WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Tardis]

Today, in the B&E, quite a lot of vitriole about the twinning with a Palestinian town

Seems that the Twinning people threw out the idea, according to the Lancashire telegraph today

[Tizer]

Nowt wrong with lard Maz! Like any other food, it's OK as long as you don't eat too much of it at a time; and like other frying oils & fats it's OK as long as you don't keep re-using it. It's been unfairly criticised in the past. The lard on the beach was probably looking and smelling good because it was in such a big lump and only the very outer surface would have oxidised. When you fry with lard repeatedly or store it too long in small amounts it goes rancid easily due to the absence of antioxidants - while in the animal's body tissues the fat is protected from oxygen and doesn't need to contain any antioxidants but once you render it out it gets exposed to oxygen and is more vulnerable. In the old days people used to fry with the same lard over and over again and it's no wonder it got a bad name sometimes.

[Stanley]

I've always clarified lard and re-used it and I haven't died yet. I replace it completely occasionally.
What attracted me was the fact that I can ring US and Oz free now. Great improvement!

[EileenDavid]

Mam used to have a dripping tin. All it was was a roasting tin which was used for the roast potatoes and all variety of meat that were cooked in another roasting tin was emptied into it. Never used any fowl fat in it though these were all thrown. Eileen

[Stanley]

Very common Eileen, my mother did the same. Never caused any problem as long as you used your head and remember, there was always a certain amount of salt in the fat which helped preserve it.

[Tizer]

I've always clarified lard and re-used it and I haven't died yet.

This reminded me of a discussion between Peter Hitchens and Ben Summerskill on the radio this morning. One said how he'd been made to play rugby at school and "it didn't do me any harm", to which the other replied (tongue in cheek) "Who are you to judge that?"

[Stanley]

I haven't died yet and the chips taste lovely!
An Indian politician commenting on the gang rape and murder of the young woman stated that "adopting the Western style of dress is an invitation to rape". There will be no improvement while dinosaurs like that hold power.

[Bruff]

It was Saturday actually, but a nice little segment on R4 on the 150th anniversary of a letter sent to this country by Abraham Lincoln. An actor read it, and it thanked a group of people for their Christian charity and noted that the bond between 'ourslves' would strengthen and last eternal, or somesuch. Who was this group?

It was the Lancashire cotton workers who in the face of the cotton famine and the agitation of their bosses, came out in support of the Union side during the Civil War and urged the continuing blockade of the Southern ports thus ensuring their own hardship would continue.

Richard Broughton

[Tizer]

One of my great-great-grandfather's brothers died, and the brother's wife too, in the cotton famine in Blackburn (both had worked in the mills). Their young children were divided up between other brothers and sisters to be looked after. It's no wondered they had large families in those days, you needed them as back-up in bad times.

[Tardis]

It costs DEFRA over £700 to process each Single Farm Payment

Maybe it is too complicated?

That doesn't include the farmers costs in submitting the documents either

[Stanley]

Remember too that the cotton workers were largely Nonconformist and supported abolition of slavery. They saw parallels between the relative positions of themselves in the cotton industry and the condition of the slave workers in the South. Principle over economics, we're short of that these days....

[Bruff]

In the snippet Paul Mason made the point that the decision of the mill workers flew in the face of accepted wisdom as they were supposed to be rational actors making decisions with only with their next wage packet in mind and so 'should' have sided with the 'bosses' who lobbied hard for the Government to send in Navy to break the blockade.

I might also be right in noting that the cotton famine showed many people that individual or group misfortune and hardship was not somehow their own fault, but that external factors wholly out of their control could and indeed did on occasions play a part.

Richard Broughton

[Tizer]

There's more here about the the Cotton Famine and about Cotton Famine Road:
http://www.dingquarry.co.uk/location--g ... e-road.asp
As well as the deaths of those relatives of my ancestors the Cotton Famine was probably also responsible for the changes in the ways my ancestors earned their living from the 1860s onwards. Those who were able for a while to continue on the handloom had to weave materials other than cotton. Those who needed to change either went into the town and took up different work (e.g. working in a draper's shop) or set up some other small business of their own, at least one of which became a much bigger business in time.

[Tripps]

And the situation was marked by Callunna on her CD Bernulf, by the group "Now Then". I don't think she will mind me putting a link to the track. I've had it a long time now, but still think it's a great piece of work.

[Stanley]

One of the things I have often noted about 'disasters' is the effect they have on thought processes and consequently changes in society. The Black Death in 1348 made workers think about the value of their labour and also stimulated Nonconformism. Look at the changes to thinking WW1 generated amongst those who had fought on the Western Front. The Cotton Famine mad many people emigrate, not all of them stayed, read Stephen Pickles transcript in the LTP. His family migrated to New England on the promise of three acres and a cow but they came back and eventually founded S Pickles and Sons, one of the most successful manufacturing firms in Barlick. There are silver linings in even the darkest cloud.
What struck me this morning is that if anything it's colder! Reminds me of 1963 when we had six weeks of it!

[Thomo]

A report by the AA stating that in the past four days, about 7000 cars have been written off due to be used as mobile igloos, vis, just a tiny hole to see through. We have seen quite a lot of this daft behaviour down here, also the weather has had little impact on the speed of passing vehicles.

[Bruff]

I could not agree more and for the life of me cannot understand how anyone could consider this sensible. It's simple sloth. Get out 5mins earlier and clear your car properly. If you're 'too busy', get out of bed 5mins earlier, and get everyone else up too if you have to. Lazy.

Richard Broughton

[Tardis]

HMRC prosecuted 200 people last year for tax evasion.

The DPP said it would try to prosecute more this year.

If billions are uncollected why is it so hard to prosecute? Some distance between fact and rhetoric?

[Big Kev]

This video clip of my son performing at a corporate event last week caught my attention today
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... Yszb5wzYKc

[PanBiker]

Excellent Kev.

[Stanley]

He's a talented and confident lad Kev. Good performance.
Re. 'mobile igloos'.... I'm afraid it's another instance of our 'time poor' society. They'd rather risk their lives and those of others than have a little forethought. I was struck by a news item that showed a ministerial car picking Cameron up in Downing Street and the side windows had enough snow on to impair vision. I would have thought the chauffeur would have had more sense! Get one of the security men to clean them?

[Bruff]

Hmmm, 'time poor'. I hear folk all the time say 'I haven't got time'. No time to watch tele; no time to read a book; no time to cook tea; no time to iron. On and on it goes. All rubbish.

Of all the resources, time is the one which no matter who you are, from prince down to pauper, you have the same amount. 60mins in an hour, 24 in a day, 7 in week. If you 'haven't got time' to read a book, it's because you choose to do other things instead. Should you choose not to do these you could read a book. People can spend their time as they wish, but to suggest they have 'no time' to do 'x' suggests that somehow time is rationed to each individual when clearly it is not, it is distributed equally.

Bit pedantic this I know, but it really annoys me when folk say they have got 'no time'.

Richard Broughton

[Bruff]

Couple of sad things.

One of the climbers killed in the Cairngorms last week was from Hoylake here - she was a Dr in Harrogate. Details were kept back 'till her family was informed.

And a body found up the road was a young chap, just married, who was known to be distressed at the thought of losing his job at Blockbusters.

Richard Broughton

[Tizer]

In general I agree with what several of you say about `having no time for X, Y, Z', and I definitely wouldn't defend leaving car windows covered in snow, but I think it's not as simple as you suggest. We can argue philosophically that we have a choice about doing or not doing every task but some demands on our time are further than others along the spectrum to the extent that we feel we have `no choice'. These are the ones that cause most stress and I can give as an example our current problems here with aged parents.

On a different note, I heard BBC news referring to a 10-year backlog of immigration cases as `historic'. This misuse of the word historic (when they mean historical) has caused a rumpus at The Times newspaper too, with the editor having to warn his staff not to keep using the word wrongly otherwise we lose the differentiation and our language becomes less precise. (`Historic' refers to something of great importance in history, or, as The Times editor puts it, worthy of celebration, such as Armistice Day, the Battle of Waterloo etc. It doesn't mean simply something that occurred in the past.)

[PanBiker]

I was struck by a news item that showed a ministerial car picking Cameron up in Downing Street and the side windows had enough snow on to impair vision. I would have thought the chauffeur would have had more sense! Get one of the security men to clean them?

I would think that it's a job for the chauffeur rather than one of the security guys, after all in that situation he is the one with the direct duty of care to any passengers and other road users. Mind you not much different to the example set by Cameron of riding his push bike through the London traffic without a helmet. Pretty much cases of do as I say rather than what I do, wrong attitude, bad example, expected behaviour though from the ilk.