Good News stories

[french frank]

I wish I could be so chirpy. I find it all deeply depressing.

And no, I don't have a clue as to a good way forward for politics in this country

Too many egos in politics.The world of the internet and social media suits them perfectly.

[LMcD]

I wish I could be so chirpy. I find it all deeply depressing.

And no, I don't have a clue as to a good way forward for politics in this country



.

I'm just deploying my weird sense of humour in a probably doomed attempt to come to terms with the current state of UK politics and the prospect of how much worse things might well be in the future.

[vinteuil]

I'm just deploying my weird sense of humour as a form of of defence against my despair at the state of UK politics.

(mind you the depressing state of UK politics is as nothing compared to the despair / distress occasioned by the international situation/s)

[Roger Webb]

I'm just deploying my weird sense of humour in a probably doomed attempt to come to terms with the current state of UK politics and the prospect of how much worse things might well be in the future.

When Ms Sultana announced her political partnership with Mr Corbyn my weird sense of humour immediately thought the new party should be called The Fruit and Nut Party..........perhaps the Party sing-song could include that memorable ditty with its tune nicked from The Nutcracker, the words so unforgettably delivered by Frank Muir in the Cadbury's advert....'Everyone's a Fruit and Nut case'!

[LMcD]

When Ms Sultana announced her political partnership with Mr Corbyn my weird sense of humour immediately thought the new party should be called The Fruit and Nut Party..........perhaps the Party sing-song could include that memorable ditty with its tune nicked from The Nutcracker, the words so unforgettably delivered by Frank Muir in the Cadbury's advert....'Everyone's a Fruit and Nut case'!

Given the dire straits in which many people find themselves these days, perhaps she could persuade voters to switch parties by promoting herself as the Sultana of Swing.

[french frank]

The working class has to evolve its own ideology to critique and counter this endemic challenge, and this involves differences, mainly tactical since no class possesses evidence supportive of its aspirations, splits and so on, whereas ruling class politics necessarily only concerns itself with ways to carry out its functions over a system intrinsically safeguarding of its own power, wealth and prestige, however inefficiently and wastefully as a totality.

Apparently the working/ruling class distinctions are no more:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/jun/25/class-age-education-dividing-lines-uk-politics-electoral-reform

[smittims]

My father, a lifelong socialist,was fascinated by the (to him curious) phenomenon of the working-class tory voter. He explained it by saying that the bosses were traditionally liberals, so the workers reacted against that. I never found that convincing. However, he agreed that education was the answer, teaching the workers to understand that they were the last people to benefot from a tory government.

I still feel uncomfortable by those Herbert Wilcox films (which I watch for Anthony Collins' music) with their implicit acceptance of and respect for the 'ruling class' by a loyal peasantry.

[french frank]

It's interesting to note the many - almost diametrically opposite - differences between this and the last substantial breakaway from Labour in 1983. I'm not convinced that the political situation in this country has changed in such a way that on any of those points of difference the proposed new party has a better (or even an equal) chance of success than the partially defunct SDP.

[Serial_Apologist]

My father, a lifelong socialist,was fascinated by the (to him curious) phenomenon of the working-class tory voter. He explained it by saying that the bosses were traditionally liberals, so the workers reacted against that. I never found that convincing. However, he agreed that education was the answer, teaching the workers to understand that they were the last people to benefit from a tory government.

I still feel uncomfortable by those Herbert Wilcox films (which I watch for Anthony Collins' music) with their implicit acceptance of and respect for the 'ruling class' by a loyal peasantry.

A coupling of island status and geographical advantage had always placed Britain to the forefront in terms of progressive social inclusiveness; hence our comparatively "easy" transition from Feudalism to early Capitalism - that stage when enough of the landed aristocracy bought into the new means of mass production afforded by coal and steam-based inventions afforded world dominance and first pick in the slave trade - both of which would be of huge importance in helping Britain side-step the subsequent revolutionary upheavals elsewhere and helped in creating the myth of national superiority along with its attendant ideology of blame foreigners etc, often ignored or justified in terms of "human indolence" in religious teaching. All of these factors predisposed a British working class mentality based in the widest sense on protectionism - of "our" jobs, institutions, history, boundaries, culture - rather than progress, seen as a natural process as long as not obstructed by troublemakers - an ideology which has only in recent decades been questioned in the ranks of right-wing dominated Labour, largely at the behest of "identity politics", which never gets to grips with the underlying crux of the matter.

In the same recent period, this what I call protectionism has been consolidated in the dream of home ownership, reinforcing the failure of governing social democratic parties elsewhere (Scandinavian countries to an extent excluded) to overcome problems of provisionality and unsustainability inherent to capitalism, and of the politics of the Left to learn lessons from both history and the perpetually self-reinforcing mindset of too much unexamined groupthink.

[Serial_Apologist]

It's interesting to note the many - almost diametrically opposite - differences between this and the last substantial breakaway from Labour in 1983. I'm not convinced that the political situation in this country has changed in such a way that on any of those points of difference the proposed new party has a better (or even an equal) chance of success than the partially defunct SDP.

Well we didn't have the problem of environmental decline back then - or didn't realise that we did - and I think that is set to make all the difference. The unfortunate truth we all have to recognise is that if you tell someone on a diet of hard drugs - in our case unsutainable addiction to image, surface appearances, retail therapy, new technology that diverts attention and makes human agency progressively redundant - that they need to give up on these things, they will indulge in them even more, and hand over the moral duty for critical thinking to those they think of as "experts". Postulating a common enemy, which has always been exploited as a vital means of social bonding - to both good (the Blitz Spirit) and bad ends (popular community uprisings against pediatricians) - could instead be mobilised against environmental destruction, in which, this time around, all classes are threatened (there is nowhere else to go); so either the movers and shakers of industry and public opinion have to co-ordinate in sustainable production methods and training programmes regardless of overriding competitive desiderata, or the great mass of the rest of us will be forced by sheer dint of survival to move them out of the way, off to some island paradise where they can play their silly games of monopoly harmlessly, and get stuck in. Who in any way really wants to live in those multi billion pounds penthouses and mansions anyway? Has anybody been watching those rich estate agents programmes??

[gradus]

Hugh left six pounds of apricots outside our door this morning. A pleasant surprise but not altogether unexpected as his apricot tree set fruit along every branch this year and he had thinned hundreds of immature fruit to prevent he branches from breaking under the weight. Odd how fruit trees behave, we had a gage plum that produced colossal quantities one year only to die the next.

[Petrushka]

Hugh left six pounds of apricots outside our door this morning. A pleasant surprise but not altogether unexpected as his apricot tree set fruit along every branch this year and he had thinned hundreds of immature fruit to prevent he branches from breaking under the weight. Odd how fruit trees behave, we had a gage plum that produced colossal quantities one year only to die the next.

Yes, many years ago (mid-1960s) we had a plum tree that gave a huge crop one year then died the next.

[Serial_Apologist]

Yes, many years ago (mid-1960s) we had a plum tree that gave a huge crop one year then died the next.

That's just reminded me of a childhood incident when lightning struck a large tree in a wood right next to where we were standing, and we all fell to the ground. The following year that tree came into leaf well before its neighbours, and stayed in leaf longer than the rest, almost as if it was intentionally making the most of its last days. The following year it was dead.

[french frank]

A neighbour's grapevine and pear tree are absolutely heaving with fruit. My crab apples were very plentiful last year but this year there are about six - and look as if they may fall off prematurely. But my pollarded rowan is loaded with berries and I plan to make rowan jelly this year: I didn't know you could :-)

[oddoneout]

A neighbour's grapevine and pear tree are absolutely heaving with fruit. My crab apples were very plentiful last year but this year there are about six - and look as if they may fall off prematurely. But my pollarded rowan is loaded with berries and I plan to make rowan jelly this year: I didn't know you could :-)

Where there's a will - or a need... I have an old paperback which is a collection of recipes from The Farmers Weekly Home Section, a revised edition of the first collection which dated from 1935, and many of the recipes are an illustration of getting every last bit of edible material from whatever produce was to hand. There is a recipe for Haw jelly, and also one for Rowan jelly - ..."a firm bright pink jelly, with a delightful piquant flavour". It uses equal quantities(3lbs) of berries and crab apples, but says at the bottom "To those who think that equal quantities of fruit produce too acid a preserve, this jelly may be made with 2lbs of rowans to 4lbs apples."
There is a very old recipe for apples that uses the term 'reserving' to mean 'preserving', packing prepared fruit into bottles which are put in a fish kettle and "set on the fire". When the fruit is sufficiently cooked the bottles are sealed with "well-fitting corks which have been dipped in mutton fat."