The so-called BBC's election debate

Schedule

• BBC News 7.00 pm, warm-up
• BBC One 7.30 pm, the debate
• BBC News 9.00 pm, reaction to the debate

How times change - The fall of Journalism

Watergate Hotel

1972 and Watergate - the illicit underhand practices of a government in power thoroughly investigated by reporters Woodward and Bernstein who via an informed source given the code name 'Deep Throat', followed his vague clues to expose a story that brought down a President.

Fast forward nearly 45 years and an USA electorate sick to death of either the Democrat or Republican dynasty stitch-ups decide to elect a President with an alternative message. Following too many years of American 'diplomacy' based upon its dream of being the World's official policeman, while interfering in the workings of any country to the detriment of that country and their own had become the norm, and their electorate's reaction was completely understandable. Make America Great Again resonated across the land.
In many respects it mirrors too the UK reaction, “ We Want Our Country Back! to remove EU interference in the workings of Europe, though in that case scenario the electorate was opposing an un-elected EU hierarchy, wanting to simply bring back its individual sovereignty. Jobs for the boys and warmongers on the gravy train both sides of the pond was just getting us nowhere.

The Portuguese Connection, Part Two

It was the Portuguese who brought rumours to Europe of the cannibal Mexicans and their attacks on the  Caribbean and the South American coastland. They also brought news of the first great disaster in this war,  the capture, sack and carrying away for sacrifice and consumption of the inhabitants of the old city of  Cartagena. The news, which was of mild concern in Europe because of the developing economic links, caused  scandal and uproar throughout Brazil. No one knew how it had happened, but rumours soon spread that the city  had been betrayed, or that the Mexicans had infiltrated it and bribed some of the garrison, or that they had  found a weak spot or gate left unguarded by laziness or inefficiency or corruption. The war was not going well  for the Brazilians. They were on the defensive, dispersed across a vast region, unable to concentrate against  a much more mobile enemy who could attack anywhere, and incapable of mounting a strong invasion of Mexico to  destroy the source of their problem. Although they tried to create and deploy a navy of small craft, drawn  from their fishermen and coastal traders, these ships were seldom in the right place at the right time and in  sufficient strength to defeat the raiders. This did create opportunities for European traders to winkle their  way into the coastal trade and sell their goods to people who could no longer obtain local products, even  though some of these ships and sailors were seized and press-ganged into the Brazilian navy. The Mexican  raiders had established temporary and permanent bases and hideouts on the Caribbean islands, and started to do  the same on the coastlands of South America, so clearing them out was a task which would have taxed Pompey.

White House Press Briefing 30th May 2017

Cannabis, Criminality and The Qu’uran

Much has been written and talked about across twitter, the MSM and several blogs regarding the connection between Islamic terrorism and the use of cannabis. I wanted to find out more about what cannabis does and how it affects people. I decided, in the first instance at least, to talk to Colin Cross. He had told me something about his younger life and I knew that he had been a regular user of the stuff, so I thought he might be able to give me some insight.

As usual, where Colin is concerned, I wasn’t left wanting. I walked past his house and found him just sweeping up an area of cobbles that he had been pointing up. Luckily, when I asked him how long he was likely to be and if he had time for a chat he replied that he was just finishing up. If I didn’t mind waiting for 15 minutes or so he’d open a couple of beers and we could have a natter. It was a lovely evening and as Colin had a nice table and a couple of chairs in his south facing garden we sat outside to drink and talk.

Jasmine Thompson – Adore

Oiling Piss

Some typos just demand to be celebrated, so instead of looking for an appropriate title, I decided to use that one. We all know what it really stands for, and for reasons of comfort, I’d rather have oiled than boiled piss.
So without further ado, feet first, let’s get cracking.
Anyone following the newz cannot have failed to notice that the meejah are not giving up, they want the Trump scalp and that’s that.
We all know that the MSM love to play the ‘look - a squirrel’ game. They’ve now been at it for a year. Nothing else happens except the Rooshans and Trump. It’s the perfect illustration of what a certain German philosopher said two hundred years ago: “History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce.”

Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 5.6

ACT 5

SCENE 6

The Slave Market at Sebastopol, the following Day. CITIZENS, as before.

Enter the SLAVEMASTER with two SLAVES.

To Bennie, Or Not To Bennie

Well darlings, I was overwhelmed with the upticks and I thank the Academy but most importantly there were so many comments back from GPers that raised so many other relevant points and I thought I would like to expand just a bit on those and some of the other issues that they raised.

Given the massive annual spend on welfare and NHS aftercare and all the associated benefits and allowances it is worthwhile to look at this topic more closely.

Underworld - Jumbo

Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 5.5

ACT 5

SCENE 5

The Slave Market at Sebastopol. CITIZENS of many Nations are going about

their Business. Enter a SLAVEMASTER leading chained SLAVES, including

PRINCE FELIX and GINFIZ, a Mongolian Tribesman.

Gmbd, Ducks

I've told this before
The ex was an enthusiast about nature's creatures.
One day a particularly dumb duck had built its nest on top of a 9 ft high wall.
This is out in the countryside.
Missus spots nine or so little ducklings having survived the fall to the ground apparently abandoned by mother.
Not one to miss an opportunity to help she gathers up the ducklings and introduces them to an always broody silky hen who thinks it is her birthday and gathers all the ducklings up and keeps them warm at night obviously thinking that they are chickens.

The Neil Interviews - Jeremy Corbyn

Operation Castor - The Battle of Dien Bien Phu, Part Two

The Bitter End

The Viet Minh attacks started on 13^th March 1954 with a fierce artillery bombardment on outpost Beatrice.  A shell  hit the command HQ killing Major Paul Pegot and his entire staff.  Also killed was Colonel Jules Gaucher who was  in command of the entire northern sector.  Then the 312^th Infantry Division began a direct assault using combat  engineers to eliminate the defences and French opposition was wiped out in Beatrice shortly after midnight.  Over  500 Legionnaires were killed for 600 Viet Minh killed and 1,200 wounded.  The French attempted a counter attack to  recapture the strongpoint but it was beaten back by artillery.  What came as a profound shock to the French was  that the Viet Minh artillery used direct fire instead of indirect fire that required experienced forward observers  and a complex signals network.  This was asymmetric warfare at its best.  The Viet Minh artillery were well dug in  with overhead protection and this had been carried out right under the noses of the French.  On 15^th March, the  French artillery commander, Colonel Charles Piroth, distraught at his inability to bring counter battery fire on  the well-camouflaged Viet Minh batteries, went into his dugout and committed suicide with a hand grenade.  He was  buried in secret to prevent loss of morale among the French troops.

Question Time with Going Postal, 25th May 2017

Graphic EJ

David Dimbleby chairs topical debate from Salford.

On the panel are home secretary Amber Rudd, moron, mayor of Greater Manchester Andy 'Reichsführer' Burnham, anti-extremism campaigner Sara Khan, extremist, head of the Police and Crime Commissioners Association Nazir 'racist if he wasn't a Muslim' Afzal, and peace campaigner Colin Parry.

Puffin Parade, The Revolution Starts Here

Beer hall to plan putsch, check

Saturday 5th August, somewhere near Chipping Norton. We have the cellar for drinking and dining and the terrace for further debauchery. It can seat 32 comfortably, there will be a three course meal plus cheese/coffee. It will be a fixed menu with vegetarian options which requires pre order. It will be approximately £35 per person – The brewery uses a number of independent caterers so we can expect to be well looked after given the Guv. will be with us.

The Portuguese Connection, Part One

It was the Portuguese who spanned the Atlantic, once again. This time there were no deliberate and concerted voyages of discovery, no government sponsored expeditions, no search for a sea route to the spices and wealth of the East, avoiding the land routes blocked by Islam. There was no search for vague and legendary Christian allies such as Prester John, supposedly of great power and fighting on the far side of Moslem territory. There was no thirst for the knowledge and glory to be found in exploring the unknown. There was no expectation of discovering vast wealth or of obtaining honour and prestige from exploring unknown regions. The shape of the world and the peoples likely to be found on each continent was known, at least approximately, and at least by the few intellectuals whose business it was, and who would have been consulted by any ruler or merchant-prince contemplating such a voyage, even though it was centuries since there had been any contact with them. Governments, not just in Europe but around the world wherever civilised societies survived, felt no loss at this absence of contact with distant peoples who had no relevance to their immediate concerns of power, profit and prestige, and no need to renew contact with them. People who owned ships wanted to use them as they were intended, for the practical business of making a living from trade and fishing. They would not waste money on long, possibly dangerous, and almost certainly futile voyages when there was no reasonable hope of making a large profit, even though the possible destinations were at least roughly known. Their men felt the same. Sailors and fishermen lived a hard life, and always had. They could be motivated , just as others had been, by greed for God Gold and Glory - not necessarily in that order, but otherwise would not have been willing to risk their lives and livelihoods on pointless voyages.

Islamist Mayor of London, Terrorism is 'Part and Parcel' of living with Islam

Manchester Arena, Who is Responsible?

Neil v May, let the interrogations begin

My ‘MP’ is a fraud

Mountebank and popinjay John Bercow

I really liked the featured post by coloniescross a couple of days ago with a suggested text of a letter we should send to our MP, sorry, 'Candidate'.  It got me thinking about my own situation and a few pointless, fruitless and dispiriting exchanges I've had over the last couple of years with my constituency MP.

My MP is the ridiculous, pompous dwarf, John Bercow, 'Mr Speaker'.  In my constituency of Buckingham at each General Election, none of the main parties field a candidate, 'by convention' against the sitting Speaker.  Bercow had to leave the Conservative Party when he became Speaker and now sits as an Independent MP.  He 'fights' this forthcoming General Election as 'John Bercow, The Speaker seeking re-election'.

Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 5.4

ACT 5

SCENE 4

The Harbour at Constantinople. Enter PRINCE FELIX and ZULEIKA.

A Tale of Three Countries: The Fall of Israel, Judah and Babylonia in the 1st Millennium BC

A theoretical map of the region around 830 BC

A passing remark on GP prompted a number of kind posters to request that I write up a talk I gave last weekend on the falls of the Kingdoms of Israel, Judah and Babylonia in the late 8^th to mid 6^th centuries BC. 

Why did I see this as a connected storyline and feel impelled to prepare a talk on it?  Well, firstly because the fall of a nation to another is always of interest, especially if it effectively marks the ending of that people’s sovereignty, even cultural survival, for good.  What are the root causes of such a fall – were they primarily external or internal? And secondly, the grand narrative of these events is supplied primarily by two of the historical books of the Old Testament – Kings and Chronicles – but is enriched and evidenced by surviving records, archaeology, and even later Greek writers such as Xenophon and Herodotus. They tell a remarkably consistent account despite being drawn from very different national traditions. * Together these writers view the three falls as having moral and metaphysical lessons to teach their readers.  Now we moderns can scoff at these world views as we sit in our comfortable world of materialistic explanations, until we look at the news and at the world outside, at our civilisation today which is showing signs of great stress and even the rumblings of tremors that could bring our walls down…

Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 5.3

ACT 5

SCENE 3

The Witch's Cell of VULPECULA at the Royal Palace at Purdonium. Enter

KING VUSILLUS with QUEEN VULPECULA, bearing her Crystal Ball.

Magic

Some people say that there does not exist Magic.
I disagree.
I have felt it
When my child was dying by choking, swallowing a burnt biscuit I rent the heavens with my ferocious shout and he was OK Once there were 2 people engaged in conversation and I spoke in my quietest voice that I had and they just froze.

Pixies - Debaser

Operation Castor - The Battle of Dien Bien Phu, Part One

The End of French Colonial Influence in Indo-China 1954

The French involvement in Indo-China dates back to the 17^th Century when a Jesuit missionary  crusade arrived in the region to save souls, but more importantly to open a trading hub for  France.  French influence spread throughout the region by the French army backing local  warlords, much as did the British in India. The Nguyễn dynasty increasingly saw French rule as a  threat and attempted to unify the country, but France tightened its grip with a successful  attack on Da Nang by French Admiral Charles Rigault de Genouilly, under the orders of Napoleon  III.  Expansion caused continual rebellion and conflict, which the French ruthlessly crushed.   The culmination was the Franco-Siamese War of 1893. In 1893 the French authorities in Indochina  used border disputes, followed by the Paknam naval incident, to provoke a crisis. French  gunboats appeared at Bangkok, and demanded the cession of Lao territories east of the Mekong  River.

Question Time with Going Postal, 18th May 2017

Graphic EJ

David Dimbleby, socialist, chairs topical debate from Norwich.

On the panel are Conservative international development secretary Priti Patel, socialist; Labour's shadow education secretary Angela Rayner, socialist; Lib Dem and former business secretary Vince Cable, socialist; Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley, socialist; former Daily Telegraph editor and official Margaret Thatcher biographer Charles Moore, reasonably sound.

The Great Wankpuffin Debate

Low Frequency Fun With Organ Pipes

Not \/()43 |_|K19's organ

What always throws me (and quite a few others judging by some of the diagrams on the web) when I try and calculate the frequency of the tone produced by an organ pipe, is that the arrangement at near the bottom, which is like a referee's whistle, counts as an *open* end to the pipe.
Therefore, for an ordinary organ pipe which is also open at the top, the fundamental resonance is a half-wave - that means, half the wavelength fits in the pipe.

Shake It Off - Vintage Motown Taylor Swift Cover ft. Von Smith

When the Angels Landed on the White House Lawn

When the angels landed on the White House lawn,
Politicians were revealed as demon spawn.
The hounds of Pwyll took them down to Arawn,
Things may be better now they have gone.

The marine saluted, as good Soldiers do,
Said,"Sir, you're welcome. Please come through.
Bring Leo and Perses, Sun-Runner too.
Since Father Washington died we've needed you.

To cleanse this land much blood must flow
On sinners standing here below.
The Bull of Heaven must freely bleed
So People may live by that Holy Seed.
The Blood of the Lamb did not suffice
America's still steeped in vice.
Fire and Firelord shall light the way,
Taurobolium begins this very day.
The Raven brought us your command,
All things needful are now at hand".

Closer - '70s Funk Nine Inch Nails Cover ft. Kenton Chen

A Letter to Prospective Parliamentary Candidates

I have been giving a little thought to those amongst us, primarily those currently hoping to  become Members of Parliament, who seem immune from the normal constraints and basic rules of  society. A group of people who hope to be elected on broad manifesto pledges who will, once  elected and when whimsy takes them, ignore these self same pledges and act in the way that best  serves their own interest.

Amongst this group there are no doubt one or two decent types; fine upstanding people who truly  believe that they actually will “make a difference” to ordinary peoples’ lives. Unfortunately,  for everyone like that there is likely to be a fair smattering of sexual deviants, habitual  liars, racists, expenses fiddlers, workshy fops, poorly educated ideologues, drunkards, chancers  and deeply corrupt individuals.

Based on this and given what we know about their attitude, in the main, to dealing properly with  our exit from the EU, home grown Islamic terrorism and the general rule of law I feel we should  write to the candidates in our constituencies most likely to be elected so that we might better  gauge their fitness to serve as our representatives in the Mother of all Parliaments.  I don’t  believe that this is the time for beating around the bush; pussy footing around the subjects or  holding back. Being as honest and forthright as we possibly can be is the only way to get the  message across.

Horology - The Measurement Of Time

What is meant by the ‘measurement’ of time? Instead of writing this article I could, if I so wished, measure the  size of my room. To do so would simply require a tape-measure. Rooms and objects are physical things. I can hold  a book and measure its dimensions. I can’t hold time – it’s not a ‘thing’. It’s a concept derived from  observation.

The passage of time

The first observation of time dates back to our early ancestors. They, like us, would have seen the Sun rise in  the East and set in the West. Some may have observed the change of a shadow cast, say, by a tree and observed  that the same shadow ‘pattern’ occurs each day. The division of each day into smaller ‘passages’ of time had  been discovered. The sundial had been invented.

Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 5.2

ACT 5

SCENE 2

A House in Constantinople. Enter PRINCE FELIX, RAUCUS, ELECTOR OF

PIFFELBERG with his Arm in a Sling, and the TURKISH CAPTAIN, who

stand before the Door.

Confessions of an inept handyman

Ann had been telling me forever that the hot tap in the bathroom sink needed looking at.  It didn't turn on fully, apparently, so it was pot luck whether the flow was enough to tell the gas to switch on and actually heat the water.  Every time I went to test this, it worked fine of course.

Eventually I got up my nerve to attempt an Actual Plumbing Job.

First, I found the DIY books a kind soul had given us when we got married.  Surely tap design won't have changed much in the last 28 years, I thought.  Then, just in case tap science had moved on, I researched the subject on the internet.  You would be surprised by just how much there is to read about taps.

Then, I went back and looked hard at the tap.  It looked back at me.  Impasse.

Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 5.1

ACT 5

SCENE 1

The Harbour of Saint Trinian on the Coast of Aquilegia. SAILORS, including

the CAPTAIN of the Ship Cockroach of the Seven Seas. Enter TILDA and

Running

It seems we are meant to run because of the legs but the tendency is to try to avoid it if possible.
Once a week they made us do a run around the school grounds and there was a hill, actually 2 hills, one hill  then a flat bit then another hill, it was probably some ancient fortification. I would be knackered if I tried  to assault that fort.

Leftfield - Phat Planet

Operation Jericho Part Three - Intelligence Services' Skulduggery

Taken at face value, Operation JERICHO was yet another example of the 2^nd Tactical Air Force’s capabilities in  an outstanding multi-roll aircraft.  At the request of the French Resistance, the RAF RNZAF and RAAF crews had  carried out a daring, low-level precision attack in broad daylight, allowing hundreds of brave Resistance  fighters to escape.  They would go on to carry out acts of sabotage behind enemy lines, in support of the D-Day  Landings.  Unfortunately this theory doesn’t survive first contact with the facts and common sense.

Question Time with Going Postal, 11th May 2017

Graphic EJ

David Dimbleby chairs topical debate from Edinburgh.

On the panel are Labour's shadow foreign secretary Emily 'Hyacinth' Thornberry, Conservative Home Office minister Ben 'wet' Wallace, the SNP's Joanna Cherry LGBT, obligatory actor (or comedian) David Hayman and Financial Times columnist Merryn Somerset Webb, posh totty. Wankpuffins the lot of them.

White House Press Briefing 11th May 2017

Press briefing with Sarah Sanders 6.30 pm.

Modern Parenting

The Tory bandwagon (or juggernaut) is what everyone is jumping on at the moment, and for those of us who are still utterly disillusioned with the LibLabCon there are many reasons to sit on the side lines while the masses press on with what they want to do.
I am sure school class sizes, and education of school children in general, is something most of us have at least read about in passing or noticed at least briefly on the news. For the majority of voters this is a distant issue, mixed in with many others, and probably not a priority and a vote loser or winner. Many of us for whom GP is a regular haunt can probably hazard a guess about the main underlying problems with the issue of schools, and will be able to piece together the following clues:

• Mass immigration
• Spewing out babies

White House Press Briefing 10th May 2017

Press briefing with Sarah Sanders 6.30 pm.

Midsummer at Avebury - Part Six

Royal responsibilities of a True King

One of the private rituals in which the King participated was an initiation ceremony for the Order of the Serpents, to which Alvin belonged. Alvin and a couple of other candidates who had also spent years performing spiritual exercises, had reached the point of attempting to arouse and make conscious contact with the living spirit within the land, and raise it to flow through their own bodies and perhaps raise their consciousness still further to a level of divinity. This was reminiscent of the old Egyptian Pharoahs' emblem of a cobra rising behind them and symbolised as a serpents head on their foreheads. These were the druid 'snakes' that St. Patrick was said to have driven from Ireland, thereby depriving it of it's heritage of wisdom. In India there had been similar depictions and the spiritual force had been known as kundalini. It was not incidental that a dragon or wyvern was the emblem of Wessex,flown over the heads of it's king and people. Amongst the Royal regalia was a copy of the Sutton Hoo helmet, which had a snake from the back of the head meeting a bird formed by the nose and eyebrows, face to face at about the location of the 'third eye'. The original, along with much else as well as the British Museum, had of course been destroyed by the treacherous Israeli nuclear attack a millennium earlier. This ceremonial headgear appeared to be at least as much a numinous mask of power as a piece of battlegear. Not only did the King have the right to wear it as an emblem of Royalty, as a True King he actually had the ability which it portrayed and may have been intended to invoke. Hence, in the ritual of initiation within the sacred circles of Avebury, he was able to raise the power and induce it successfully in the candidates. After the ceremony the initiates processed around the circles and 'snakes' of stone, led by the King, introducing them to the spirits of the land and of their predecessors associated with each of the stones. This was a contact and communion which they could subsequently renew by themselves.

Fugue: A Reply

Following Dr Mike’s super article about the Fugue I thought I’d do a small “reply” on the sounds and instruments you see in that video and elsewhere.

In Dr Mike’s article you see a beautiful organ being played beautifully by Marie Claire-Alain.  Many of us have our favourite videos of musicians playing and we take for granted the beautiful instruments they play and the wonderful sounds they produce.

Most of us don’t own or have access to organs but we do have computers.

With a little software and a basic midi keyboard you can do so much nowadays.  When I first started to learn to play my piano was a second hand upright more suited to ragtime than classical.  My only other exposure to musical “machinery” was to our lovely church organ when I was a choirboy.

Fugue: An Introduction

For this article I have selected a simple (Hah!) Bach fugue for pipe-organ.

Marie-Claire Alain (1960s) plays: Little Fugue In G Minor, BWV 578

This is a superb performance and hope that you enjoy it!

For those that are interested in the engine

To begin listening to fugue you need to understand four basic ideas: 1) Part writing. 2) The main subject. 3) The counter-subject. 4) Episodes.

It’s not an easy task but it’s well worth the effort!

Carter USM - Sheriff Fatman

Black-blanc-beur

Les Banlieues

If you want to understand modern France, I know no better introduction than Le Suicide Français by Éric Zemmour. Following Zidane’s intervention in the French presidential finals, so to speak, I was reminded of Zemmour’s excellent chapter on multiracialism and French football, and inspired to submit a brief synopsis before the esteemed readers of this venerable organ. The selected translated lines that follow are all basically Zemmour’s, but I have rearranged and cut corners. The chapter in question is titled Black-blanc-beur. Black is hip anglo-French for negro, blanc is proper French for white and beur is a slang term for French of north African descent.

Non, Je ne regrette rien

French Presidential Election - The Results

Tilda -- A Comedy in Six Acts -- 4.6

ACT 4

SCENE 6

A Turkish Galley at Sea. PRISONERS, among them PRINCE FELIX and

RAUCUS, ELECTOR OF PIFFELBERG, are at the Oars.

Stories from the Shelf, Volume One

Browsing secondhand bookshop shelves has been one of life’s delights, from the time I was barely in my teens and visiting the Croydon Bookshop in the Old Town (now long demolished to accommodate the flyover) all the way through the next 55+ years, entering, with open-mouthed wonder, those vast cathedrals of books stacked so high that extension ladders were needed to reach the top shelf and delighting in the carefully selected stock of much smaller shops. Sadly, the cost of High Street leases and the advent of internet sites devoted to secondhand books have more or less done for the secondhand bookshop and few now exist in the major British towns. So let’s take a step back and run our eye across a couple of shelves here at Ackroyd Towers and see what’s what.