Nigello

If we all pay for the schools, whether we use them or not, then we all have a say. Also, the neutral position is to not use schools (or doctors' surgeries, etc.) as places to advertise private businesses. We have boundless opportunities to do this for nothing on social media or via the school and PTAs, etc. There is too much clutter and advertising are gaining from this, nobody else.

In the past few days I have had mini flocks of sparrows (house, I think - about eight or so) eating from the suet cakes/balls in holders. Tits also but not as many as the sparrows. Where have they been till now? They don't look particularly young so don't think they've been born recently.

There are more tacky and large plastic banners advertising tennis/dance/after-school clubs on school railings. Can state schools do this? I think they?re not right for such public realm places especially when they clash with and obscure the beauty of the architecture and railings (or, even worse, cover up gardens and ponds which we?ve all paid for.) The head of the school told me he needs to raise ?? so puts them up to attract punters to the clubs that use his (our) property. I suggested school emails and social media (you know, like it was 2010 or something) but heard no more. I?d like to know what others think and, more relevant, whether anyone could point to a law or regulation that supports the head?s stance - or otherwise, hopefully.

No more polls - the people who gain are those in and seeking power. Too many politicians and semi-demi similars (quangos etc.) Many people don?t vote and it?s likely that would be borne out in a presidential vote. Slim down the monarchy, have it take up more of a ?direction of travel? mode and leave be.

I suspect a president would be vain, empty and dull, and open to all sorts of biases and even influence or perhaps corruption. Our stock would fall globally and, like the heads of state of most countries where that person is not with political power, the president would be unknown, unloved snd uninspiring.

It?s a shock but so is getting whacked in the face or blinded by overhanging branches/foliage. I?m not condoning the action (which should have been avoided via a conversation and an understanding on your part) but if you don?t undertake to keep within the regulations (which here neatly correspond with common decency and neighbourliness) then this re/action is more likely. (I have seen council workers rather ruthlessly cut back growth so maybe it was Southwark.) The good news is that it?s spring and your plant will grow again, this time with more attention and nurturing. 🌱🌳

I?ve also heard a hoot from (what I think must be) an owl near there, early hours or late night.

There?s now a Grace period of a few days. Turn down your boiler temp and thermostats and plug those gaps and you?ll save a bit of more money (and reduce emissions)!

Floella Benjamin was so good to watch and listen to back in the seventies. She was captivating!

GC - gender critical / Cis - a term that was always around in scientific worlds but was adopted in the early nineties to Basically, such jargon helps people involved/invested in this rather rarified world seem clever and to give themselves an air of superiority. It also helps them (people on both sides) to look like they know best. And oimissus is correct, dealing in facts not feelings. Trans deaths (mainly m to f) are big in Brazil at least partly because of the dangerous work done by some trans. Prostitution is dangerous work whichever sex you are and wherever you are in the world. It is a function of the work not necessarily a function of their (self) identity. China and Russia look at these vanity-of-small-differences ID culture wars and make hay. UK has human rights that are for all humans.

Today I saw two https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/peacock - one near the back of the boys' school, near Upland/Friern and another near Friern/Goodrich. Have they been hibernating?

Putin made reference to the oligarchs and other Russians living abroad in a televised speech a week or so ago. He said that these people liked to think of themselves of a higher caste. Fine, he said, you carry on and think that, and then made a reference to the west's alleged advantages, including "your gender freedoms". It confirms my thought that he, a man who loathes western democracy, sees the over heated and ever present rows over gender and other forms of ID politics as a blatantly obvious and easily hittable Achille' heel of the west, which is so cock sure of itself and vain that it can afford such "luxuries". Does it mean that the debate was started or flame-fanned by his psych-ops people? I don't know but it does make one think.

Yes, and pollen is higher today than in the previous days. Using a bit of Vick's or vaseline to line your nostrils can help a bit.

I saw one of these on C P Road earlier this arvo, nearer to the Goose Green end. https://butterfly-conservation.org/butterflies/brimstone This is the first butterfly I have seen this year.

Homosexuality is to do with sexual and emotional connection. Transgenderism is to do with one's identity. The two are not linked, really, but in the olden days there was a kind of kindred spirit (helped by the gender blurring that went/goes on in gay circles, perhaps in blatant revolt against the prurience and prejudice gay people faced). So I am not convinced that the two go together. Sexuality is sex based - a homosexual wants to have sex with the same sex, and has nothing to do with how a person believes he or she ought to present his or her body (ie. it is his or her own reality, going on in his or her head, not that of the wider society) BAME has been ditched as being too much of an umbrella term. Perhaps the same will come of the ever-extending (and self-appointing) alphabet soup of LG+++++++++.

Stonewall got what it wanted, on the whole, with gay rights and got equal marriage, so at least some say: It more or less lost its raison d'etre. It had to, to be able to survive and ideally prosper, pin its flag to another mast. Hence the "shakedowns" or "instructive education" - take your pick - it has instituted with partners, some of whom have now distanced themselves considerably from Stonewall. Some say that the debate - most of it on social media and imported from USA via "progressives" - is actually the work of Russian subversive agents who are keen to foment divisions so that the west become distracted and divided, all the better to show the value or the anti-western way of life, such as in Russia or even China. Some say that is rubbish and the rights of a tiny minority to self-label and to insist their view of themselves be repeated back to them by all ought to be fought for, lest an absence thereof bring down everyone's freedoms.

I also have noticed this and spoke (nicely) to a driver at least six months ago who said that was the way it had to be to keep the refrigeration going, so I took him at face value. Could be a different driver this time but the management at the pub ought to be informed. (Please contact them as you are the one to have witnessed most recently; you may be able to bring about a change for the good.)

Well, it can hardly be said to be an inviting retail or banking space, can it? Perhaps if the place kept as well as Walworth Road more people would go there. (Yes, HSBC is the one who decided to close it, not the council, but perhaps a bit of TLC and a tidy up would create a more welcoming and less-Threads experience.)

I am in favour of all people - drivers, cyclists, pedestrians, wheelers - obeying the law and acting responsibly and properly when in/on their vehicle/wheels/feet.

I think it is a societal thing, whereby people in "power" have been told that they ought to practically fall over themselves to be just like their client/customer/patient so as not to highlight any class or cultural gulf. It's claptrap, of course, and very patronising to the people "not in power", who seemingly can't cope with a man or woman in a whitecoat saying "Hello Mrs X, I am Dr Y and I will be treating your Z today. Please take a seat." etc.

Agreed - hold tight and put on another jumper/pair of socks/etc. Seriously, though - do an audit of your daily energy needs and see where you can cut down. It can only help, even if just a little.

I had thought the huge puddles after rain tehre were to do with drains but was told it was to do with this pipe problem. I am still sceptical as the rain did definitely mean there were bigger puddles than during dry periods. Anyway, it took an eamil to councillors and the env. department to get something to happen. Do they rely on the public, etc. to tell them or can they tell when there is a leak of any importance? If so, do they triage it and just leave some to Carry on Leaking?

Those strips can tell the difference, I was told by those installing one set, between heavy and light vehicles, two-wheels and four+ wheels, cyclist and pedestrian, etc. (They said a certain amount of air is sent down to a reader once the wires are compressed and the reading depends on weight, wheels, etc.)

Lameduck - I am with you on the lack of safety from at least some (a sizeable minority) of cyclists. So many - even the "nice" ones with baskets and dangling children, with pink vests - go through reds and many others (especially the delivery cyclists) scoff at front and back lights. The more of us who are cycling, the more of us will be at risk of these bad apples, so it is reasonable to ask for best practice to be adopted alongside the measures being put in place to expand the number of non motor-using road users.

I think it is to do with the idea that the NHS, love it or adore it or loathe it or merely just accept it, is a public and national service. In the US, where you pay dearly, you expect and even demand the personal touch. (I suggested the obvious because so many people just go along with the status quo and are reticent to stand up for themselves, even in the relatively benign example of asking a doctor or dentist to ID him or herself. It should not be a concern but it is, unfortuately, and that is because of attitudes and misconceptions on both sides.)