Forum Topics

Iran 'seizes British-flagged oil tanker' in Strait of Hormuz

This sounds serious: http://news.sky.com/story/fears-over-british-tanker-after-reports-it-entered-iranian-waters-11766673

Sue Hammond ● 2672d21 Comments ● 2671d

The BBC set to become a subscription service in 2027

The director-general of the BBC has admitted that it is most probable that the BBC will have to fund itself by way of a subscription service after the government taxpayer hand out runs out in 2027.This is fantastic news for the 52% of Brexit voters that have had enough of the Remain bias and project fear these last 3 years from the BBC.Surely it is only fair that the 48% of the voters pay for this service and not the rest of us who don't watch it?Sorry this link below is behind a paywall but there are many other article available on google.I also apologise bringing the forum back down to earth.No other articles will ever compete with Andy's fantastic CAMCART post from a few days ago lol  https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/licence-fee-bbc-could-become-a-subscription-service-says-director-general-g7wgh0vbk

Paul Game ● 2673d60 Comments ● 2671d

Whitehall fears Brexit backlash from....

An excellent article published in the Financial Times today and reproduced on MSNWhitehall fears Brexit backlash from a Johnson governmenthttps://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/brexit/whitehall-fears-brexit-backlash-from-a-johnson-government/ar-AAExhG4?ocid=spartandhp

Ivonne Holliday ● 2672d4 Comments ● 2671d

"football pitch" of Amazon forest lost every minute

As published on BBC websitehttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48827490?fbclid=IwAR2_MPRVPIK_4P-4NWfCtbJRbi3DlK22T-4rphxg-kgxU_PbZWplZQGyumcWe should all demand a full stop to this! Or else, we start planting trees like mad!

Ivonne Holliday ● 2689d16 Comments ● 2672d

10 things that stopped Brexit

I think the first one is the crucial reason - very sad but true.https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-49008826

Ivonne Holliday ● 2673d21 Comments ● 2672d

Berkley, CA leads the way

I'm sure Donald wi be calling to say what a good job they're doing? And people say Brexit has divided the UK, just watch what's happening in US ...https://www.unilad.co.uk/news/california-city-bans-gendered-words-like-manhole-and-manmade-from-municipal-code/

Michael Ixer ● 2672d1 Comments ● 2672d

Big Confusion

Will somebody get off their bike and get their brain in order. Jo Cox ride Sunday 28th July passing Putney. Prudential bike ride 4th August shutting of Putney. Will the real bike ride give us the right info. for all us poor Putney people.

Barbara Stevens ● 2672d6 Comments ● 2672d

Clearing blocked drains

Our shared drain is backing up and needs clearing. Any recommendations of anyone used recently please?

Katrina Black ● 2674d12 Comments ● 2672d

Prudential Ride London 2019

So people are already being heavily inconvenienced thanks to Hammersmith Bridge being closed, so why don't we cause more chaos by shutting down Putney High St and the A3 for the day?

Daniel Francis ● 2673d16 Comments ● 2672d

Recycling at Smuggler's Way facility

It's a shame that Wandsworth's recycling facility recently received such a bad rap. I've always been impressed by the council's commitment to recycling but I think they can go further still.I get frustrated at the sheer number of residents who pay no regard to disposing of recyclable material in the correct bins at the main dump. Whenever I take surplus rubbish there I see mixed items in all the wrong bins, some of it huge, and very much of which could be recycled or is still in good enough condition to donate to charity. I'd like to see on-the-spot fines for blatantly inconsiderate users of the main dump - the staff there don't appear to monitor this at all, although they're available for advice.

Roy Robart ● 2685d13 Comments ● 2672d

Another flatulent Johnson error

The Times reports another Johnson blunder:Boris Johnson’s fishy tale at the final Conservative leadership hustings yesterday has failed to stand up to scrutiny.Mr Johnson brandished a kipper during his speech in Canning Town, east London, which he said had come from an “utterly furious” fish smoker on the Isle of Man.“After decades of sending kippers like this through the post, he has had his costs massively increased by Brussels bureaucrats who have insisted that each kipper must be accompanied by this, a plastic ice pillow,” he said. “Pointless, pointless, expensive, environmentally damaging health and safety.”Mr Johnson pledged to “take back control of our regulatory framework” and said “there are things that we will be able to do when we come out of the EU that we weren’t able to do before”.But the European Commission has hit back by saying that no EU rules require kippers to be posted with plastic ice pillows. “The case described by Mr Johnson falls outside the scope of the EU legislation and it’s purely a UK national competence,” a spokeswoman for the Commission said.https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/euromyth-boriss-kipper-claim-shot-down-fwpwj5q9j

Richard Carter ● 2673d5 Comments ● 2672d

Wise words

From the famous historian, Barbara Tuchman, a useful "law"."In the introduction to her 1978 book A Distant Mirror, Tuchman playfully identified a historical phenomenon which she termed "Tuchman's Law," to wit: Disaster is rarely as pervasive as it seems from recorded accounts. The fact of being on the record makes it appear continuous and ubiquitous whereas it is more likely to have been sporadic both in time and place. Besides, persistence of the normal is usually greater than the effect of the disturbance, as we know from our own times. After absorbing the news of today, one expects to face a world consisting entirely of strikes, crimes, power failures, broken water mains, stalled trains, school shutdowns, muggers, drug addicts, neo-Nazis, and rapists. The fact is that one can come home in the evening — on a lucky day — without having encountered more than one or two of these phenomena. This has led me to formulate Tuchman's Law, as follows: "The fact of being reported multiplies the apparent extent of any deplorable development by five- to tenfold" (or any figure the reader would care to supply)".(And most of this is cut and paste, but I still managed to commit a spelling/typing error in my few words).

David Ainsworth ● 2673d4 Comments ● 2673d

Conveyancing solicitor

My excellent  solicitor has retired so wondered if anyone has someone they can recommend please. TIA

Lucille Grant ● 2674d2 Comments ● 2673d

Trump: I do not have a racist bone in my body

US President Donald Trump has insisted he is not a racist after his Twitter attacks on four US congresswomen were widely condemned as racist. Mr Trump had suggested the four women - all US citizens - "can leave" the US. Responding to the criticism, Mr Trump tweeted: "Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don't have a Racist bone in my body!" https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-49008454
An extraordinary remark from Donald Trump. I thought he only liked white, blue eyed people.  What was it he thought of Obama, not as a Democrat but as a person?  But to say US citizens can leave the US if they do not like it is questionable and return to the backward countries they came from?  I wonder what he will say about this in a few days.

Ivonne Holliday ● 2675d20 Comments ● 2673d

Democracy in the EU ... and in the UK

Ursula von der Leyen has just been elected President of the European Commission by the European Parliament, which was freely elected by universal suffrage in a democratic choice.On the other hand, the next Prime Minister of the UK will be chosen by something over 150,000 (no one seems to know the exact number) self-selected, mainly elderly, mainly white, mainly male, mainly reactionary Conservative Party members in a wholly undemocratic choice.The Brexiteers so often claim that the EU is undemocratic, but these two facts give the lie to that.

Richard Carter ● 2675d15 Comments ● 2673d

New hobby club CAMCART

CAMCART  We are looking for like minded folk to join this newly established anorak club. Throw away your trainspotting anorak and your eye spy book of buses and join us.We have two major hobbies at the moment (but are always open to new ideas – as long as we agree with them). Firstly we stand on corners by banned left and right turns photographing vehicles breaking the ban then write long and repetitive emails to anyone who will listen. However, when they don’t listen we like to post our over long representations on our local forum so that everyone knows how we spend our day.Secondly we meet outside local schools photographing vehicles with their engines running we log their number plate and post the pictures on the forum for all to see. For this exercise please be sure to wear your CAMCART anorak at all times so as not to be mistaken for suspicious old men hanging around school gates with a camera phone in hand. Also remember to note what school you are outside so as not to foolishly report the wrong one.Once a week we meet in a local hostelry to agree with everything our founders ever say on matters such as Brexit or Wpcc , climate change etc. we do not encourage members to have a different view and those that do must be prepared to prove their case following extensive interrogation.Coming soon we are planning to hold a cut and paste day to enable members to hammer home their points and carefully select those articles that agree with the founders views.We will also be discussing the merits of re posting 7 years and older emails to remind folk how wonderful it is in our club.Finally, we would ask members not to photograph cyclists that break the law by riding on pavements, the wrong way down one way streets or jumping pedestrian lights. These folk are heroes and only break the law in the interests of saving the planet.Come on down and join us next meeting at the Spencer benches !John and Richard 

Andy Pike ● 2674d27 Comments ● 2673d

Wandsworth chap will terrify the EU

"BORIS JOHNSON’s secret Brexit weapon against the EU if elected Prime Minister appears to be his Thatcherite right-hand man, Sir Edward Lister, who will become his chief of staff and has already drawn up a detailed plan for his first 72 hours in Downing Street."https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1154505/brexit-news-boris-johnson-tory-leadership-jeremy-hunt-polls-eu-sir-edward-lister-spt

David Ainsworth ● 2674d5 Comments ● 2673d

A treat for lovers of steam this Saturday

A steam train will leave Waterloo Station in the morning, returning in the evening; it's scheduled to leave Waterloo at 8:15 am, stopping at Wimbledon at 9 am, and returning in the evening to Waterloo at 10:15 pm. This trip is likely to be hauled by two steam locomotives, one at each end of the train in a "top & tailed" formation. The locomotives are planned to be the ex-LNER 61306 Mayflower & an ex-LMS Black Five:


Richard Carter ● 2674d6 Comments ● 2674d

Liberalism and the left verdsus right

Thought I'd open a new thread for this one. There seem to be some assumptions concerning liberalism and left versus right politics. Listening to the Q&A after Edward Snowdon's keynote speech at the Open Rights Group conference last Saturday, someone implied his politics had shifted left since moving from the US to Russia. His response was that he was still a free marketer so, no, he was essentially right wing as he'd always been and hadn't become a socialist or "commie" as a result of his relocation: he was still in the same place on the east/west horizontal line. However, if one looked at the north (authoritarian)/south (libertarian) poles then he had definitely moved south on the vertical line in making his decision and taking his action to quit the NSA/CIA and becoming a whistleblower. If one looks at the definitions (cribbed from Wikipedia) of liberal (a political and moral philosophy based on individual libertty, consent of the governed, and equality before the law) and authoritarianism (individual freedoms are subordinate to the state, and there is no constitutional accountability and no rule of law) then there's the possibility of many variations between extreme authoritarian left or right wing thinking to liberal right or left wing views. Perhaps when using terms such a liberal some further qualification may me needed? I don't necessarily agree with all of Snowdon's views or actions but found this point well made, particularly as a lot of attendees were equating left wing with liberal views; however, the Stasi in East Germany proved that wasn't true. (Somewhat ironic that the current Russian president one has a Stasi ID card when he was based in Dresden ...) Posted this as I think someone else touched on this in another thread?

Michael Ixer ● 2676d36 Comments ● 2675d

Bumble bees

Why are there so many dead bumble bees in Wandsworth park, it is heartbreaking to see so many and also some live ones stumbling around. I picked up some and put on nearby bushes hoping to give them a chance. The council used to spray the grass and after that you would see dead bees. I thought we were supposed to conserve wild life especially bees, so why is this happening.

Maureen Ann Smith ● 2676d5 Comments ● 2675d