The desire to sing comic songs on the ruins

The following telephone conversation (more or less) took place, yesterday, Thursday. Me: Hello. Caller: Good morning, can I speak to Mrs Wallace? Me: I am Mrs Wallace, who are you? Caller: I am from Telephone Preference Service, I am here to tell you that we are going to block...

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Politics and tennis

Regular readers of this blog may have noticed a lack of reference to current affairs lately. This is partly because the intricacies of Brexit negotiation and government meltdown are too confusing for a simple person to follow; and partly because current affairs are currently almost...

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Unusual sight: PPI Blogger in a garden

Last weekend the weather here was absolutely beautiful, which was good news for the local celebration known as the Beeston and Chilwell Garden Trail. This is one of my favourite events of the year, though I don’t always manage to attend. In the interests of impartiality, I’m...

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David Wilson (1927-2000)

The BBC has an archive, some of which seems to be available online and on Facebook, and recently my cousin Calum Benison has been posting a few snippets showing 1960s news broadcasts about recent innovations in science. My interest in these has been mainly because...

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An event last Friday

We live on a corner, we use the back (kitchen) door a lot, and the kitchen is easily visible from the garden. Perhaps for this reason, we’ve been burgled several times, and the most recent occasion was last Friday. The drill goes as follows: 11 pm...

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Oxfam and sex

This news story is developing every day. These thoughts may have been overtaken by events by the time you read them. It is alleged that while working in the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti in 2010, some fairly high-ranking Oxfam employees had sex with prostitutes....

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Horatius, Haymon and the Darkest Hour

Last Saturday I watched the film “Darkest Hour”, starring Gary Oldman. It covers a few days in 1940 at the beginning of Winston Churchill’s premiership, when France was about to fall, and many in the Cabinet felt Britain should enter peace negotiations with Hitler. (Spoiler:...

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“The Last Jedi” by CR

Happy New Year, everyone! We start 2018 with a guest review of a film still in cinemas, but which many of you will have seen. My friend and co-warden Clint Redwood is an avid watcher and commentator on all things Star Wars. If you want to see...

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An unamiable trade

I’ve fairly recently finished reading William Hague’s lengthy biography (500+ pages) of William Wilberforce, the independent MP and evangelical Christian who spent twenty years campaigning in Parliament for the abolition of the slave trade. His efforts eventually led to the Slave Trade Act of 1807. This...

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