98th Entry Halton Apprentices

I have been chatting to PdeP via email these last couple of days because I forgot my password and, as always, he has helped me out. Yes, I know it’s all very sad and a sign of senility but I can only promise to get worse. Anyway, I was telling him that my grandson went [...]

I have come accross the following article and, yes, it is true and not a wind up:
The financially pressed NHS has commissioned the Mother’s Union in Somerset to hand knit 150 breasts. They are evidently ‘cheaper than’ the £35 a boob version they used to buy.The fake breasts will be issued to health visitors and community [...]

OK, OK! I am very pleased to get some positive feedback from the folk out there. Thank you for writing in. The problem is this. Sitting at my computer in Donny town, on my own, I feel that I have got to the stage where I am simply writing to myself. This condition is only [...]

Not really sure if many read the website these days because I hear from virtually no one  So, the lovely weather, plus real world things mean that my contributions will be missing for a while. That’s all.

Not long now before the World Cup gets under way in South Africa. That’s when we all get excited (well, some of us). Our best chance (again) since 1966. Sales of England flags will rise dramatically so that folk can drape them from house windows, or attach them to their cars.
To me, it is all [...]

A new in-word continues to be banded about by our politicians - ‘fairness‘. I suppose it is difficult to argue against’ fairness’ but as a political sceptic I do wonder what this new government really means by the over use of the word. I would not think it very fair if VAT went up or profits [...]

Last week I had a very pleasant day out in a village called Haworth in North Yorkshire. Although not far from where I live I have never visited before. It is famous for its association with the Bronte family who lived in the village and where they wrote most of their books. Their house, now [...]

Having visited Thailand only a matter of weeks ago it is particularly concerning to see the fighting now going on in Bangkok. We saw some minor demonstrations while we were travelling around the city back in February but the situation did not look threatening or embryonic of the situation that has developed since. As a [...]

I share my birthday, 24th May, with Queen Victoria although I hasten to say not the same year. Not a very notable claim to fame I suppose but because of this association I was brought up being told it was an important day which was then known as Empire Day. School kids held parades and celebrations [...]

With a new Government in place a fresh look at our defence strategy will now take place. It’s a scandal that during the twelve long years since the last Defence Review we have fought wars in Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Iraq. These may have been Blair’s wars, but Gordy was Chancellor and then Prime Minister [...]