Proceedings of the Castle Aching Parish Council, 1905

[Edwardian]

19 minutes ago, Regularity said:

No one disagreed with that, James. The point is that whilst most if not all puritans were Roundheads, that doesn’t mean that all Roundheads were puritans.

 

Actually I was not commenting on that point. I felt Kevin was giving them too much credit in the tolerance department.  I don't think the point to which you refer was in doubt. The Parliamentarian elite were gentry and aristocracy. Sort of like a bunch of well-to-do middle class Islingtonians waging war on a bunch of well-to-do middle class Etonians, each having their own gang of roughs.

[wagonman]

Given that choice I'd be with the Islingtonians every time, but then I read a lot of Christopher Hill when I was a student. #WorldTurnedUpsideDown

[monkeysarefun]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

Does this mean that if they try to infill anymore historic bridges those responsible can be sent to Australia?

Dont put that about, everyone will be doing it.

Edited May 22, 2022 by monkeysarefun

[Caledonian]

Does make you wonder how many Australians are descended from Dorset county bridge breakers

[Johnson044]

On 21/05/2022 at 22:38, Regularity said:

Seems like a redeeming feature to me… ;)

There is such a strong antipathy towards Birmingham these days - often spoken in jest but there's an obvious undercurrent of real dislike. I have mixed feelings about the place.

 

I spent my formative years there, or rather within a bus ride of the city centre and left in 1976. I've only been back twice since and then only briefly.

 

I think it's fair to say that 1970's Birmingham haunts me. That's a carefully considered statement. I could say that I had a love-hate relationship with the city then but it seems far too simplistic. Certainly a lot that I loved and hated (not in equal amounts - I think I loved far more than hated) has been obliterated - with the exception of Moor Street - and the city today leaves me numb.

 

I had an hour or so of catharsis a year or so back and tried to bash out some of the thoughts, feelings and memories. I'll start a new thread, I think, rather than inflict it all on the members of the Parish Council.

 

The best analysis I've been able to find about what makes the place tick and the transition from the place I knew to the city of today is "The Rotters' Club" by Jonathan Coe, and "The Closed Circle" and "Middle England", the other two books that complete the trilogy. They are all rather powerful.

 

I'll bung all my ramblings elsewhere in a new thread.

 

All the best

 

J. 

 

 

[Trog]

On 21/05/2022 at 20:17, Compound2632 said:

 

By sympathies are Jacobite (when they're not Jacobin) but don't extend as far as Prince Rupert, who burned Birmingham down twice.

 

Back when I worked in Birmingham it always struck me that the council seemed to keep the central area quite clean, almost as if they were proud of it!?!  Although myself I always thought that the best thing to be seen in central Birmingham was the Up Stour at the south end of New Street Station.

[Hroth]

32 minutes ago, Johnson044 said:

There is such a strong antipathy towards Birmingham these days - often spoken in jest but there's an obvious undercurrent of real dislike. I have mixed feelings about the place.

 

I spent my formative years there, or rather within a bus ride of the city centre and left in 1976. I've only been back twice since and then only briefly.

 

I think it's fair to say that 1970's Birmingham haunts me. That's a carefully considered statement. I could say that I had a love-hate relationship with the city then but it seems far too simplistic. Certainly a lot that I loved and hated (not in equal amounts - I think I loved far more than hated) has been obliterated - with the exception of Moor Street - and the city today leaves me numb.

 

I had an hour or so of catharsis a year or so back and tried to bash out some of the thoughts, feelings and memories. I'll start a new thread, I think, rather than inflict it all on the members of the Parish Council.

 

The best analysis I've been able to find about what makes the place tick and the transition from the place I knew to the city of today is "The Rotters' Club" by Jonathan Coe, and "The Closed Circle" and "Middle England", the other two books that complete the trilogy. They are all rather powerful.

 

I'll bung all my ramblings elsewhere in a new thread.

 

All the best

 

J. 

 

 

 

I know what you mean.  Though not a city dweller, I have the same feelings about Liverpool.

 

There are family roots in the place, and I spent a large proportion of my working life in the city. Last week I went there for the first time in a number of years, and I was taken aback by the changes. Redevelopment has sucked the centre of the city down to the waterfront ("Liverpool 1") and left the city I knew a shadow of its former self, completely unrecognisable.  Not that Liverpool 1 is doing much better, though they seem to be trying to extend the branding up Lord Street.

 

After last week, I don't think I'll be making an effort to return!

 

[Edwardian]

45 minutes ago, Johnson044 said:

There is such a strong antipathy towards Birmingham these days - often spoken in jest but there's an obvious undercurrent of real dislike. I have mixed feelings about the place.

 

I spent my formative years there, or rather within a bus ride of the city centre and left in 1976. I've only been back twice since and then only briefly.

 

I think it's fair to say that 1970's Birmingham haunts me. That's a carefully considered statement. I could say that I had a love-hate relationship with the city then but it seems far too simplistic. Certainly a lot that I loved and hated (not in equal amounts - I think I loved far more than hated) has been obliterated - with the exception of Moor Street - and the city today leaves me numb.

 

I had an hour or so of catharsis a year or so back and tried to bash out some of the thoughts, feelings and memories. I'll start a new thread, I think, rather than inflict it all on the members of the Parish Council.

 

The best analysis I've been able to find about what makes the place tick and the transition from the place I knew to the city of today is "The Rotters' Club" by Jonathan Coe, and "The Closed Circle" and "Middle England", the other two books that complete the trilogy. They are all rather powerful.

 

I'll bung all my ramblings elsewhere in a new thread.

 

All the best

 

J. 

 

 

 

6 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

I know what you mean.  Though not a city dweller, I have the same feelings about Liverpool.

 

There are family roots in the place, and I spent a large proportion of my working life in the city. Last week I went there for the first time in a number of years, and I was taken aback by the changes. Redevelopment has sucked the centre of the city down to the waterfront ("Liverpool 1") and left the city I knew a shadow of its former self, completely unrecognisable.  Not that Liverpool 1 is doing much better, though they seem to be trying to extend the branding up Lord Street.

 

After last week, I don't think I'll be making an effort to return!

 

 

I cannot really speak about national attitudes, but there is always the animosity of near neighbours; hear a Guernseyman talk about Jersey and, I dare say vice versa.

 

In the case of Birmingham, I do have a prejudice. It's not a nasty one, just a wry one, and that is for one simple reason; I'm an East Midlander by birth and upbringing.  So it's the neighbour thing again. Naturally I am complacent concerning the superiority of my native heath over that of my neighbour's Bentley Heath.

 

Specifically, we grew up with a BBC TV magazine programme called Midlands Today, which had a strong bias toward Birmingham and the West Midlands, which places might as well have been the @rse end of the Moon for all they had to do with a lad growing up in a village in Leicestershire, and that was annoying. It was inevitable, because the East Midlands does not have a conurbation with the same gravitational pull as the Second City of England. Nevertheless, I couldn't honestly give a baboon's bright blue @rse about the prize bulls of Herefordshire or the latest crime wave in Brum that the Beeb sincerely believed I had local relevance to me. Later the BBC split the region, and there is now something called East Midlands Today, I believe. Too late so far as I was concerned!  In my case the prejudice is tempered. Mainly because I'm neither a complete idiot nor a complete @rsehole. But also because I've been to Birmingham many times. It's a great city with a proud history and it's also Great Western territory.  

 

I worked in Manchester for some years. Again, the neighbour thing.  There is real prejudice there against Liverpool.  Not a prejudice I cared to adopt as an outsider. Liverpool is an absolutely wonderful city.

 

So, there is a certain amount of campanilismo going on.

 

Nationally? Possibly the north-south divide plays a part. My experience of living and working in central London for may years is that it is hard for many people there to find the mental space to retain any but the sketchiest notion of geography north of Watford, let alone to appreciate the character and importance of the places there. 

[woodenhead]

5 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

I worked in Manchester for some years. Again, the neighbour thing.  There is real prejudice there against Liverpool.  Not a prejudice I cared to adopt as an outsider. Liverpool is an absolutely wonderful city.

I think the Manchester / Liverpool rivalry is economic and goes back to the industrial revolution with Manchester's first dependence and then independence of Liverpool for shipping.

 

That and them being thieving Scousers who carry bricks in their pockets to put under your car when they steal your wheels.

 

Woodenhead, Manc and proud 😀

 

In truth now that rivalry is probably just limited to a couple of sets of football fans, however, as most of the fans from one of the teams comes from the south rather than the inland city they purport to support, it's rather an odd rivalry. 

 

The only thing I don't actually like about Liverpool is the road system, it's flipping complicated, much better to go there by train, the sea front is beautiful on a sunny day.

[Edwardian]

30 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

I think the Manchester / Liverpool rivalry is economic and goes back to the industrial revolution with Manchester's first dependence and then independence of Liverpool for shipping.

 

That and them being thieving Scousers who carry bricks in their pockets to put under your car when they steal your wheels.

 

Woodenhead, Manc and proud 😀

 

In truth now that rivalry is probably just limited to a couple of sets of football fans, however, as most of the fans from one of the teams comes from the south rather than the inland city they purport to support, it's rather an odd rivalry. 

 

The only thing I don't actually like about Liverpool is the road system, it's flipping complicated, much better to go there by train, the sea front is beautiful on a sunny day.

 

Yes, obviously I have an affection for Manchester.  The prejudice probably cuts both ways - because that is the nature of local rivalries - however, I lived in Manchester and only visited Liverpool, so I only really saw one side of the rivalry. 

 

And you did dig a ship canal just to spite them!

[Hroth]

44 minutes ago, woodenhead said:

That and them being thieving Scousers who carry bricks in their pockets to put under your car when they steal your wheels.

 

Bricks aren't for under cars....

 

 

 

[Regularity]

2 hours ago, Johnson044 said:

There is such a strong antipathy towards Birmingham these days - often spoken in jest but there's an obvious undercurrent of real dislike

I rather like it, to be honest.

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, Regularity said:

I rather like it, to be honest.

Are you Telly Savalas?

 

[Regularity]

No, but my hair “style” gets increasingly close to his each day…

 

Having watched that, I am wondering how the 21st century veered away from mid 1970s Birmingham!

Edited May 23, 2022 by Regularity

[Compound2632]

2 hours ago, Edwardian said:

So, there is a certain amount of campanilismo going on.

 

 

[Helga Perry / Birmingham University Chamberlain Tower via Wikimedia Commons.]

[Regularity]

Ding d0ng!

Edited May 23, 2022 by Regularity
D0ng is not allowed!

[Johnson044]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Are you Telly Savalas?

 

About 200cc's of Dalmatian digestive tract contents (rear outlet in today's case) has a HUGE coverage on a kitchen floor. Steam mop all calcified up.  Hands and knees. Managed to knock Ecover floor soap over. Dalmatian disputed need to go outside for a while. Think all the shouting / barking / mopping finally over and I can get back to work. 

 

The Telly Savalas clip is abso-bloomin-lutely FANTASTIC! It has made my day and cheered me up beyond imagining. Thank you.

[Hroth]

20 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

 

[Helga Perry / Birmingham University Chamberlain Tower via Wikimedia Commons.]

 

Light blue touchpaper and retire???

 

[Compound2632]

13 minutes ago, Hroth said:

 

Light blue touchpaper and retire???

 

 

I read that there was an early suggestion that it be named the Poynting Tower, after Prof. J.H. Poynting. Anyone who has studied electromagnetism will be familiar with the Poynting vector (but all vectors point...)

Edited May 23, 2022 by Compound2632

[Edwardian]

40 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

 

[Helga Perry / Birmingham University Chamberlain Tower via Wikimedia Commons.]

 

Yep. Which is why I prefer Loughborough's

 

 

More charm, less frustrated sexual tension.

[Johnson044]

I've put a new post about Bairmingub in the UK Prototype discussions (not questions) section. Takes a bit of wading through.

[CKPR]

On 23/05/2022 at 10:09, Edwardian said:

 

 

I cannot really speak about national attitudes, but there is always the animosity of near neighbours; hear a Guernseyman talk about Jersey and, I dare say vice versa.

 

In the case of Birmingham, I do have a prejudice. It's not a nasty one, just a wry one, and that is for one simple reason; I'm an East Midlander by birth and upbringing.  So it's the neighbour thing again. Naturally I am complacent concerning the superiority of my native heath over that of my neighbour's Bentley Heath.

 

Specifically, we grew up with a BBC TV magazine programme called Midlands Today, which had a strong bias toward Birmingham and the West Midlands, which places might as well have been the @rse end of the Moon for all they had to do with a lad growing up in a village in Leicestershire, and that was annoying. It was inevitable, because the East Midlands does not have a conurbation with the same gravitational pull as the Second City of England. Nevertheless, I couldn't honestly give a baboon's bright blue @rse about the prize bulls of Herefordshire or the latest crime wave in Brum that the Beeb sincerely believed I had local relevance to me. Later the BBC split the region, and there is now something called East Midlands Today, I believe. Too late so far as I was concerned!  In my case the prejudice is tempered. Mainly because I'm neither a complete idiot nor a complete @rsehole. But also because I've been to Birmingham many times. It's a great city with a proud history and it's also Great Western territory.  

 

I worked in Manchester for some years. Again, the neighbour thing.  There is real prejudice there against Liverpool.  Not a prejudice I cared to adopt as an outsider. Liverpool is an absolutely wonderful city.

 

So, there is a certain amount of campanilismo going on.

 

Nationally? Possibly the north-south divide plays a part. My experience of living and working in central London for may years is that it is hard for many people there to find the mental space to retain any but the sketchiest notion of geography north of Watford, let alone to appreciate the character and importance of the places there. 

The allocation to BBC local regions, which I'm pretty sure are based on the old civil defence emergency government areas, had a big influence on my sense of identity growing up in Cumbria. From the late 1960s, we were considered part of the North East and our local news was 'Look North' from Newcastle hosted by the engaging Mike Neville. Hence, I was very knowledgable of the heritage, politics and local affairs of Sunderland, Alnwick and Wallsend, none of which I had ever set foot in. It did mean that we were up to date on all manner of north east events such as Beamish and Vindolanda museums and the opening of the Tyneside Metro. It also probably influenced my decision to apply to Durham - too late, I went to a back up university interview at Manchester and realised what I had been missing (and they gave me an unconditional offer to boot - Durham wanted me to actually pass my A levels). Needless to say, just as I left, the BBC reallocated Cumbria to the North West. 

[Welchester]

25 minutes ago, CKPR said:

It also probably influenced my decision to apply to Durham - too late, I went to a back up university interview at Manchester and realised what I had been missing (and they gave me an unconditional offer to boot - Durham wanted me to actually pass my A levels). Needless to say, just as I left, the BBC reallocated Cumbria to the North West. 

 

From the time I worked at UCCA during the university vacation, the minimum offer was usually two 'E' grades at A level. This qualified you for an automatic local authority grant. Anything less was discretionary, and in the early Eighties the teeth of Thatch were beginning to bite.

[CKPR]

57 minutes ago, Welchester said:

 

From the time I worked at UCCA during the university vacation, the minimum offer was usually two 'E' grades at A level. This qualified you for an automatic local authority grant. Anything less was discretionary, and in the early Eighties the teeth of Thatch were beginning to bite.

A lad in the year below me was given a two E offer by Cambridge and proceeded to get... two Es! Sad to say, he didn't last a year and was sent down for bomb making (or something similar). 

[Schooner]

The pun leaping to mind doesn't sit at all well with the news from The Land of the Free, which conspicuously fails to be home of the brave (legislature).