My recent passion for bakelite telephones, recounted here, has led to a new and unusual doorbell, though the route was somewhat circuitous. I developed a personal dislike of wireless doorbells in our last house, an upper maisonette flat, where answering the door involved descending one and sometimes two sets of stairs. Soon after we moved … Continue reading Ringing in the New Year
Author: jfmward
Author, bicycle enthusiast
‘Strange fits of passion have I known’
...but none stranger than my recently-conceived passion for bakelite telephones. Three months ago, I knew nothing about them, beyond faint memories of the telephone in the first house I properly remember: its number was Perth 284 (the code for Perth was OPE8, as I recall, which later became 0738). Now I have these: Both work, … Continue reading ‘Strange fits of passion have I known’
Out of Season
‘Never should ha’ reopened that.’‘Pretty line though.’‘In summer.’‘Autumn too I reckon, what with the trees.’‘Wouldn’t catch me there out of season - nor anyone with sense.’‘When they do their winter maintenance, then? Best part of preserved steam, that is - no public to bother with.’‘They squeeze it in, I suppose. Chap who works there told … Continue reading Out of Season
The question that Johnson must answer about Cummings
Either Dominic Cummings’s action in driving to Durham from London had some justification that excused it or it had not. That it requires excuse is unarguable, since the guidelines state clearly that infected households must isolate at once and that even healthy people should leave the house only for a narrow range of reasons and … Continue reading The question that Johnson must answer about Cummings
The Magic Money Tree: is Covid-19 a game-changer?
The idea of 'convention' and its associated activity of 'deeming' are fundamental to human activity, as I think I have said elsewhere. By 'convention' I mean the agreement to be bound by something, to deem it to have a power which in reality resides with us. The paradigm of this concept is when a child, … Continue reading The Magic Money Tree: is Covid-19 a game-changer?
Only the Conservative party can save us now
A catchpenny headline, I grant you, but I hope to persuade you of the truth of it. By any measure, yesterday in parliament was an extraordinary spectacle. Here we had the least successful prime minister of all time, whose government has not won a single vote since he came to office, who has lost his … Continue reading Only the Conservative party can save us now
Another lie from the egregious Bernard Jenkin
As I have pointed out before, Bernard Jenkin is given to lying to the public (see Liars in public places). It's not a habit he's cured, if what he said today on BBC Radio 4 is anything to go by: "We've got two democratic systems of deciding things in the modern constitution: one is by … Continue reading Another lie from the egregious Bernard Jenkin
Hijacking the common speech: A bad deal is better than a worse one, but no deal is better than both.
The use and abuse of language has been critical to the continuing political crisis initiated by David Cameron's ill-judged and badly-executed attempt to stem the flow of votes from his party to UKIP in the 2015 General Election. Recently I remarked on how 'just get on with it' and kindred expressions had been subverted to … Continue reading Hijacking the common speech: A bad deal is better than a worse one, but no deal is better than both.
This way to the oligarchy
An odd collocation: I came home from a visit to Stanley Mills to find that Dominic Cummings had said he wanted to ‘get away from rich remainers’ and ‘talk to ordinary people.’ As many were quick to point out, Cummings himself is exceedingly wealthy, as are his closest allies in the Brexit camp; so this … Continue reading This way to the oligarchy
If what they say is true, then how did we get here?
A useful test is to ask whether the account that people give of events is consistent with the events themselves. If it were really the case that in the 2016 referendum ‘the country voted overwhelmingly to leave’ (to quote the chronically untruthful Bernard Jenkin, MP*) is that at all consistent with the point we have now … Continue reading If what they say is true, then how did we get here?
COMPLEAT TROWZER 