They refer to me as "h" because I gave my name as H Elpline2.
Friday, April 26, 2024
Rwanda is not the Congo you know
Thursday, April 25, 2024
One word description of OFSTED
Saturday, April 20, 2024
222 players on Puzzgrid
I presented this grid to my family on Thursday and then put it on Puzzgrid. As you can see 222 people have played it. Cor Blimey
Friday, April 12, 2024
Not Nice
Thursday, April 11, 2024
Gratitude
Monday, April 08, 2024
58 Farm End
As for the murder there are a number of red herrings and I was certainly surprised when the actual murderer was revealed. It keeps the reader guessing and speculating all the way through as suspicion switches from one character to another..
The details of life on a farm provide a backdrop to the story and it is set in the vicinity of Worthing which is an added attraction for those of us who live there.
Wednesday, April 03, 2024
Intolerable
Sunak said the action of the Israeli Defence Force was "intolerable".
Was it intolerable enough to prevent the sale of arms to Israel?
Of course not!
Monday, April 01, 2024
The Legend of Loof Lirpa
In 1793 the health ministry of Norway was tasked with measuring the feet of all the citizens. The runaway winner of the contest was a little-known man called Loof Lirpa.
His picture, alongside a picture of his feet with a normal-sized pair of feet for comparison, appeared in the newspapers of the day, there were two. The King awarded Loof a thousand Kroner which could be expected to keep him in comfort for the rest of his days.
In those days there were no shoe sizes so Loof had to have his shoes specially made. Fortunately his father came from a long line of cobblers.
Loof decided to set out exploring. The first country he discovered was Denmark. Norwegians had heard of Denmark but hitherto they had thought of it as a mythic land inhabited by giants. Danes are similar in size to Norwegians and in fact Loof, with his prodigious feet, was regarded as a giant by them. He was introduced to the King who told him of another land which the Danes greatly feared. In modern times it is known as Sweden.
Loof walked to Sweden where he found that the land of Abba was in fact a rather peaceful place. In fact he married and raised twelve children in Sweden. There was a mistranslation of his writings about Sweden which were published posthumously forty years later. From this people in Norway got the impression that far from being a pacific nation, Sweden was in fact in the Pacific.
He was mourned in Sweden, Denmark and eventually in his native Norway.
Note – as this is written in English, I have followed the tradition of spelling Loof Lirpa's name backwards.
Sunday, March 31, 2024
Punished for an opinion
Monday, March 25, 2024
The Minister Answers the Question
"Now look. We have spent unprecedented sums and lessons have been learnt."
"What are you talking about minister?"
"That is not the point. Going forward we expect to see a massive improvement up and down the country."
"An improvement in?"
"There is an ongoing inquiry and it would be inappropriate for me to comment."
"Will you answer the question, minister?"
"We expect to see spectacular developments but you have to remember we have had Covid and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The opposition has no policy."
"That is all we have time for. Thank you very much, Minister."
"My pleasure."
Saturday, March 23, 2024
And then there were None
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
A safe place
The Conservatives can no longer call themselves the party of law and order.
The Rwanda Bill places party politics above the law.
Calling Rwanda a safe country is contrary to all the human rights
surveys. Safe if you like being tortured!
https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/10/10/rwanda-unlawful-military-detention-torture
https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/rwanda
Two reports from Human Rights Watch. A safe place?
Safe eh? How many MPs would like that?
Wednesday, March 06, 2024
A Question for Starmer
Tuesday, March 05, 2024
Monday, March 04, 2024
Friday, February 02, 2024
General Election Challenge
Convention Gathers In Birmingham To Discuss United General Election Challenge
Representatives of twelve different campaign groups and socialist organisations are meeting this weekend (on Saturday 3rd) in a Convention to Organise a Working Class Challenge at the General Election.
An agenda document has now been released by the Convention Arrangements Committee, which is available at https://www.tusc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Convention-Agenda-document.pdf.
The Convention will start with an opening session which has been given the title, ‘Do we want a common election challenge? And is it possible?’.
Participating in this discussion will be the Convention co-hosting organisations – the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), the Socialist Party, System Change (formerly Resist), the Campaign for a Mass Workers Party, the TUSC Independent Socialists, and Socialist Students – alongside the newly-formed Transform Party, the Social Justice Party, the Workers Party of Britain, and the Organising Corbyn Inspired Socialist Alliance (OCISA) campaign group who are promoting a single independent left candidacy for Sir Keir Starmer’s Holborn & St Pancras constituency seat.
One of the issues to be resolved in this session will be whether the participants believe that a joint election challenge should attempt to contest enough seats at the general election – at least 98 candidates – to reach the broadcasting authorities ‘fair media coverage’ qualifying threshold.
This is sometimes misleadingly referred to only as a benchmark to qualify for a party election broadcast. But while it does indeed guarantee an election broadcast – which is obviously not unimportant – it is more than that in providing a lever to achieve the biggest possible access for a socialist working class alternative message across all the establishment media outlets.
Still time to register!
That is why, while it is welcome that twelve organisations are coming together in Birmingham to discuss what can be done, the Convention Arrangements Committee has also expressed its disappointment that not every socialist group considering standing candidates in the general election has so far taken up the invitation to attend.
Last November, for example, the Communist Party of Britain, a leading influence on the Morning Star newspaper, agreed at its biennial Congress “to contest as many constituencies in the forthcoming general election as resources reasonably allow in order to raise the red flag for public ownership, a wealth tax” etc, although it would not be able to reach the ‘fair media coverage’ threshold on its own. So why not then collaborate with other socialists to most effectively ‘raise the red flag’, while preserving its own independent identity and profile?
The same point applies to the Socialist Workers Party (SWP), which rightly recognised at its annual conference in January that “an important section of the working class to whom we seek to relate will not vote Labour”, and that the “emergence of left alternatives to Labour is more important”. Nevertheless, it went on, “none of the likely electoral challenges to the left of Labour are likely to ask the SWP to join as an independent revolutionary formation. We could not consider membership on any other basis”.
But that is precisely one of the proposals being discussed at the Convention – Proposition Five in the Convention agenda document – that “individual candidates and organisations participating in the joint election challenge shall retain at all times responsibility for their own campaigns, including the right to promote their own organisation and policies that go beyond the core platform”.
If the SWP, or the Communist Party, feel that this is still too restrictive why not come to the Convention and explain what other guarantees they would need? There’s still time!
The Convention is being held on Saturday and registration remains open – which can be done by completing the form at https://www.tusc.org.uk/convention_registration_form/
In-person attendance is open to any socialist organisation or campaign group that is considering supporting or standing candidates in the general election (who can appoint up to ten delegates); elected trade union officers or reps (attending in a personal capacity); resigned-from-Labour or independent socialist councillors; and individual members of the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC) who are not members of one of the TUSC component organisations or organisations otherwise represented at the Convention. The time has come to take decisions!
Zoom attendance is also available for visitors, who are asked to pay the same registration fee (£5 waged or £2 unwaged or low-waged) as in-person attendees to help meet the costs of the event.
Solidarity,
The TUSC Team
Thursday, February 01, 2024
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
The Evil Quizmaster
Song Lyrics 1
1) You think you've lost your love, well I saw her yesterday
a) she's still mad at you
b) she said 'hi'
c) It's you she's thinking of.
2) Gloria
a) in Excelsis
b) give me your answer do
c) pride of our alley
3) Daisy
a) in Excelsis
b) give me your answer do
c) pride of our alley
4) Sally
a) in Excelsis
b) give me your answer do
c) pride of our alley
5) Hello darkness my old friend
a) How are you?
b) I've come to talk with you again
c) long time no see
6) You are my sunshine, my only sunshine You make me happy
a) when the gas bill comes
b) when skies are grey
c) when skies are blue
7) Who were "Tryin' to catch the Devil's herd, across these endless skies"
a) ghostriders in the sky
b) the police
c) clouds
8) Who was asked to come into the garden
a) Alan
b) Maud
c) Reginald
9) Ain't no mountain high enough ain't no valley
a) wide enough
b) low enough
c) long enough
10) Pack up your troubles in what?
a) a suitcase
b) a cupboard
c) your old kit bag
11) What are we going to build in England's green and pleasant land?
a) a skyscraper
b) a castle
c) Jerusalem
12) And you told her you'd never kissed a girl before so what must you do?
a) hold your hand out naughty boy
b) behave yourself
c) stop it at once
13) What is the password for "Hernando's Hideaway"?
a) open sesame
b) Casablanca
c) you and I were sent by Joe
14) Why was the little white bull unhappy?
a) his mother was cross with him
b) only black bulls go to the bullring
c) he had a tummy ache
15) What happens to mother brown if they catch her bending?
a) they get annoyed
b) the say she's cheating
c) they'll saw her legs right off
16) By yon bonnie banks & by yon bonnie braes, refers to
a) Loch Ness
b) Loch Lomond
c) Ullswater
17) Where do the deer and the antelope play?
a) home on the range
b) home in the Gorbals
c) home with the old folks
18) Bonnie and Clyde were pretty lookin' people but whose children?
a) different parents
b) the devil
c) unknown parents
19) The grand old duke of York
a) had ten thousand acres
b) had ten thousand pounds
c) had ten thousand men
20) How many men on a dead man's chest
a) one
b) fifteen
c) two
Have a go at the questions before looking at the answers!
Ans 1) c 2) a 3) b 4) c 5) b
6) b 7) a 8) b 9) b 10) c
11) c 12) a 13) c 14) b 15) c
16) b 17) a 18) b 19) c 20) b
Wednesday, January 03, 2024
Everyday Fiction
What a bizarre, eighty-miles-per-hour murder mystery. Could be a 'Knives Out' sequel.
Thanks for the read, Derek.
From my nephew David X:
Short, sweet and to the point (pun intended) 😊