Proceedings of the Castle Aching Parish Council, 1905

[monkeysarefun]

4 hours ago, Ian Simpson said:

I know Monkeys would have spotted that no comedy scriptwriter would try to get away with such a shallow and one-dimensional character. It's as if R-M realised at age 12 he'd never achieve anything impressive, so he decided to chase money instead.

 

 

Yeah fair cop, I am now aware that Jacob Rees Mogg is an actual thing but that was due to a link to a James Obrien(?) interview with him  posted here by I think our chairman,  -  and I did spend the first couple of minutes of THAT thinking this guy is a send-up because no one in their right mind would vote for that guy! Similarly, until they got to the bit about abortion pills where I started to think that no one would make jokes about Indonesian abortions  I was battling to believe the Led By Donkeys piece was anything other than a satire on young Rees Mogg.

 

Our political satire comes pretty much entirely from Queensland, but at least some of them have a bit of charm about them.

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

1 hour ago, wagonman said:

not a patch on the National Trust

Are you suggesting that the NT should form a government? The Conservatorial Party? 
 

It might open things up a bit, because they span a wider timescale than just C18th, J R-M’s century, so we could have Ministers for other centuries too, although perhaps not stretching back as far as those covered by English Heritage, which could itself come forward with a credible programme for government, given its expertise in stabilising crumbling ruins.

 

PS: Under an NT government, presumably some ministries and departments would only be open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and alternate Thursdays (1pm to 6pm), May to October, but all would have decent tea rooms.

Edited October 23, 2022 by Nearholmer

[monkeysarefun]

5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

And, since it was made, he’s continued in the same vein. Or maybe, the same vain.

 

 

 

Makes you wonder, if the UK had compulsory voting like we do here, whether some of these clowns would get in?

 

Our clowns are mainly confined to senators from Queensland -  the senate is the place where canny operators can really work our preferential voting system, in one notorious example a One Nation candidate (our version of UKIP - if you ignore the Brexit bits and focus on the I Hate Migrants! component) won their seat with I think 63 actual primary votes, they played the preferences however and got the nod. 

[Metropolitan H]

19 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Are you suggesting that the NT should form a government? The Conservatorial Party? 
 

It might open things up a bit, because they span a wider timescale than just C18th, J R-M’s century, so we could have Ministers for other centuries too, although perhaps not stretching back as far as those covered by English Heritage, which could itself come forward with a credible programme for government, given its expertise in stabilising crumbling ruins.

 

PS: Under an NT government, presumably some ministries and departments would only be open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and alternate Thursdays (1pm to 6pm), May to October, but all would have decent tea rooms.

Don't forget that the NT has its own current turmoil and strife which might also be of interest - see "www.RestoreTrust.org.uk"! It all depends how "Woke" one sees oneself?

 

Regards

Chris H

[Nearholmer]

Yes, I was thinking about that, it might simply end in a repeat of the present farce-tragedy.

 

I shall vote EH then. Generally somewhat more dull and worthy; mostly very uninteresting tea shops, where they have them at all, but no known propensity to vicious infighting (except when pretending to be a Viking).

[Hroth]

29 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Are you suggesting that the NT should form a government? The Conservatorial Party? 

The Conservatoral Party.

I like it!  They even have a spiffy logo

 

 

The problem is that though they charge similar fees for non-members to partake of their amenities, the NT facilities are somewhat better than EH.The other problem with English Heritage is that they're not really good at explaining what their crumbling ruins mean...

 

As for the rather concerning spat in the NT between the progressives and the rest of the trust, its possible to ignore it in most cases.

 

[Metropolitan H]

7 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Yes, I was thinking about that, it might simply end in a repeat of the present farce-tragedy.

 

I shall vote EH then. Generally somewhat more dull and worthy; mostly very uninteresting tea shops, where they have them at all, but no known propensity to vicious infighting (except when pretending to be a Viking).

Not so fast! EH lost a lot of support from members when the wife of the then Chief got vast amounts of money spent on recreating the gardens at Kenilworth Castle - rather than stabilising / conserving other more worthy (depending on viewpoint - but the majority of members agreed) sites / buildings. They no longer get a subscription here!

 

Regards

Chris H

Edited October 23, 2022 by Metropolitan H

[Hroth]

I liked EH more when they were just the branch of the Ministry of Works concerned with maintaining Ancient Monuments.

[Caley Jim]

What links would an NT or Eh government have with NTS* and SNH**?

 

My wife has just told me that the Bafoon is not going to run!  There is a God!!!😀

 

Jim

 

*National Trust for Scotland

**Scottish Natural Heritage

[Nearholmer]

1 hour ago, Hroth said:

I liked EH more when they were just the branch of the Ministry of Works concerned with maintaining Ancient Monuments.

Do you remember those laughably brilliant short b&w films they used to make, which were used as fillers on BBC telly? Half a dozen blokes, three dressed unconvincingly as Normans, three dressed, if anything less convincingly, as Saxons, running about shouting in a muddy field, photographed at a variety of wonky angles, purporting to be The Battle of Hastings, that sort of thing. 
 

There should be a season on BBC2, and a festival at The Barbican, devoted to critical analysis of their cultural impact.

 

21 minutes ago, Caley Jim said:

What links would an NT or Eh government have with NTS* and SNH**?

Good question.

 

There are doubtless Welsh and Northern Irish links, or not, to consider too.

 

Could get very tricky when it comes to historical events and places that have very different resonances in the various nations.

 

And flags, EH has a flag, and they always cause trouble.

 

Maybe cooperation should start with a mediated exchange of scone recipes, and build up from there? Or is even that sensitive ground? Skon, or Skoon?

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2022 by Nearholmer

[CKPR]

Johnson using the Scooby Doo defence -I would have got away with becoming PM again if it wasn't for those meddling ex-ministers from my own administration - to cover up his lack of support among Tory MPs.

[Nearholmer]

1 hour ago, Metropolitan H said:

They no longer get a subscription here!

Maybe there’s scope for a Society of People Who Have Resigned in Disgust from Other Societies, Groups and Parties. Headquarters to be in Tunbridge Wells, naturally.

 

I reckon it would attract a lot of members, although how long it would be before each then resigned in disgust one can only speculate.

[Compound2632]

We're EH members but we usually end up visiting the more obscure ruins for which there is no admission fee anyway.

[Welchester]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Are you suggesting that the NT should form a government? The Conservatorial Party? 
 

It might open things up a bit, because they span a wider timescale than just C18th, J R-M’s century, so we could have Ministers for other centuries too, although perhaps not stretching back as far as those covered by English Heritage, which could itself come forward with a credible programme for government, given its expertise in stabilising crumbling ruins.

 

PS: Under an NT government, presumably some ministries and departments would only be open Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and alternate Thursdays (1pm to 6pm), May to October, but all would have decent tea rooms.

 

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Yes, I was thinking about that, it might simply end in a repeat of the present farce-tragedy.

 

I shall vote EH then. Generally somewhat more dull and worthy; mostly very uninteresting tea shops, where they have them at all, but no known propensity to vicious infighting (except when pretending to be a Viking).

Can you imagine the infighting between SPAB, the Georgian Society, VicSoc and the Twentieth Century Society, not to mention breakaway groups from Pevsner?

[Nearholmer]

It might not go well, I can understand.

 

We’d need new terminology too. Rather than talking about right wing, centrist and left wing, maybe east wing, frontage (careful how you spell that), and west wing.

[Compound2632]

Just now, Nearholmer said:

We’d need new terminology too. Rather than talking about right wing, centrist and left wing, maybe east wing, frontage (careful how you spell that), and west wing.

 

Don't forget the Stable Block - a group that has been somewhat missing of late.

[Metropolitan H]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Maybe there’s scope for a Society of People Who Have Resigned in Disgust from Other Societies, Groups and Parties. Headquarters to be in Tunbridge Wells, naturally.

 

I reckon it would attract a lot of members, although how long it would be before each then resigned in disgust one can only speculate.

But Tunbridge Wells is south of the Thames and not in Wessex or Mercia!

[CKPR]

2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Maybe there’s scope for a Society of People Who Have Resigned in Disgust from Other Societies, Groups and Parties. Headquarters to be in Tunbridge Wells, naturally.

 

I reckon it would attract a lot of members, although how long it would be before each then resigned in disgust one can only speculate.

Sounds like a distinctly Marxist  organisation to me - Groucho Tendency, of course.

Edited October 23, 2022 by CKPR

[Nearholmer]

Former members of the Union of Carpenters and Allied Trades; they formed a splinter group.

[Schooner]

Andy! Groan button, please!

[wagonman]

12 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

As for the rather concerning spat in the NT between the progressives and the rest of the trust, its possible to ignore it in most cases.

 

 

I hope you're not trying to paint the Restore Trust mob as progressives? Regressives more like… right wing culture warriors who I, for one. am desperate to keep off the NT Council at the forthcoming elections.

[Compound2632]

21 minutes ago, wagonman said:

I hope you're not trying to paint the Restore Trust mob as progressives? Regressives more like… right wing culture warriors who I, for one. am desperate to keep off the NT Council at the forthcoming elections.

 

As in so many cases, there's a small claque trying to foment "culture wars" by getting publicity for their eccentric minority viewpoint - trying to create doubt about the mainstream, evidence-based consensus. Ideally, the best thing to do would to to deprive them of the oxygen of publicity by ignoring them - to entering into dialogue is fall straight into their trap. 

[alastairq]

Never thought I'd read the suggestion of depriving some group of oxygen?

 

How far down Tunbridge wells would the HQ have to be?

 

In fact , where, or what, is a tunbridge well?

 

Was Offa's Dyke the precursor of the M25?

[Ian Simpson]

3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Ideally, the best thing to do would be to deprive them of the oxygen of publicity by ignoring them - to entering into dialogue is fall straight into their trap. 

 

I imagine the swivel-eyed ones would see this as "Cancel Culture". (And accurately so, for once.)

The Thatcher government's plan to deprive the IRA of "the oxygen of publicity" didn't work out any too well (except for NI's voiceover actors). The problem is that there's always someone somewhere willing to listen:

Edited October 24, 2022 by Ian Simpson
Just to credit Nicholas Garland of the Telegraph for his 1994 cartoon. For those not familiar with his style, that's Bill Clinton with the oxygen cylinder. (The other guy is Gerry Adams, notoriously not a member of the IRA.)

[ian]

4 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Ideally, the best thing to do would to to deprive them of the oxygen of publicity by ignoring them - to entering into dialogue is fall straight into their trap.

On the contrary. A lot of the problem with polarised intransigent views is just that - the refusal to debate.

 

The alternative path goes "Don't listen to them." "Don't associate with them." "Don't read their literature." "Burn their books." "Burn them."...