Stephen Lowe Watson

“I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the offering box than all the others. For they all gave out of their wealth. But she, out of her poverty, put in what she had to live on, everything she had.”
Mark 12 43-44

Strongly disagree. Fuel duty should be unfrozen as should tax & student loan thresholds. Why should fossil fuels get less tax when everything else gets more?

Maybe just bloodlust

And how much will that cost HMRC to administer, for relatively meager pickings?

Worth pointing out to anyone with Adam Smith Institute links that Adam Smith was deeply opposed to corporate capitalists (joint stock companies as he called them) due to their inefficiency, monopolistic tendencies and corruption.

#FirstBirdOfMyDay a wren and two robins trying to out-sing each other

‘Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war.’
Winston Churchill (1954, Washington)

YouTube video by Forbrukerrådet - Norwegian Consumer Council A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator

youtu.be/T4Upf_B9RLQ?...

Orange full moon in dark blue sky over a hill

Worm moon rising

First bird of my day: blackbirds singing in the sleepy village gardens, dedicated to #SarahEverard and her family on this horrible day. #FirstBirdOfMyDay #WhatsYours

Ah, but the cost of your new tyre adds to GDP and that 'creates wealth' so it's 'good for the economy'. That's junkenomics.

YouTube video by Forbrukerrådet - Norwegian Consumer Council A Day in the Life of an Ensh*ttificator

Brilliant from the Norwegian Consumer Council.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4Up...

Arthur C Clarke's short story 'The Pacifist' (1956) tells of a computer programmed to answer any maths problem unless it detects a military application, in which case it insults the general who commissioned it.

Tipping it down here - but would have loved to see the hares

If they won't change the FPTP voting system, best they make themselves completely unelectable so as to avoid splitting the progressive vote.

A stone griffin behind a crowd of yellow tete-a-tete daffodils

Happy St. David's Day

YouTube video by ITV News We uncovered the redacted climate report the government didn’t want you to see

ITV News report on the UK governments 'secret' report about the Climate Emergency.

Frankly, it just says the obvious if you have half a brain in your skull. But at least it's in writing.

youtu.be/59DZiPdsOc8?...

JayVail

Check out Jay Vail on youtube, another American commenting on life in the UK
youtube.com/@jayvailey?s...

Brimstone butterfly (yellow-green with brown spots mimicking leaf rust) resting on dark green ivy.

Just as Zoë and I were having a go at the old time Music Hall number "When the Summer Comes Again", this brimstone butterfly flutters past the window in the sunshine and poses on some ivy for Zoë. Magic! @savebutterflies.bsky.social @sussexwildlife.bsky.social #ukwildlife

Hitting Like in this case means sharing your dismay

Male house sparrow on a rose branch with a moustache of brown twine threads in his bill, that he's just torn off from where the rose is attached to a chestnut arch.

Male house sparrow snapped this morning stealing the jute twine I use to tie in roses. It'll make good nesting material. If he's not careful, the branch will spring up taking him with it... #birds

Can we put Reform under review? Would like to know more about funding and links to Putin and to Epstein's best buddy Steve Bannon

First birds of my day - a jackdaw and a collared dove foraging on the grass, a dunnock and a great tit singing. A few herring gulls floating above while a small charm of goldfinches flitted by. Just now, a robin darting down to a secret place where it knows we hide mealworms.

Spring, sung into being There is a beautiful symbiosis between birds and trees. It just may not be what you've been told

There is a beautiful symbiosis between birds and trees. It just may not be what you've been told | Oak Bear

Knights Who Say "Ni!" - Wikipedia

No connection but can't resist...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knights...

Good news from Orford Ness 📣 This year, more than 430 grey seals pups have been born, an 88% increase on last year and the highest number since the colony arrived in 5 years ago. It's the surest sign yet that the colony has established and is growing on the Suffolk coast.
📷️ Hanne Siebers

The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: this is London calling | Editorial Editorial: With just seven weeks before its funding runs out, the UK’s greatest cultural asset and most trusted international news organisation must be supported

And another bites the dust?

The BBC World Service will run out of funding in just seven weeks. Its funding arrangement with the Foreign Office finishes at the end of March. There is no plan for what happens next.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Although in the UK I hugely value the BBC World Service for its news coverage which is so much less parochial than the Westminster bubble obsessed domestic stations. A tragedy if it goes, and an act of egregious national self harm.

A photo that the great Eric Hosking would have been proud of

Perhaps deniers will fall back on the suggestion that extreme weather is God's punishment for wokeness. Seriously, what else have they got?