wagonman

I remember, back in the days when Earl's Court was still recognisably 'Kangaroo Valley', a local entrepreneur did a brisk trade in T-shirts with the slogan "Keep Australia Beautiful. Don't Go Home"...

People like me... To be fair, the young are quite engaged on the Left – look at their support for Corbyn – but mostly tend to focus on the environment and other single issue campaigns.

We could of course have a discussion about just how far the Overton Window has been shunted to the right, but recent and current legislation does point to a concerted attempt to subvert our democratic norms, such as they are, as part of a process of state capture. There's a good piece on state capture by Abby Innes in a recent London Review of Books.

This is increasingly the case thanks to Starmer and his pals. We have a choice between the centre right and the far right, both of them now claiming to be thoroughly Eurosceptic thereby disenfranchising at least 16.4 million people...

I had some curtains (from Habitat) that were a similar colour though very different – boldly floral – pattern. Were the 70s really the decade that taste forgot?

Boris Johnson doesn't do detail. That said it is shaming that he is unaware of the quotation that led directly to his hero Churchill becoming PM. Perhaps, unlike you, he hasn't read his book on the subject?

Boris Johnson doesn't do detail. That said it is shaming that he is unaware of the quotation that led directly to his hero Churchill becoming PM. Perhaps, unlike you, he hasn't read his book on the subject?

It's probably much better/safer on the telly! And cheaper.

i have only ever attended one football match, at White Hart Lane, and that was only because I was being paid. Apparently I missed the only goal as I had already the stadium.

At my school we played 'Thugby' – and nowt else – usually in a relatively genteel manner, except for the annual inter-house matches. Hardly one passed without need of the stretcher. Matron was always on standby.

I suspect our PE master was really quite a successful Nazi...

I used to go for a 'cross country run' as a way of avoiding PE class. I'd jog down to the nearby farmyard, have a cigarette, and jog back. On one memorable occasion I only had a Woodbine – and 'broke' the school cross country record! #Awkward

The first MW K class were built in 1864 – and the last in 1914 – but as said these were primarily contractors' locos. For general traffic something larger would be more appropriate. Many of the loco builders had their own standard designs, particularly Sharp Stewart and Beyer Peacock. 00 Works are about to produce a model of the LSWR 0330 class which was actually a standard Beyer design sold to several other railways (mostly overseas) from the late 1860s. It would be useful to have rather more information about the railway proposed, but at 15 miles long it would be unlikely to have more than 2 or 3 locos.

Yes Russ, but... Read & Son, the Salisbury based coal factor, certainly advertised Forest coals, along with supplies from Wales, Cannock, Durham and Radstock etc. The 'PO Wagons of Wiltshire' has a Gloucester photo of wagon 489 with the instruction to return empty to Trafalgar Colliery, Bilson in the Forest of Dean, but obviously no hint of the route taken. Richard

The South Wales to Salisbury coal trains – of which there was a steady supply – went via the tunnel and then the line through Bradford and Trowbridge. Wouldn't Forest coal have gone over the bridge? Or would that be too advantageous to the Midland...

Not many I promise. The collieries of the Bristol coalfield were rotten with D299s but their market didn't seem to include Somerset. Despite having its own mines Somerset was a net importer of coal as well as a transit route for stuff going further south and west. The Forest of Dean supplied quite a bit, mostly shipped across the Channel to Highbridge, Bridgwater etc. Coal also came down the MR and later GWR lines from the Midlands/Cannock areas. On the other side of the sheet, coal from Somerset pits went east following the canals. Richard

All the best Mike. You'll soon be up and modelling/decorating again. Goops! I used the 'D' word. Sorry. Richard

I should know it: my first wife used to work in the big building opposite (Greater London House) which was/is the Young & Rubicam advertising agency. Too much information? Sorry.

I dunno. Never tried becoming a DfE civil servant... I do know I could never teach.

I prefer the version "Those who can, teach. Those who can't become DfE civil servants". The thoughts of a secondary school governor.

Being of a naturally suspicious bent, I assumed that all these adverts and pop-up windows and stuff are designed to drive us into taking out gold membership. Okay, Warners provide the platform – but we provide the content.

It was Major's terminology, not mine...

There is talk of a possible lockdown in Germany too – unfortunate as one of my colleagues has just gone to Germany for a family visit. The thought occurs that we could arrive at the absurd situation where the only 'traditional' German Weihnachtsmarkt will be the one held in ..... Birmingham

I always assumed it was a pun on Browning the poet as well as the gun-maker – in the context of Kultur it made sense to me. But then we had John Major saying how much he liked to go to bed with a Trollope (capital optional it seems). When I hear the words 'Culture' and 'Dorries" in the same sentence, I reach for the aspirin...

Put it down to muscle wastage in old age...