just before the last General Election GGG will be pleased to note. Ah, now I remember Ena, Minnie & Martha, but wasn't it milk stout? I think I watched the first ever episode ... never again!

Oh dear! The Yankees will be after you now for some obscure offence under The Patriot Act.

Straight, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, any dog owner, all welcome. Never a Liberal (latterday crutches for those vile, vile Tories) but certainly one who exhibits those worthwhile, tolerant, generous, so called liberal values to all bar those nasty, reactionary scumsuckers at The Daily Mail and their legion of like-minded, zenophobic zombie fellow travellers. "Ena, Minnie & Martha" - ?

KeithL - Did you stop star gazing, put down your bins for a moment and wave? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23419543

Eggs - I remember most pubs had a snug bar for the 'ladies'. These probably morphed into lounge bars later; you always had to pay a bit more for your drinks in the lounge than the blokes in the men only 'front bars'. I have a room in my house which is called the snug ... a small room behind the morning room & kitchen area; I take my breakfast and read the paper in it. GGG, just imagine the scene every morning ... a cup of Earl Grey tea in one hand, the woof under the other arm, and my beloved Guardian on my knee

Latest photo in from the Palace showing the new parasite/bloodsucker/freeloader baby having its first meal courtesy of one of the under-housemaid wet-nurses:

What was Wilf doing in London 9 months ago?

A snug. I hope you weren't being rude Micky ... snook?

Blimey, I've just been to my local Tesco megastore and discovered you can still get bags of dried 'farter peas' (labelled 'Marrowfat Peas').. Read the instructions and it's the same as Granny used to do only they say to plop-in a teaspoon of bicarb for the soak; Nan was much more efficient ... she use a bicarb tab.

Right again Foxy. A brilliant place.

GGG I know what tax breaks are, maybe I should have put that phrase between inverted commas to hint at any additional financial benefit derived, however obscurely, from anywhere other than private finance. I'm sure you'd agree that License Payers' shouldn't be supporting, however obliquely, any private club; I'll not be suprised at the vast, additional shed-loads, of income to be generated for that club being linked to the venue being televised. I agree with you GGG that the Beeb are chickenshit scared of giving offense to anybody and as a result their output has become bland, just like ITV. I think they should challenge and stir-up a debate but they always appear to 'run scared' of poor headlines in the Daily Mail (and similar organs) and the bile honked-out by backbench MPs. So I'm not sure that it's the once powerful NUJ that dictates what goes on there, I blame the ex-business and ex-political 'suits' for determining what we see on the box.

Eggs wrote: "Today's teachers would not entertain a class this size - 43 pupils." Give Mr Gove, the Tory Education Minister, time and a teacher/pupil radio of 1:43+ will become standard in state schools.

Navigation much beyond Bedders relied on the AA gazetteer (the yellow handbook) ... I don't know if they still do these??? The white gauntletted saluting AA patrolmen on their motorbike/sidecar combos, the big yellow AA phoneboxes, the AA phonebox key. The gazetteer had a ton of stuff in it; my favouite was the list of numberplate registration districts as one of the games we played whist on the journey was to see where various cars came from, for example, YNL 919 was registered in the Toon as was NTY 756 (NL for N/cle & TY for Tyne). By the way both those numbers belonged to various vehicles my Dad had over the years and I still remember ALL the reg nos. These car spotting games were easy to play because there was so little traffic on the roads back then. Town info could be sought in the gazeteer for all those little places that you had to pass through, early closing days, locations for filling stations, distance planning, hotel stuff, camping sites, etc. The book was the only source for this info ... no web searches or phone helplines back then. Other favourite places we went camping for weekends in Northumberland was up Ingram Valley and beyond Alwinton. The waterfalls and deep pools in the river at Alwinton were great places to swim and slide ... but cold!!!

After additional thought I'm not even sure that the Beeb (a 'publically-owned' corporation) should have televised it. Years ago in the late 70s I was invited to lunches at The Royal Blackheath Club and another time at The Shooter Hill Club (in SE London) by my old neighbour Maurice Bowyer ... he owned Castle Golf Equipment in Borough (south of the Thames) ... he was a member of both clubs. In The Shooters Hill bar there was a white line painted on the floor and women weren't allowed to cross it to get anywhere near the counter and at Blackheath entry to the premises (even for lunch) for women was by invite only.

I don't have a problem with Private Members' Clubs determining their own membership rules. However, if these same clubs receive any financial support from 'the public purse' IN ANY FORM WHATSOEVER* then they must open their membership books to all. * Charitable status, tax breaks, funding from Sports Council (or similar public bodies), grants for infrastructure and other facilities, and so on.

In 1953 my Dad bought a pre-WW2 Armstrong Siddley 15HP car from his childhood friend Stan Burke for £5; Stan had a breakers yard at Shiremoor. The car looked like a gangsters' car from one of those old American movies ... spare wheel strapped to the side, running-boards, etc. This old beast ran well for maybe another 3 years until the engine block split going up the A1 bank north out of Morpeth. We had our first family holiday with this vehicle ... a rented caravan at Beadnell; I have clear memories of watching sand lizards on the dunes. When the Armstrong Siddley died my Dad then got a Vincent Black Shadow (1000cc) motorcycle & sidecar combination on/in which we went down to Brighton. The following year we went to Devon and Cornwall with it ... we went camping. I've got a photo of us at Weston-Super-Mare aerodrome about to get into a plane for a flight over the town and beach. This was all in the pre-motorway days ... memories of going through all those old towns on the old A1, now by-passed. It was the height of the Cold War in the late 50s and I have a very clear memory of going past RAF Wittering (right next to the A1 in Lincolnshire) and seeing dozens of big rockets ready on their launchers .. I suppose they must have been anti-aircraft missiles waiting for Ivan to fly over to nuke us.

Gideon have just given the prospectors a big tax-break to look for and develop the stuff http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23368505

I was thinking about that last post I did and the ref to baked beans; on reflection I can't recall having many baked beans as a kid but do remember 'farter' peas. Many here will remember these beasts ... dried peas left to soak overnight, with a bicarb of soda tablet chucked-in for good measure - the peas would be cooked as part of the meal the next day.

Eileen - when we had our 'camps' in Foggon's Yard and Dowsen's Buildings (mid 60s) I do remember the houses being well-built of sandstone (have a look at Foxy's #8 post above - those cottages on the forecourt of the Lion Garage looked very similar). I suppose they were demolished because they didn't conform, or couldn't be easily made to conform, to the appropriate dwelling house standards of the day ... they were one down - two up plus scullery. Just imagine what nice, bijou little properties they could have been. They certainly would have had to put new plumbing in 'cos we had all the lead out to melt down to make fishing sinkers ... 'spooners' made by pouring the molten lead into a tea spoon, a dessert spoon or a serving spoon depending on weight required. I wondered if the folks in Foxy's 2nd snap (his #18 post above) are waiting for the erection of Dr Trotter's Memorial in 1899 although the clothes suggest a short time later ... early Edwardian. They all appear to be in 'Sunday best' and all the kids have shoes on and the fella at the front with the homberg hat seems impatient for an arrival of some big-wig ... maybe the coal-owner/aristo was arriving to open the Doctor Pit new chimney/screens in 1902 or a bit later in 1909 the new shaft.

I remember big lumps of coal mixed in the loads and these had to be broken into smaller, easily managed sizes, with a big ball-pein hammer my Dad kept in the coalhouse (we called the hammer 'the lumphammer'). Yep, KeithL's right about piles of blankets and a hotwater bottle ... the bed was freezing when first entered but eventually warmed-up. One trick was to stick your head below the sheets/blankets and hope the hot breath would speed-up the warming process ... this practice was a bit nasty if baked beans had been consumed that evening.

When looking through the archway in Foxy's first snap the cottages to the rear, and which formed 'the Yard', are gone. I think I've posted before that inside the barber's shop there was 'terraced' bench seating along the back wall where the victims sat. Up until the age of 14 my Dad used to take me to get my hair cut there ... short back and sides - I wasn't given a choice. The deed was done with those manual clippers ... I don't think they used lekky ones in there. Once I'd joined a group at 14 and wanted/needed long hair the forced snipping ritual ended and the locks were allowed grow.

"I think you ended up complicit in his lie Wonky, by listening to the apologists like Sym!" ?????????????????!!!!!!!!!! My advice was ethically grounded. and "Really it was always a private matter between him and his family and once that was sorted the rest doesn't matter." Basically and clearly my original point!!!!!!!!!!

"She might have gone to the Royal Grammar in the Toon." Or Dame Allan's School ... I'm sure it was one of the posh independents.