Ian Simpson

I don't think railway modellers have spare rooms. We just have "plans for expansion".

I guess libertarians, like socialists, come in different flavours. I remember one libertarian writer describing himself as a "New England libertarian" because he was glad that when he reached the bottom of his drive the state had provided a road. I always thought that PJ O'Rourke did understand the importance of society / tradition / culture, but that he was much more interested in the individual and the way they coped with challenges. Right wing and suspicious of the State and petty bureaucracy, but too clever and too decent to think that any single ideology can really explain a complex and messy world.

That looks really clever, Andy!

While I'd never suggest anyone in this parish enjoys Immense Privilege (apart from the opportunity to read my own musings, of course), I do think we should all remember those worse off than ourselves. And in particular Jacob Rees-Mogg, who has just been made something called a "Brexit Opportunities Minister".

--- and perhaps an 00 BR Standard Class 3 2-6-2T could become a H0 Class 4 2-6-4T ? (Edit: although looking at the picture, the front of the water tanks seems to be a bit too far forward on a Class 3, compared with a Class 4 ...)

There's a couple of interesting loco conversion suggestions in Jim Smith's "Modelling British stock in H0 scale" aricle in the November 2021 Railway Modeller: "... a Lima GWR 45xx Prairie in 00 scale could be modified to become a GWR 61xx large Prairie in H0 scale, while the Airfix/Dapol kit for a Standard Class 4MT 2-6-0 can be adapted to become a Standard Class 5MT 4-6-0 with very little modification. ... In most cases I found that lowering the cab, reducing the chimney and dome and setting the buffers to 20mm apart goes a considerable way to changing the proportions of the model without any chassis modifications." The article also shows how he converted a Mainline / Bachmann J72 into a LSWR G6.

Well, if we just want to exile him within the UK, there's always the House of Lords. I hope it's not cruel to say that Boris's distinct brand of political nous and moral fibre make him natural Lordship material. And if he took Silly Jacob along to the Lords with him, I wouldn't be too upset.

Thanks, Neil! That gives me an incentive to keep going

Perhaps they'll convert to electricity, like other industries. Electric cremation seems to be gaining some traction in the Netherlands and Germany, using cremators like this: Electric Cremator DFW Electric Cremation Furnace

I probably shouldn't admit I've been listening to this all morning ... The Opposite of Cool - YouTube

Far enough. I feel the same way about Michael McIntyre.

Although it was quaint, so thanks for posting. Anyway, hope Reg. will enjoy this more:

It looks as if the store was probably opened in the 1980s: www.birminghammail.co.uk/whats-on/shopping/city-centres-famous-trainspotting-bookshop-17113633

Depends a bit on your period, but I think I'd go for a factory and perhaps a few surrounding houses in the left-hand area, and a goods yard (small goods shed, coal staithes, etc) on the right. Perhaps several little vignettes to give the impression that life is still going on away from the main line ... Best of luck with the layout! Can't see why the red cross is there myself, I don't think there's any chance of a short circuit there.

Okay, but presumably you'll be voting for another five years of Boris. Just sayin'.

It's worse that that. Brits are JUMPING QUEUES now: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/man-pulls-knife-queue-jumper-074408602.html (For non-Londoners, the knife thing is just Normal for Welling).

The wartime leader that BJ reminds me of is Lloyd George, not Churchill. Some of you younger chaps may not remember LG, but he was noted at the time for his cronyism, corruption, adultery and inability to work successfully with the French. To be fair to the man, he was also a competent politician able to deliver contentious reforms (social security, Irish independence, votes for women) despite opposition from his more right-wing critics.

Perhaps it needed a laughter track. (I know his Westminster gigs use stooges inside the hall, but you can't beat canned laughter for material like this.)

Ahh, now I remember why he was such a failure as Foreign Secretary! Third Form humour just doesn't work that well in international relations.

NO! My maths teacher used to cover my trig homework with little saltire emojis ...

I think the test is whether we have solid grounds for challenging professional elitism. (a) If we can back our position up with some sort of evidence, then challenging authority is a good thing. Assuming the professional elite do know the subject better than we do, we may need to change our own position when they reply to us; but at least we can have a reasonable discussion. (b) If it's simply because we don't like what we're being told, or we're simply repeating some unevidenced conspiracy that caught our attention on social media, we're probably just being stupid. I imagine the professional elites meet enough stupid people as it is, without us adding to their burden. To be clear, this isn't directed at anyone on this thread. But it is aimed at all the keyboard warriors beyond RMWeb who manage to do conspiracy without any plausible theory.

In today's Swimming Against The Tide Of History news: https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/david-frost-emily-thornberry-brexit-government-british-b955813.html If it was any Government except this one, I might be worried it was actually going to happen. To be on the safe side, I've worked out that modelling in Imperial H0 will require me to use a scale of 0.138 ins to the foot. Please can anyone tell me how many 1/32s of a inch this will be?

Badger Drones - that's the answer. Any resemblance to radio-controlled model airplanes stuffed with homemade explosives is purely coincidental.

Actually, that was the map from the 1900 "Khaki Election. The national map had rather more yellow after the 1906 Liberal landslide: Except for Ireland, anyway! Even Suffolk went Liberal ...