Regularity

But it wasn’t, 2 years later. We have already discussed those elections. Their agenda? Yes, to make the Labour Party more socialist, rather than social democratic. The turn off to me is the phrase “class warfare”. I don’t accept the premise as I find it too simplistic and too polarising. I am more concerned personally about excessive inherited wealth (let your kids make their own way in life, maybe freeing them from worrying about a roof over their head); even more concerned about inherited privilege, but most concerned about inherited connections to networks of people, which largely go hidden from the public eye, but lead to massive inequalities in the balance of power. Frame reading what they say, and seeing how they behave, and a degree of historical precedent, Momentum seem to want to remove the power for the existing elite, and take it for themselves. I don’t care what their espoused motives may be, it’s still replacing one oligarchy with another, rather than diffusing power and control into people’s lives. Let me be clear, I have no issue with Momentum, but like it’s predecessor Millitant Tendancy, I would find it more honest if it created its own party rather than being part of the Labour Party. I feel the same way about the “ERG” with the Conservatives. In both cases, party members tend to be more extreme than the general public, or at least more polarised, and it is the party members who select candidates for elections in safe seats. Until we get PR in some format (and my preferred option here is to replace the second chamber with one based on PR, and give it fewer but clearer powers) then that won’t change. Thank you for that: also for reassuring me about the sanity of the Green Party!

But what’s the answer? Momentum? I don’t think so, and I don’t think the electorate does, either. No one wants their levelling-down (except for them) agenda. Where is the moderate voice saying, progressive income tax is fair, that you only get the social services you pay for, and that one single loophole-exploiting billionaire costs this country more than all of the “benefit scroungers” put together? Where is the political will to take on explaining this? There is a gaping void in the the Labour Party. But enough about Sir Kier Starmer… What’s an “Overton Window”?

Although, not all of us like petite women, at least not exclusively: (Thanks to @Nearholmer for making me aware of Hilda.)

Well, I did buy it for you…

Not sure the popular press will be needed: Tom Tugendhat belongs to a slightly more moderate stream of Toryism, not the post-Thatcherite lunacy that has allowed so much damage to occur to society and democracy in this country. I am not sure if Tom Tugendhat as Tory leader would work: too many tribal factions on the right of his party that would hold him, and the country, ransom as they did John Major. Also wonder if a more centrist PM would drag Labour into the centre, or push them to the extremes. What I would prefer, personally speaking, is for the right-wing of the left, and the left-wing of the right, to combine and create a new party more interested in striking a balance between economic growth, social care and cohesion, and environmental stability. The rump of the right could rebrand as the British Union of Fascists, and “Momentum” as the British Communist Party. Such would also require a quantity of honesty sadly lacking in today’s politicians, but again demonstrated by TT with his simple, “No,” to the question “Is Boris Johnson honest?”

Realistic “smoke” is a big problem: the oils used generally produce grey output, rather than dark grey or nearly white. That said, the only time I saw Deltics in action was in the summer of 81, and I remember one of them putting out a fair amount of grey smoke, so it might work. Saw a unit in use on a 7mm scale diesel, with DCC control. Heater was applied for a few seconds and then the fan came into action as the engine started to move. It reminded me of (I think) Alycidon) in York that time. Unfortunately, the model was a class 31…

You can also get N20 gear motor with a right-angle drive: they use a worm and wheel as the first stage. They have 3mm final axles, with a D section. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/254942541046?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=aOWTo0jgSRC&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=xPD_JaqpTK6&var=554822692259&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Hmm. Have been prowling in my wardrobe again?

Ah, but Mr. Wolf is, and many not in the UK are from areas that use the British rather than American “super dialect”.

Spelling, please: we are in the UK, an a55 is a donkey. I am sure you meant “a***”! ;)

I caught a few minutes. Tom Tugendhat was the only candidate prepared to say that Boris can’t be trusted: no prevarication, and a rare thing from a politician, a single word answer delivered without hesitation. After that, I realised it was only going to go downhill.

Dirty smoke.

Not enough clag!

I was looking forward to the weekend. Now I am not sure if I will get to the end of the decade and feel that I have something to look forward to.

I see a picture of a big shark below one of Liz Truss, and all I can think is, “For the sake of the country, please, MR. Shark, please.”

I wonder if the generally well regarded Ben Wallace* is showing us his true level of intelligence, by ruling himself out this time around. If Ricky Rich wins, he will be unpopular with the right of the party, but might win the GE. If it’s Liz Truss, Labour will be rubbing their hands in glee and thinking, “Great, no need to come up with policies for another couple of years”, and no one knows what Penny would actually do. My guess if that she doesn’t care two hoots about gender and race politics, seeing them as a distraction, but is happy to appear “accommodating” both for that reason, and to use the issue to draw attention away from her rabid right-wing free-market economics. Ben Wallace has effectively increased his chances of a top Cabinet role, given himself the chance to cement his position for a run at party leader next time around. * I admit to not knowing much about him.

Webb was reportedly quite keen on the Westinghouse brake, but MR. Westinghouse himself offered to cut him (Webb) in on royalties if he promoted the Westinghouse automatic air brake. Webb interpreted this as a bribe and showed the bewildered American businessman the door. IIRC (and it’s a big if, there were a small number of WAB fitted locos on the LNWR. Or possibly the heat lately has got to my brain, and I am confusing locos with coaches, for the joint EWJR/LNWR through coach from Euston to Stratford. But I imagine there would have been some, if only to handle stock coming onto the system from its cordial colleagues the GER and RR?

Dear me, Stephen, dear me. I have never felt my interests to be so overlooked… (And a few locos on those minor railways the GCR and LNWR were dual fitted, so perhaps even a trifling company like Midland had done, too?)

A most insightful post, if I may say so…

I said unheard of. I didn’t specify by whom…

A face masks stops you drawing the paint particles towards you when you take an in-breath, and also keeps the moisture from your out-breath from getting mixed in with the atomised paint. But fair enough. Don’t ever use an airbrush or any form of aerosol if it worries you that much.

I see the previously unheard of Suella Braverman has been knocked out, which does at least mean that in future, we will have heard of her, even if only as “optimistic failed leadership candidate, Suella Braverman”.

With good ventilation, for the safety aspect. A very talented young modeller died aged 19 in the late 1970s due to inhalation of fumes whilst airbrushing indoors. (Name of Simon Rice: worked on Thame.) In terms of everything else, most modelling airbrushing for modelling is at relatively low pressures, and with a decent airbrush, is very controlled, so a simple hood is a start. I have done a fair bit in a cardboard box placed on newspapers on garden furniture with aerosol cans on warm, still, days, in the past. In doors, some sort of brushless (as in the motor, to avoid sparks) extraction fan sucking air gently through a filter at the back of the hood and piped to the great outdoors for dispersal is a good idea. That and newspaper everywhere.

By coincidence, I recently did that on a diagram for a friend. Didn’t know I was following the prototype, but then railways did usually seem to be bastions of common sense.

Even outdoors, you would still need a face mask and goggles to protect yourself, so other than a spray booth, the cost of the extras is the same - and you should be doing this if you are using aerosols anyway.