Richard Chapman

Trip back to Seaford, old haunt of my tens and teens. Cat at the Coastguard Cottages by Cuckmere Haven.

Sad that the end of my Divine Comedy tour following is finished, for now. Twice in Brighton, once at the Barbican. Tonight I was the eejit standing up in row M to bop while most stayed down. Indie Disco, yeah.

Gene at the Hannersmith Apollo last night. Triumphant return after decades. Thirty years on, went with same friends as before. Bonus this time is I stayed sober enough to remember it.

Wonderful thing to step out of the office and hear the bells of Westminster Abbey jangling and jostling away, following you down Victoria Street, in the way they must have entertained every ear in the Devil's Acre.

I have a headache, but what to do? If only Nigel was clearer with his advice.

Award-winning mature concrete, still doing its thing.

The wet rooftops of Westminster

An open letter to Nigel Farage - Bishop Steven's Blog Bishop Steven writes an open letter in response to Nigel Farage MP's immigration policy which was launched in Oxford this week.

A courteous but very impressive rebuke to Nigel Farage from the Bishop of Oxford.

"I heard no compassion in what you said...".

"I disagree profoundly with your attempts to ... increase fear of the stranger in our communities".

Do read.
blogs.oxford.anglican.org/an-open-lett...

Reading a lot of Christie at the moment (inspired by @chrischibnall.bsky.social ). Lessons learned so far: don't trust a first-person narrative, or anyone who claims to be a doctor.

Am convinced Agatha Christie kept returning to Ariadne Oliver as a way to cope with the fact that Hercule Poirot was manifesting himself to the authoress as a real person in her advancing years.

UK's top bishop says Nigel Farage's deportation plan 'isn't the British way' The Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, told The Mirror it has long been the British way to meet those asking for help with 'compassion and understanding' as he said Nigel Farage's plans are 'beneat...

"It is the Christian way to meet those asking for help with compassion and understanding, and it has long been the British way to give shelter where we can to those escaping violence and conflict abroad. It should remain that way.”

www.mirror.co.uk/news/politic...

God alone can bind our nation together | Daniel Inman | The Critic Magazine In 1927 the political scientist Ernest Barker remarked that the English were curiously blind to their own national character until a moment of peril. It was then that we discover that “there is a rock...

This is good. thecritic.co.uk/god-alone-ca...

A significant birthday: indoor skydiving, tea at Spoons, London's best sights by boat, Maccy Ds, Covent Garden shops, The Ballad of Wallis Island, Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese meat board, presents & cards, England win. Today was a fine day to remember, & all with @revruthc.bsky.social & the kids.

And there it is, right on time.

Vicarage bring and share summer party all prepped. Now just need the rain.

The hot rooftops of Westminster

My husband wanted to go to Dignitas: the new assisted dying bill wouldn’t have helped As the right-to-die legislation passes its final Commons hurdle, Mary Dejevsky explains how it falls far short of helping those who might have been pinning their hopes on it, namely people like her la...

Obviously have sympathy, but this article shows clearly what will happen if the Bill becomes law - as so many of us have said. People will say it is too restrictive, lacks compassion, denies people their choice, and that its boundaries should be expanded. www.independent.co.uk/voices/assis...

I don't support the principle at all, but this would probably have been a stronger & better Bill had it been a Govt one (it would have had pre-leg scrutiny for example), and it would have had all the parliamentary protections that come with a Govt Bill. But it isn't & we are where we are.

It's our parliamentary & constitutional arrangement that a Bill has to go through all stages in both Houses to become an Act. In the case of disagreement the Parliament Acts can be used. You can call it what you like, but you can't simply set it aside because you are for/against a particular issue.

I see Esther Rantzen is now telling the House of Lords what its role is, and Kim Leadbeater is claiming the lamentable scrutiny of her assisted suicide bill in the Commons was "extremely thorough". I mean, ?

It's heartbreaking to see MPs vote for this again. I can't help but feel that a massive blow to the country has been committed, by those with smiling faces and the best intentions. God help us all.

"Giving people the right to choose does not take away the right not to choose" says Kim Leadbeater, to 'hear-hears' in the Commons. This is not only false, but absurd. It is the level of debate we are being forced to endure on this miserable assisted suicide bill.

This is not Parliament at its best.

On the day before a crucial life/death vote in the Commons, this is what the newspaper that is the leading voice for assisted suicide goes with. The paucity of argument is extraordinary.

The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo - Wikipedia

Happy Waterloo day to all who celebrate. In the Royal Gallery of the UK Parliament there is a huge wall fresco by Daniel Maclise, 'The Meeting of Wellington and Blücher after the Battle of Waterloo'. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mee... More about its conservation, here: youtu.be/Z2Ptyg-6xnU?...

The email sent this afternoon by Dignity in Dying to their supporters. It says everything that's wrong with the movement behind the Terminally Ill Adults Bill - massive PR spends, polls, 'flooding social media'. This is not about winning, it's is a profound legal & societal change, which needs care.

What do you get a man in his late forties on Fathers' Day, except -

Great achievement by @revruthc.bsky.social in fundraising for @diabetesuk.bsky.social . As her husband (& as someone with type 1 diabetes) I am hugely proud of her.

Am about to witness my first Frasier equinox. The last episode has just aired on Channel 4, and the first is just an ad break away. So moving to see it occur naturally, in the wild.