It will all be fixed, eventually...

The first part of the tweet below shows the way forward:

People are rightly getting tired of the doom-mongers. If the gloomy prophets are right then what is the point of continuing to follow them? Those of working age who can make a new life abroad should do so - there are signs that this is happening already. The rest of us should hoard provisions and prepare defences.

Given the people who are now running the country and those who want to replace them it does seem that things are going to get worse before they get better. However, our gibbering in fear and anger merely generates income for the clickbaiters.

Instead we need to look past the crises to how the problems will be solved, for they will be, one way or another.

The hard way is simply for disaster to overtake us and for the survivors to rebuild.

If we want to avoid that we should continue to take an interest in national politics so that the destruction is less and the turnaround can start earlier.

To give us hope here are a couple of examples of how even a terrible situation can be rectified with intelligent analysis and systematic effort.

The first - and it’s worth watching - is about a farmer in Iowa who bought an additional forty acres of apparently dead ground. His neighbours loaded up with debt to buy more good land and new machines and were caught out when the President blocked grain exports to Russia and the Treasury boosted interest rates from nine to eighteen per cent. Our hero avoided the dangers of financialisation and spent several years improving the soil before growing a commercial crop. His business survived when thousands around him quit or were bankupted:

The second is about a 250-year plan to restore the great Caledonian forest from its tiny remnants - not just the trees but the whole ecosystem, from micoorganisms in the soil to wild animals and birds attracted back to the resources of the woods:

Like the farmer in the first video we need to start by working out what needs fixing and in what order. Here’s a bit of a list:

• Securing cheap, reliable and plentiful energy

• Balancing our national budget by rebuilding our industrial base and reforming the welfare state

• Increasing our ability to grow food locally

• Strengthening our national defences against foreign enemies

• Dealing with threats from internal enemies - terrorists and revolutionaries

• Suppressing crime and public disorder

• Preserving our freedoms and our ability to influence those who govern us

The energy question is fundamental and highlights the difficulty we have with governance. Any fool can see that we need extra fossil fuels to cover our transition to sustainable EROI-positive energy security (nuclear, hydro etc), yet the fool in charge cannot see it!

As to farming, the Government should abandon trying to destroy it with taxation and instead punt in money to make it more productive.

As an example of what can be done consider the work of the inventor James Dyson who has developed a farming system that grows strawberries all year round, generates heat from waste and avoids the use of poisonous agricultural chemicals: https://www.dyson.co.uk/discover/sustainability/farming/dyson-farming-on-bbc-rick-stein-food-stories

To conclude, time will resolve all our problems, brutally if we are stupid.

And there is so much time ahead! Perhaps five billion more years before the Sun consumes the last of its hydrogen fuel, though long before that it is expected to continue steadily burning hotter to the point where Earth cannot support life. Elon Musk’s plan to colonise Mars may keep us going.

As to sustainable energy the former American Archdruid imagines that in the fullness of time we shall have another carboniferous age to make new oil and gas - though we likely shall not be around to benefit from it: https://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-09-05/the-next-ten-billion-years/

It’s all a question of temporal perspective.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Caroline Lavelle, by JD

Caroline Lavelle is a British cellist, composer, and singer / songwriter. She has released three solo albums, collaborated with numerous international musicians, and is a member of the band Secret Sky.

Her career as a cello player started by chance: as a child, she’d been desperate to play the violin. On the day instruments were distributed, she was at the back of the queue. As luck would have it, when it was her turn, only a trombone and a cello were left. Choosing the latter, she went on to study at the prestigious Royal College of Music in London.

After graduating, she opted out of the orchestral route, preferring to perform her own compositions. “The creativity involved in writing your own music and marrying lyrics and arrangements is my greatest love.”
https://carolinelavelle.com/home

Turning Ground

Alexandria - Αλεξάνδρεια - الاسكندرية - CAROLINE LAVELLE

Farther Than The Sun (Live) - Caroline Lavelle

Caroline Lavelle - Moorlough Shore (Official Music Video)

Fool and the Genius

COLOUR SUPPLEMENT: Fire Mountain, by JD

Fire Mountain - eternally burning natural gas - Yanar Dag, Azerbaijan

Yanar Dagh (Azerbaijani: Yanar Dağ, literally ‘burning mountain’) is a natural gas fire which blazes continuously on a hillside on the Absheron Peninsula on the Caspian Sea near Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan (a country which itself is known as “the Land of Fire”). Flames jet into the air 3 metres (9.8 ft) from a thin, porous sandstone layer. Administratively, Yanar Dagh belongs to Absheron District of Azerbaijan.

Unlike mud volcanoes, the Yanar Dagh flame burns fairly steadily, as it involves a steady seep of gas from the subsurface. It is claimed that the Yanar Dagh flame was only noted when accidentally lit by a shepherd in the 1950s. There is no seepage of mud or liquid, which distinguishes it from the nearby mud volcanoes of Lokbatan or Gobustan.

On the territory of Yanar Dagh, the State Historical-Cultural and Natural Reserve was established by the presidential decree dated 2 May 2007 which operates under the control of State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan. After major overhaul between 2017 and 2019, Yanar dagh Museum and Yanar dagh Cromlech Stone Exhibition were launched in the area of the Reserve.

In the first millennium BCE, the fire played a role in the Zoroastrian religion, as the link between humans and the supernatural spheres.

Alexandre Dumas, during one of his visits to the area, described a similar fire he saw in the region inside one of the Zoroastrian fire temples built around it. Only a handful of fire mountains exist today in the world, and most are located in Azerbaijan. Due to the large concentration of natural gas under the Absheron Peninsula, natural flames burned there throughout antiquity and were reported on by historical writers such as Marco Polo.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanar_Dagh

This next video has the Indian guru Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev with a more poetic description of the flames. He then goes on to explain the cultural significance of the fire and the temple built there. The important thing is nature offers us fire, water, air, earth, everything that is necessary to sustain life. these four elements have been always available.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Dmitri Shostakovich, by JD

Dmitri Dmitriyevich Shostakovich (1906 - 1975) was a Soviet composer and pianist who became internationally known after the premiere of his First Symphony in 1926 and thereafter was regarded as a major composer. Shostakovich achieved early fame in the Soviet Union, but had a complex relationship with its government. His 1934 opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk was initially a success but later condemned by the Soviet government, putting his career at risk.

Shostakovich’s reputation has continued to grow after his death. Scholarly interest has increased significantly since the late 20th century, including considerable debate about the relationship between his music and his attitudes toward the Soviet government.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dmitri-Shostakovich
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Shostakovich

Dmitri Shostakovich - The Second Waltz

Nicola Benedetti: Shostakovich’s Romance The Gadfly Suite, Live in The Greene Space

Waltz no.6

Dmitri Shostakovich - Piano Concerto No. 2 - II. Andante

Shostakovich: Jazz Suite No. 2 - Riccardo Chailly, Berliner Philharmoniker

Starmer At Bay: PMQs 25th March 2026

Last week’s session was truly awful, the PM completely ignoring Badenoch’s six direct queries and shouting about Nick Timothy and Iran. Even the Speaker was moved to say “I am not responsible for the answers, but this is certainly not Opposition questions.”

We got the same again this time, as the Opposition leader repeatedly tried to get a commitment to fresh drilling in the North Sea. Starmer responded with a mixture of counterattacks and attempts to offload the issue as per legislative protocol onto the Energy Secretary. When Badenoch told him he was PM and could make that decision today Sir Keir put his fingers up to his lowered brows (12:08:15).

If there is one U-turn we need it is on energy policy, the keystone of our economy. The PM blames war and claims “the only way forward is to go further and faster on renewables.” If in a hole, keep digging.

Starmer’s Government refuses to be properly accountable to Parliament and, through our representatives there, at last to us. Barrister and constitutional expert Steven Barrett’s view is that such refusal amounts to contempt of Parliament.

The PM’s bluster was directed at more than Mrs Badenoch. His stalling and aggression when replying to Nigel Farage’s question on “smashing the gangs” triggered a walkout by the Reform squad.

Last week there were three Points of Order in which Conservatives tried to get the Speaker to rule on whether Ministers could be compelled to answer questions. This time the Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh put another one on the same subject and Sir Lindsay again explained that he could not force responses without compromising the independence of the Chair.

Nor is this problem limited to PMQs exchanges. In today’s Points of Order Andrew Snowden (Con) complained of the Cabinet Office’s failure to answer two of his letters within deadline.

Matters, not just fingers, are coming to a head. There is an almost Cromwellian arrogance in Starmer’s approach to the “Mother of Parliaments.” One or the other may ultimately have to say “In the name of God, go!” Roll on, May seventh!

Speaking of which, there may be a Lib Dem straw in the wind. When the PM attempted to bat away responsibility for energy decisions in the direction of Ed Miliband the LD leader supported him, saying that was indeed the legal position. Mrs Badenoch told him “Stop sucking up, Ed.”

Davey didn’t go to Eton but he seems to know about “oiling.” Perhaps he calculates that in the next General Election even more people will turn to his party under the illusion that the Lib Dems are a safely middle of the road outfit (not so crazy as the Greens, at any rate.) So, is he putting down his marker for a Labour-Lib Dem coalition in 2029?

FRIDAY MUSIC: Tom Lehrer, by JD

Tom Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for A Gathering of Eagles (1963), Marty Back Together Again (1974) and The Cure (2011). He died on July 26, 2025 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

He entered Harvard at age 15, having skipped several grades. Everyone applying for admission to Harvard was required to include an example of their written work. Lehrer submitted a long verse, in the style of W.S. Gilbert & Arthur Sullivan, which concluded: “I will leave movie thrillers/And watch caterpillars/Get born and pupated and larva’d/And I’ll work like a slave/And always behave/And maybe I’ll get into Harva’d.” The poem in its entirety appeared in “Scholastic Magazine” in 1943. It was Lehrer’s first published work.

“I’ve occasionally heard that I was kicked out [of Harvard] for being a Communist, for dealing drugs, for corrupting minors, or for diverse other infractions of local decorum. Unfortunately, none of these rumours are true. The one I’ve heard more often is that I am dead. That one I encouraged, hoping it would cut down on the junk mail. It didn’t.”
https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0499875/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer

Tom Lehrer - Poisoning Pigeons In The Park

Tom Lehrer - New Math (Animated)

Tom Lehrer - The Irish Ballad - LIVE FILM From Copenhagen in 1967

Tom Lehrer - So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)

Tom Lehrer - The Vatican Rag - fabulous version - LIVE FILM From Copenhagen in 1967

That should help lift the gloom from from the weather and the news.

Nailing The Jelly: PMQs 18th March 2026

If you can’t nail a jelly to the ceiling you can catch it in a bowl.

Kemi Badenoch has recently grasped the power of relentless persistence and yesterday used all her six questions to trap Starmer into a blatant display of truth-dodging that has lit up the MSM as well as the internet.

KB (1): … did he personally speak to Peter Mandelson about his relationship with the convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein before appointing him as our ambassador to Washington?

PM: … mistake … process … Iran …

KB (2): … did he speak to Peter Mandelson about that [Epstein] before the appointment? Yes or no?

PM: … Mandelson was asked questions and gave untruthful replies… Iran…

KB (3): … The Prime Minister told us on the record that he “believed the lies” that Mandelson told him, but if he did not speak to him, how can he say that?

PM: The process is clear… [KB] appointed Nick Timothy… [who] said last night that Muslims praying in public [was] an “act of domination”… she should sack him.

KB (4): We can only assume that he did not speak to Peter Mandelson. [Starmer] left the questioning… to two of Mandelson’s closest friends, one of whom was also friends with a convicted paedophile. Asking those questions should have been his job. Why did he fail to do his duty?

PM: … shadow Justice Secretary … Muslims … Even Tommy Robinson … [Badenoch] is too weak and has absolutely no judgment.

KB (5): … The Prime Minister knew that Mandelson had kept up a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein… had been warned about appointing Mandelson. He claims he was lied to. Mandelson had twice been fired for dishonesty, so why did the Prime Minister believe Peter Mandelson over the vetting documents?

PM: … Hindus … Jews … Christians … Muslims praying … the Tory party has a problem with Muslims -

[Interruption.]

Mr Speaker: Order. May I just say that I am not responsible for the answers? I just have to say that.

KB (6): … [Starmer] appointed Peter Mandelson, but did not bother to ask the questions. If he cannot be straight with the House on something as simple as this, why should we believe a word he says about anything?

PM: [Badenoch] said we should rush into war … NATO … Greenland … Iran … failure to condemn and sack -

[Interruption.]

Mr Speaker: Order. I repeat that I am not responsible for the answers, but this is certainly not Opposition questions.

PM: - the shadow Justice Secretary for the poison and division that he spreads. It is turning out to be quite a month for the Leader of the Opposition who claims that she never makes any mistakes.

Minutes later:

Andrew Snowden (Con): Every week, the Prime Minister comes to the Chamber and reads out this pre-scripted nonsense that bears no resemblance to the questions that he is actually asked… So I ask him again: … did he speak to Lord Mandelson personally before appointing him as ambassador to the United States?

PM: We have set out the process … Opposition Members do not want to talk about the war … Nor do they want to talk about the shadow Justice Secretary saying that Muslims are not welcome to pray in Trafalgar Square. The Leader of the Opposition should remove him from the Front Bench, or I suspect he will be sitting up on the Reform Bench next.

**************************

This sh*tshow generated multiple POOs (Points Of Order).

Sir Julian Lewis (Con), Paul Holmes (Con), Sir John Hayes (Con) all asked in various ways what could be done to make Ministers give answers relevant to the questions put.

The Speaker refused to be drawn, saying that the first was not a Point Of Order, the next had “a real weakness… because there is an assumption that the person knows the answer” and Sir John was “just continuing a debate that I think I have already given the answers to.”

Dawn Butler (Lab), MP for two decades and former Gordon Brown PS loyally used a Point Of Order to help the PM muddy the waters by asking whether it brought Parliament into disrepute when Badenoch stated (according to Ms Butler) it was “following British values to attack Muslims praying.”

That was a distortion: nobody denies the general right of Muslims to pray, which they can and do anywhere if it does not seriously inconvenience others; but the shadow Justice Secretary had described (not in Parliament) a mass Muslim prayer event in Trafalar Square as “an act of domination” and in PMQs Badenoch had stated he was “defending British values.” For Muslims there is no discontinuity between religion and politics. That event was certainly not the first assertion of their political strength and will equally surely not be the last. A Justice Secretary’s brief includes dealing with issues of public order. The local elections on May 7th will give us plenty to discuss.

Mr Speaker: “This is an important point: we need tolerance, and it is about respecting one another. You have put your point on the record, but I am not going to enter into a debate. I will leave it at that for the moment.”

Some are beginning to think that Sir Lindsay Hoyle, former Labour MP for Chorley and himself the son of a Lancashire Labour MP may be, despite his habitual and commendable defence of Parliament’s privileges and traditions, overly reluctant to persuade the PM to be fully honest with the Opposition.

But Starmer’s habitual contempt for PMQs protocol was so outrageous on this occasion that we wonder whether he can continue in office even as far as May 7th.

If he does, and more, perhaps we are lost instead.

Drinker's Diet

From “History Defined”:

In the 1600s, some monks in Germany only drank beer and water during their 40-day fast for lent. They concocted an “unusually strong” brew, full of carbohydrates and nutrients.

In 2011, a journalist attempted to re-create their fast. He lost 25 pounds during the ordeal.

Fom “Empires Unchained”:

The beer the monks developed for this purpose still exists and is still brewed by the same institution.

The Paulaner brewery in Munich traces its origin directly to the Minim friars of Neudeck ob der Au, who began brewing their Salvator doppelbock in the 17th century specifically as liquid sustenance during Lenten fasting.

The name Salvator reflected its quasi-sacramental purpose.

When the monastery was secularized in 1799 during the Napoleonic reorganization of Bavaria, the monks’ brewing operation was sold off and eventually became one of the founding breweries of what is now a major commercial operation.

The strong dark bock style they developed for religious austerity became so popular with Munich’s secular population that other breweries copied it, the suffix “ator” on any German doppelbock name, from Optimator to Celebrator, is a direct commercial tribute to the monks’ fasting beer.

A brewing tradition invented for self-denial became one of the most commercially imitated beer styles in Germany.

And you can still get it; whether you should is another matter. Another example of Not Safe For Work?

Hannah Spencer's Maiden Speech

Her clothes got all the MSM comment, but then so did Disraeli’s flamboyant dress. We could do with some brightening up in Parliament to offset the soberly-clad, dangerous dullard of a PM who bores and bullies us.

Her speech, delivered on International Women’s Day, is quite charming. and gives recognition to men also:

Four weeks ago today, I was in college, a plumber learning how to plaster, and today I am in Parliament as an MP. Being here is the honour of my life, but I do not want this to be unusual or exceptional. I truly believe that anyone doing a job like mine should get a seat on these Benches.

Where I am from, we are taught to look after each other, to look out for each other, to stick up for each other and to stick together—to see each other as human. I am so proud of that humanity and that people in Gorton, Denton, Burnage, Levenshulme, Longsight and Abbey Hey feel that way too. It is in our blood and in our bones—we see each other as human.

Where I am from, we give a nod to the statue of Emmeline Pankhurst. We remember the farm worker and seamstress Hannah Mitchell, the trade unionist Mary Quaile and the mill worker Annie Kenney—and, of course, Elsie Plant, who is from just down the road from me and who I named one of my beautiful greyhounds after. I think of these brilliant women a lot, and especially today as we debate International Women’s Day.

I think of many others, too, from pits, slums and factories; the women who changed the system so that I could be here; the women of colour whose names we will never know because history did not bother to recognise or remember them. But we do today, because without their struggle, their fight and their determination to stick together, none of this could be possible. It is bittersweet to recognise these brilliant people but to be reminded that we still need to try to be them.

The constituency that elected me is the 15th most deprived in the country. It has suffered decades of neglect and broken promises. We see that every day right in front of us, in the litter and fly-tipping, the state of housing, the struggle for a job you can build a life on, the filthy and polluted air, and the reduced life chances—the sheer unfairness of it all.

My constituency has been hit hard by the ongoing cost of living crisis. None of this is fair, none of it is right and none of it happens by accident. So I very much share my predecessor’s strong commitment to tackling health inequalities and putting local people and all our communities at the heart of decision making. That is how we begin to turn things around, to give people agency and a genuine chance of a better today and a better tomorrow.

To the girls I saw photos of, going to school on International Women’s Day dressed as Hannah the Plumber, with their overalls and spanners, and the trademark hair. To the 10-year-old boy at HideOut who rock-climbed an incredibly high wall with me, saw me become suddenly very terrified of how far up I was, and said, “Don’t ever give up. And if it’s scary looking down then just look at what’s in front of you.”

To the women in my life who have had my back and fought for equality alongside me. To the men I work with—especially the lads on my plastering course, who dealt very well with my new-found spotlight in the middle of our training. To those men who will suffer the effects of this unequal society through their mental health. To the veterans I know who were willing to risk everything, and came home and found that society was turning its back on them.

To the white working classes, who are always lumped into one group and never appreciated. To everyone who will have nowhere to sleep tonight, or will barely exist in a cold, damp and insecure home. To my trans siblings who get blamed for everything. To the Muslims everywhere, who are constantly, and often violently, scapegoated. To the disabled people who cannot access the world because of structural inequality that is completely fixable. To the people of colour, who have to work harder at everything.

I do not always get it, and I will not say that I always understand it, but what I do know is what it feels like to be looked down on, to be let down and left behind, to be less worthy because of something about me. Our struggles may be different, but our humanity is the same. We always stick together, we always fight for each other, and that is what I want us to take forward from International Women’s Day, and to do that every single day.

The cleaners, bus drivers, nursery workers, foster carers, home carers, unpaid carers, teaching assistants, bin collectors, warehouse workers, delivery drivers, school dinner staff, lollipop wardens, supermarket workers, posties, library staff, kitchen porters, farm workers, mechanics, ground workers, scaffolders, electricians, plasterers and plumbers—we deserve to be here; every single one of us. And I will make space for you to come and join me, to get to have your say.

From the bustle of Longsight market, the many Irish pubs in Levy, Sue’s chippy, and Tony at California Wines in Gorton, to the amazing young people at HideOut, the best hash brown butty at Cafe Plus in Denton, and the women-led social enterprise at Dahlia Café on Burnage Lane—you are the best of our brilliant communities. I want to put Gorton and Denton on the map by championing the positives about our community: the spirit, the warmth, the grit, and the way we help each other out every single day. Whether it is our neighbours where we live, or our siblings in places like Afghanistan, Gaza, Sudan and Iran—wherever we are, we deserve to live freely as the human beings that we all are.

We do things differently in Manchester, and it makes me proud every single day. Now I want to make Abbey Hey, Levenshulme, Burnage, Longsight, Gorton and Denton proud of me. Thank you so much for putting your faith in this plumber and newly qualified plasterer. Together, we can make hope normal again, and we will look after each other, whoever we are, because where I am from, that is just what we do.

Naturally her membership of the Green Party is a concern, what with its odd leader “Zack Polanski” (né David Paulden) and its constituency of seeming incompatibles, but how could she - how could anyone now - possibly have joined Labour?

FRIDAY MUSIC: Hermanos Gutiérrez, by JD

Hermanos Gutiérrez is a Latin instrumental band formed in 2015 in Zürich by Ecuadorian-Swiss brothers Alejandro Gutiérrez and Estevan Gutiérrez. The US label Easy Eye Sound has released the band’s fifth album El Bueno y el Malo in 2022, and their sixth album Sonido Cósmico in 2024.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermanos_Guti%C3%A9rrez
https://www.hermanosgutierrez.ch/bio

Hermanos Gutiérrez - Esperanza (Official Video)

Hermanos Gutiérrez - “El Desierto” (Live at WFUV)

Hermanos Gutiérrez - “Pueblo Man” [Sessions]

Hermanos Gutierrez ‘Los Chicos Tristes’ - The Blues Kitchen Presents...

Hermanos Gutiérrez - Thunderbird. Teatro Vorterix - Buenos Aires 12/02/2026

Hermanos Gutierrez ‘El Bueno Y El Malo’ - The Blues Kitchen

FRIDAY MUSIC: Silly Wizard, by JD

Silly Wizard were a Scottish folk band that began forming in Edinburgh in 1970. The founder members were two like-minded university students—Gordon Jones, and Bob Thomas. In January 1972, Jones and Thomas formed a trio with their flatmate Bill Watkins and performed under various band names in Edinburgh folk clubs.

In the spring of 1972, Watkins returned to Birmingham and, in June 1972, Chris Pritchard (vocals) came in as his replacement. In July 1972, this newly formed trio were offered their first paid booking at the Burns Monument Hotel, Brig O’ Doon, Scotland, and needed a band name in a hurry. The name “Silly Wizard” was chosen and the continuing stream of bookings ensured that the name became permanent. In September 1972, the trio recruited Johnny Cunningham (1957–2003) (fiddle, viola, mandola, vocals)[1] and Silly Wizard started to take off.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silly_Wizard

Silly Wizard: Lover’s Heart

Silly Wizard Live - Donald McGillavry

The Ramblin’ Rover, Andy M. Stewart & Silly Wizard

Bridget O’Malley

Silly Wizard Live - Land O’ The Leal
“Scotland is one of the few places left that cigarettes and fried breakfasts are still good for you” - Andy M Stewart

This song was written by Lady Carolina Nairne of Perthshire, Scotland (1766-1845) in about 1798. The air that she set her words to is a very old Scottish tune. In “The Scottish Review,” Vol. 27, Pg. 115, published 1896, the air is called “Hey Now The Day Dawes.” Subsequently an “anonymous versifier” set lyrics to the tune, which became known as “Hey Tuttie Taitie” or “Hey Tuttie Tattie.” Robert Burns then set “Scots Wha Hae” to the tune, saying “I have met the tradition universally over Scotland, and particularly about Stirling, in the neighbourhood of the scene, that this air was Robert the Bruce’s March at the battle of Bannockburn, which was fought in 1314.”

Thereafter, Lady Nairne set “Land O’ The Leal” to the same tune. This information can be found in “The Scotish* Musical Museum, Consisting of Upwards of Six Hundred Songs, Vol. II,” published 1839, pages 162-168, which contains the musical notation for the original tune, “Hey Now The Day Dawes.” Please note that the lyrics to “Land O’ The Leal” are introduced with the statement: “The ingenious author still unknown to the editor.” The lyrics were later often attributed to Burns, until after Lady Nairne’s death, when her sister published, in 1846, her collected works in a book titled “Lays from Strathearn.”

Silly Wizard members in this clip:

Andy M. Stewart: lead vocals, tenor banjo, whistle
Phil Cunningham: accordion, piano, synthesizers, whistle, cittern, vocals
John Cunningham: fiddle, vocals
Gordon Jones: guitar, bodhran, vocals
Martin Hadden: bass guitar, keyboards, guitar, vocals.

Satanism is not a new moral panic

The internet is fizzing with demonisation of senior US political figures as the Epstein files are leaked. There are fantastic allegations of perversion and even cannibalism. Here in the UK it is possible to believe that our Prime Minister actually works to harm our country in several ways.

Can all this be simply the hysteria of ninnies?

Yet forty years ago Michael Bentine published a novel whose foreword reads in part:

I have been pondering for many years on my own encounters with the forces of evil during war and peace… newspaper headlines about drug smuggling, satanism and corruption in high places show daily that the kind of events described here are all too probable.

Bentine was a firm believer in the paranormal and yet was nobody’s fool. He was at the liberation of Belsen in 1945 and saw Hell there; like William Blake he believed heaven and hell are states of the human soul, but not merely that. Here he is in discussion with Bishop Richard Holloway (BBC1, 19 August 1988):

Either the spiritual cross-currents now flowing so vigorously are baloney or they’re not; if not, they scare me. There are reports of increased church attendance and conversions (ex-Muslim then atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali adopted Christianity in November 2023.)

Evil may be a real force and if so blasé sophistication may not be enough to counter it.

Hannah Spencer - plumb lucky?

Jealous eyes are cast on the new MP for Gorton and Denton. The Daily Mail digs away at how this relatively young (34) plumber has come to co-own property “worth over £1m.” Apparently her mother helped her buy her first house ten years ago so that got her on the ladder early by today’s standards; and it also helped to have a (now ex-) partner who must earn well as a professional biochemist.

But Hannah’s acceptance speech touching on the poor rewards of hard work was not hypocritical. Many of those who voted for her will be putting in long hours in their small businesses and wondering when they will break through to the good times.

Part of her success may be down to “working as a specialist in heat pumps” where the profit margin is big. Google’s AI says an installed heat pump costs “an average of around £12,500 for a standard 3-bedroom home” ChatPT says an air source inverter costs US$1,200-2,500 to manufacture - say under UK£2,000 at the top end.

If supplying and fitting costs a further £3,000 (would it be as much as that?) the Government’s £7,500 subsidy would appear to be “pure gravy” as PG Wodehouse would say. Plenty there to share with a skilled employee, assuming Spencer was not running her own show and taking the lot. This is another case of the State being happy to burn taxpayers’ money to ride a hobby horse.

But fair play to Hannah for having the wit to exploit it. She was less likely to become a demi-millionaire just from unblocking toilets.

Vote for War

A repost from 2021:

Outside St Mary’s Church in Totnes stands a rough stone war memorial. At the foot of the cross are named over 100 men killed in the Great War, including three men from one family and two from another, in a town of fewer than 6,000 souls.

Who voted for the slaughter to begin? Nobody. The electorate comprised 5.2 million men (some 60% of all adult males, and no women at all), but they were not consulted. Instead, the order was given by King George V at a Privy Council meeting in Buckingham Palace attended by only two court officials and Lord Beauchamp. As historian AJP Taylor explained https://global.oup.com/academic/product/english-history-1914-1945-9780192801401?cc=gb&lang=en& , this reflected ‘a general view that war was an act of state, if not of prerogative, with which ordinary citizens had little to do.’

By 1918, after nearly a million British servicemen had died (with another c. two million permanently disabled) https://historicengland.org.uk/research/inclusive-heritage/disability-history/1914-1945/war/ , it was thought that the people might be entitled to more of a voice.

The Home Secretary introduced the Representation of the People Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representation_of_the_People_Act_1918#Background saying that the war

‘has made it, I think, impossible that ever again, at all events in the lifetime of the present generation, there should be a revival of the old class feeling which was responsible for so much, and, among other things, for the exclusion for a period, of so many of our population from the class of electors.’

Nevertheless, while the Act extended the vote to all men only some women qualified - about 40% of them. The rest had to wait until 1928 to be included. Universal adult suffrage in Britain has yet to celebrate its centenary.

Even modernised democracy didn’t stop the repeat use of the royal war-making prerogative in 1939; and it remains to this day the constitutional position for the United Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_parliamentary_approval_for_military_action .

While we complain about minor infringements of our personal freedom, the government reserves the right to kill us (and the people of other nations) wholesale, so long as some pretext can be found that circumvents Nuremberg principles. ‘Gandalf’ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9569815/You-looked-like-Gandalf-Tony-Blair-admits-lockdown-mullet-mistake.html bounced us into war with Iraq, and ‘Dodgy Dave’ https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/politics/on-this-day-dennis-skinner-thrown-out-of-the-commons-after-calling-cameron-dodgy-dave-263883/ only desisted from bombing Syria because he chose to ‘respect’ https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23892783 a Commons majority opposing it.

The US Constitution attempted to restrain the Executive with a specification that it should be Congress that declares a war. Despite the country being almost continuously involved in armed foreign conflicts since its foundation, that declaration has been made only eleven times, the last in 1942 https://history.house.gov/Institution/Origins-Development/War-Powers/ . The use of the notion of ‘authorisation’ has allowed this power, like so many others, to drift towards the Chief Executive, and in any case the next Big One may happen so suddenly that there will be no need for a call-up before a general incineration begins.

The US President’s nuclear football is ever at hand; Britain is now stocking up with more atomic weapons https://www.economist.com/britain/2021/03/18/britain-is-adding-nukes-for-the-first-time-since-the-cold-war ; the winds blow around the old granite cross. And we have the vote.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Bosko Baker, by JD

“Street Swing. Bozo Blues. Often times with my fiddle playin’ pal Birdie & our band the Do Makers. You can also catch me in New Orleans with the Hobo Gadget Junk Band at certain spectacular moments of the year.”

“Bosko Baker is a roots musician blending American music — country blues, ragtime, folk, swing — into what he calls “street swing” or “bozo blues.” Drawing inspiration from legends like Doc Watson, Merle Travis, Big Bill Broonzy, Blind Blake, Jimmie Rodgers, and Mississippi John Hurt, his music combines raw energy with timeless tradition.

“With a spontaneous stage presence honed from years of busking, Bosko’s shows are where his music truly comes to life — an infectious mix of blues, swing, and folk that speaks to the heart of American roots music. From festival stages to intimate venues, his dynamic blend of storytelling, finger-picking guitar, and a deep respect for tradition makes every show a unique & foot stomping experience that has gained him a loyal following.”

https://www.boskobaker.com/

Bosko Baker - Be Here Now (With Me)

With Friends Like These (Live)

Bosko Baker // Business for the Business Man (Live in New Orleans)

Lookin’ For Trouble - Bosko Baker’s Do Makers

Dinah

Bosko Baker’s Do Makers // Puddle of Joy // NPR Tiny Desk Contest 2026

Fresh Garbage: PMQs / Chagos 25th February 2026

The PM gave us the usual stuff today.

Edward Argar (Con): Would Starmer scrap impending business rate changes?

PM [effectively]: …

Mrs Badenoch, LOTO (repeatedly): Would he cut interest rates on student loans?

PM [effectively]: …

Fleur Anderson (Lab): Would Starmer remain committed to the Equality Act?

PM: Natch. And [irrelevantly again] would Nigel Farage apologise for what one of his Party said (“she should be shot”) about Bolsover’s Natalie Fleet (Lab)? [The Speaker has recently told off Sir Keir for asking the Opposition a question, but hey, who cares?]

Farage: What about the right of Chagossians to live on their land?

PM: “So the hon. Gentleman has neither the decency nor the backbone to condemn a death threat against a Member of this House.” Reform’s Gorton and Denton candidate denies non-whites can be English and “has been endorsed by Tommy Robinson.” Vote Labour tomorrow. [As for Chagos, his reply was: …]

I have just bought a copy of “Punch & Judy Politics: An Insider’s Guide to Prime Minister’s Questions.” Sir Keir regularly turns the baby of a serious question into sausages and his nasal twang is already halfway to being a swazzle. How we long for the day when we can have politics for grown-ups.

More interesting was the next session, Farage’s “Urgent Question” about Diego Garcia / Chagos.

The relevant Minister should have been the Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper but she was returning from the USA; in her stead was Hamish Falconer, PUSS for foreign affairs and more specifically the Middle East. In rugby terms he had been given a “hospital pass,” (says my wife.) James Cartlidge (Con) noted Falconer’s deflections and said ”Surely we should have a Minister in front of us who can answer our fundamental legal questions on the treaty.”

Falconer betrayed the pressure he felt under by twice addressing Farage directly (“you”) which of course should be the (Madam Deputy in this case) Speaker, who picked him up on it.

For pressure there was. Four different MPs asked him about Article 298 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which says in part:

a State may… declare in writing that it does not accept any one or more of the procedures… with respect to one or more of the following categories of disputes: […]

(b) disputes concerning military activities, including military activities by government vessels and aircraft engaged in non-commercial service…

Father of the House Sir Edward Leigh noted the “apparent” discrepancy between answers given on 22 May 2025, when it was said that without a quick resolution on Diego Garcia HMG would run into problems with international law, and written answers given on 4 and 12 February 2026 that acknowledged this opt-out. He gave notice that he would table an Urgent Question on this discrepancy for Monday.

The earlier role of Jonathan Powell was also an issue - he may have been given confidential information on the “deal” before his appointment as special envoy to the British Indian Ocean Territories. Ben Obese-Jecty (Con) had previously asked about it re Chagos and a reply was due 12 February but not received as of even date. “One can assume that a response will be forthcoming very quickly,” said a stern Madam Deputy Speaker.

Nor was it just the Conservatives who turned up the heat. Labour’s Graham Stringer quoted the Labour manifesto on protecting the British Overseas Territories and “defending their sovereignty and right to self-determination” - but noted that the Chagossians had not been consulted. The Lib Dem spokesperson Dr Al Pinkerton also supported Chagossian rights.

There was a further complication, said Farage, in that the Maldives might be about to launch a counterclaim on Chagos via the ICJ .

However much Falconer harped on eleven previous rounds of discussion on Diego Garcia and Farage’s stunt trip to the Chagos Islands, it was clear that the matter remains far from settled.

Thank goodness Parliament is still capable of holding Government to account. What was the point of capturing the Crown in 1689 if all it achieved was to allow the Prime Minister carte blanche? We need another John Dunning, he who said in 1780 “The influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing, and ought to be diminished”; but this time to address the shogunate that has taken over from the monarch.

FRIDAY MUSIC: Renaissance, by JD

Renaissance are an English progressive rock band, best known for their 1978 UK top 10 hit “Northern Lights” and progressive rock classics like “Carpet of the Sun”, “Mother Russia”, and “Ashes Are Burning”.

They developed a unique sound, combining a female lead vocal with a fusion of classical, folk, rock, and jazz influences. Characteristic elements of the Renaissance sound are Annie Haslam’s wide vocal range, prominent piano accompaniment, orchestral arrangements, vocal harmonies, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, synthesiser, and versatile drum work.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_(band)
https://repertoirerecords.com/artists/renaissance/

Renaissance - Northern Lights [totp2]

Ocean Gypsy

Renaissance - Forever Changing

Renaissance - Carpet of the Sun

RENAISSANCE - Can You Understand? [LIVE IN STUDIO] 1974 RARE

FRIDAY MUSIC: Alan Price and Georgie Fame

This week features the collaboration between Alan Price and Georgie Fame. There are not many videos on youtube with both of them together. There is a comment beneath one of the videos asking why they are never featured on the many ‘golden oldie’ shows on radio or TV. Another simply says ‘from the old days when pop stardom needed real musical talent.’

The final video here is one of their TV shows - 29 minutes long. I hope that is not excessive but fans may feel it is just right!

Alan Price and Georgie Fame starred in their own BBC2 television series titled
“The Price of Fame” (sometimes referred to as Fame at any Price) in 1969. The series was produced by Stanley Dorfman for BBC2, starting with a special in late 1969 and featuring episodes into 1970.

The show featured musical performances and sketches written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones of Monty Python fame. Guests included Delaney & Bonnie (with Eric Clapton and Dave Mason), Thelma Houston, Doris Troy, Billy Preston, and Zoot Money.

The partnership between Alan Price and Georgie Fame began on a November night in 1970 at the London Revolution Club. There was a positive atmosphere among the Georgie Fame fans attending one of his rare concerts. Few of them however, were prepared for the musical fireworks which were about to come.

As Georgie Fame began to strike up the old Animals classic “Bring It on Home”, it was all over for the former Animals organist Alan Price. When Georgie - who recognized Alan Price in the audience- invited him to come onstage, he readily took up his offer. Both delivered a rock show to a stunning crowd, one that people seldom experience.

Songs such as “Rave On,” “Great Balls of Fire,” and “Oh Boy “ were full of energy and the entire club was electrified with excitement. Continuing this partnership was a logical consequence. Whoever limits this collaboration to their smash hit “Rosetta” is making a big mistake. “Together” proves that this duo has so much more to offer.

https://propermusic.com/products/georgiefamealanprice-together

1971 Alan Price & Georgie Fame - Rosetta

Alan Price & Georgie Fame - Good Day Sunshine

Alan Price and Georgie Fame - “We Was Rockin”

Alan Price & Georgie Fame - Boney Maroni

Alan Price & Georgie Fame on Sez Les - 6 September 1971

The Price of Fame - Alan Price & Georgie Fame

“An episode of BBC television’s The Price of Fame from 1969. Alan Price and Georgie Fame sing solo and together. Songs include Great Balls of Fire, Good Day Sunshine, Searching for Love, Here, There and Everywhere, Walk On By, and Bring it on Home to Me.

“Special guest Thelma Houston. Also features some crazy dancing and hairstyles. Plus Georgie Fame performing a song in a bathrobe….”

Rubbish: PMQs 11th February 2025

As the Prime Minister rose both sides of the House cheered. “I did not think that the Prime Minister was so popular on the Opposition Benches,” remarked the Speaker. Cheering and jeering have similar sounds but different meanings. Tory hands flapped at him while David Lammy and Rachel Reeves smirked.

As Quentin Letts describes, the mood became sombre as Kemi Badenoch laid into Sir Keir on the key people the PM has been “throwing under the bus” including Matthew (now Baron) Doyle (another of Blair’s old team) who had campaigned for a sex-offender Scottish Labour councillor yet was still given a peerage. Lib Dem leader Ed Davey finally triggered Starmer into a rant (says Letts) by referring to the same matter.

How embarrrassing for Labour, whose activists “have been branded “paedo lovers” on the doorsteps.” Government backbenchers must be seething inside, knowing that they had to hang together or would hang separately in the snap General Election that Starmer threatened in order to force his Cabinet back into line behind him.

Yet the Puritans may console themselves with the prospect of another three years of keeping the Tories out and only another three months before a local elections debacle that will likely trigger a leadership challenge. One more push! …. and then, as with Mohammed’s prophecy of his legacy, a battle of seventy-two sects will begin, each convinced it is the only correct one.

This is why, as Blair and his horrid crew understood, you cannot unite the Left, you have to dominate it. Zealous Muslim convert Jody McIntyre tells us:

“When Morgan McSweeney first joined Labour in 2001, he was assigned to Peter Mandelson’s Excalibur database, used to monitor “internal political rivals”. Mandelson would show Labour MPs their “Excalibur printouts” and threaten them with action if they stepped out of line.”

According to McIntyre, who in 2024 very nearly ousted Jess Phillips from her traditionally rock-solid Labour seat, “an MP who served on Labour’s frontbench has passed [JMc] details of an unknown and unelected group who “rule with a rod of iron” and are fighting to retain control of the party.”

McIntyre names Baron Doyle as one of McSweeney’s “inner circle” and goes on to allege “Starmer’s Labour is now infested with sexual predators + child rapists.” The pro-Palestinian activist is clearly hoping to widen the gap between Labour and the Islamic political faction that is developing as the Left Balkanises.

Did we miss an opportunity to stabilise the electorate when rejecting the Alternative Vote in the 2011 referendum? “Her party is dying,” said Sir Keir to Kemi; that makes two, at least.

In connection with the Mandelson affair Ed Davey’s second question urged the adoption of the “Hillsborough law” imposing “a duty of candour for anyone and everyone in public office.”

A British glasnost would be welcome, especially since the tendency appears to be in the opposite direction, what with the Goverment’s cancelling its agreement with Courtsdesk and so making searches of criminal proceedings (and e.g. collation of migrant crime data) more difficult. Debating this on Tuesday the Minister, Sarah Sackman, dressed it up as a procedural matter based on data protection.

The SNP’s Stephen Flynn made transparency a personal matter for Starmer, asking him in relation to Baron Doyle to release the House of Lords Appointments Commission’s confidential advice given to the PM “on the propriety of the proposed nominees.” Sir Keir replied “I have made my position clear. The right hon. Gentleman knows how the system works” (convention of confidentiality, another procedural escape hatch) and typically for him launched a distracting counterattack against the SNP. PMQs as Blind Man’s Buff.

Isn’t procedure wonderful? It can give you a monstrously unrepresentative majority in Parliament based on the technicalities of a flawed electoral system.

Independent Ayoub Khan lightened the mood when his question on the Birmingham bin strike began “Rubbish is building up right beneath my very nose.” There was general laughter.

Yet there is so much else building up under our noses that is not being cleared up.