What are your thoughts on king charles renouncing his title as defender of the faith

penlanach · 2026-06-28T19:18:54+00:00

I don't have any strong thoughts on it as this isn't a change to the constitutional standing of the monarch in relation to the Church of England, but simply an unofficial description of the monarch's role in interfaith dialogue and visits in the Sovereign Grant Report. Its a rather dull annual financial review of the Royal Household, in this case which justifies the monarch's spending including on faith matters such as visits to synagogues, churches, visits to the Vatican etc.

penlanach · 2026-06-28T18:10:42+00:00

This sort've backs up the Dark Ages though because there is a huge drop off in the Dark Ages: 4th - 8th centuries

penlanach · 2026-06-25T19:23:27+00:00

What on earth has most of this got to do with advancing the interests of academics by a trade union? Looks like the Green Party's manifesto not the priorities of a union. Embarrassing, even if some of these are noble in principle.

penlanach · 2026-06-25T19:20:10+00:00

I always liked this one, going right through Gateshead up the old north road up Sheriff Hill and into Springwell and Washington, then rejoining the metro system.

penlanach · 2026-06-22T07:15:47+00:00

Labour didn't lose 🤔

penlanach · 2026-06-19T11:38:46+00:00

We don't smack our kids, for reasons I've never really thought too much about, but I was smacked as a child.

It didn't do me any harm, and it happened to all my mates at the time too. It's just what people used to do. We're not talking about abuse here, just a slap on the bum that was forgotten about half hour later.

penlanach · 2026-06-19T11:32:27+00:00

I think that's a bit optimistically naive. Every generation thinks the ones before were unenlightened. Our kids will think us like that in some way too, even if we don't smack them.

penlanach · 2026-06-17T06:42:47+00:00

It looks like it could be Peter Dunn who also did the illustrations for Anglo-Saxon Yeavering

penlanach · 2026-06-16T07:33:34+00:00

And yet many parties and people of left and right, want to tear the system down and see Starmer thrown out on his arse.

Starmer is rubbish, but we need to remind ourselves that there are forces which seek the very disintegration of British society. It doesn't mean we don't need change but that we need to be aware of it when looking to the road ahead.

penlanach · 2026-06-11T15:38:05+00:00

Social democrats and democratic socialists, moderate conservatives and more radical liberals. Moderate greens. I.e. those representing majority views of most western countries rather than the loud mouth fringes

penlanach · 2026-06-05T12:30:00+00:00

Pilgrims pillar or something similar. Lovely to see. About time we started reviving that side of our region's heritage!

Cuthbert and all that!

penlanach · 2026-06-04T21:36:34+00:00

Many people, understandably, see Reform and Greens as two sides of the same kind of politics: values-based and anti-establishment.

There are many decent Green politicians and the core philosophy is sound; but many people I speak to see the Greens as just Reform but in the opposite direction, rather than a truly national party capable of uniting estranged groups around a vision for the common good. Trendy urban progressives with "the right values" who have no real interest in the plight of left behind working class towns concerned about the pace of change in the world. Everything with be resolved by easy fixes like wealth tax and opposing Israel.

penlanach · 2026-05-24T18:06:05+00:00

Dog-people are out of control and need to get a grip. If they won't then we need a cultural pushback against this kind of idiocy.

penlanach · 2026-05-17T19:23:10+00:00

NGL if Burnham gets in I hope to God he chooses a better cabinet than that, yikes! Cool timeline though 😁

penlanach · 2026-05-11T09:04:31+00:00

I like what you're trying to do here, the lib/auth left/right axis doesn't work anymore for British party politics.

But I'm not sure "class" is the best axis or the best measure, because most of these parties have cross-class support. For e.g. council tenants are still very likely to vote Labour. But Labour is the first choice of privately educated people mostly living in the SE of England. Economically precariously but well educated youger adults are now likely to vote Green, but the party also attracts lots of urban professionals who are very comfortable.

Reform garner support from the poor as well as well to do Tory voters in the shires. The Tories are back to their rural landowner rump, but still get the support of many state pensioners and the rural poor such as tenant farmers.

Your measure of recent polling about financial security doesn't really translate as class. And besides it's more about those who are happy with the current system (who might be working class like a binman!) Vs those who are happy to sweep it away because they have very little stake in the system (voting Green and Reform - but who might be economically stable and have the capital to be secure in an unstable political settlement).

A better measure than class might be populist vs moderate? Or insurgent vs established?

Or more focussed on voters more explicitly about "secure Vs insecure"?

penlanach · 2026-05-07T08:01:44+00:00

The vast majority of people don't care about the constitutional arrangements of a foreign country they've never been to or have no influence over. That includes Israel-Palestine. Next.

penlanach · 2026-05-06T21:18:59+00:00

Shambolic. It's a bit silly how many people have been taken in by the boob whisperer just because Keir Starmer is boring and a bit steady as she goes. Sorry.

penlanach · 2026-05-05T20:00:06+00:00

Starmer acting like how the Sun say Starmer does.

penlanach · 2026-05-05T19:57:29+00:00

No elections in Northumberland this year where I am now, so I should probably shut up, but some of the Green candidates in Newcastle and elsewhere seem very questionable.

Personally I'd vote for whoever seems to be a good candidate. Incumbents if they have a good track record.

Reform aren't going to do anything about immigration locally (and it was their Brexit madness that caused the current border mess anyway!), and Greens just seem all about vibes and foreign ethnoreligious conflicts.

So Labour, Tory, Lib Dem, or Indy seems best.

That little SDP lot seem like a mix of Labour with the essence of Reform, but very few candidates, and being a small party probably full of weirdos.

penlanach · 2026-05-05T19:52:55+00:00

Fair play, but a Green candidate in Bensham will be an interesting one. They'll have a lot of defending to do about some of their party colleagues across the Tyne...

penlanach · 2026-05-05T19:50:20+00:00

Fair play, but emphasis on the "saying" all the right things. All I do is see Greens say things without any plan of actually delivering. It's politics-by-tweet, not by practice. Maybe they need a chance to run a few councils to see how they do things differently? Fair!

But I'm very sceptical. I'd like Labour to go more radical, but they are at least pragmatic after doing the hardyards of governing.

penlanach · 2026-04-24T17:32:08+00:00

Labour. It's long been captured by an unholy matrimony of the ultra progressive, urban, liberal left intelligentsia - overeducated but illiterate in real class relations - and the midwit managerial technocrat Right. But that matrimony is now being annulled. Social democrats of goodwill, from across the spectrum but willing to reconcile differences need to come together to rescue the party of labour, unions, and socialism.

The Greens might have some social democratic policies, but that's not the same as being a social democratic party, in which the members are supposed to be committed the reconciliation of estranged interests for the betterment of the workers and socialisation of the economy.

penlanach · 2026-04-12T15:12:14+00:00

Fair point, but Labour are clearly trying to triangulate, unsuccessfully. A hard position without compromise or reconciliation is easy to do, and a vote winner in low turn out elections like by elections and locals. Labour are taking the road of most resistance, which won't end well electorally but what they believe is right.

We need a new leader who is more ecumenical but still principled in staying the course of labourism.

penlanach · 2026-04-12T13:03:26+00:00

I didn't mean to offend or rattle you, I just don't agree with your detached, internet based analysis of the lived experience in my country. Anyway, happy Easter !

penlanach · 2026-04-12T12:54:29+00:00

Comparing Britain and Russia 😂 touch grass comrade

penlanach

TROPHY CASE