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Conor Fitzgerald's avatar

Baited by a fake warhammer post, curse you

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Ed West's avatar

haha

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WaveFunction's avatar

I took the same bait

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Kirill Krasilnikov's avatar

I first thought that Ed would show off his vintage Praetorian Guard army that is worth 10,000 points.

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JonF311's avatar

Re: Meanwhile, the Black Death is actually back in Britain, the first time since 1918, although it’s perfectly treatable.

We have it in the American Southwest. Every now and then some unwary tourist gets it. Or someone's cat or dog brings it home to them. Recognized in time, it is indeed treatable. There was a case of a couple who picked it up and returned home to Chicago before they got sick-- bubonic plague was the last thing the doctors thought of back there and the wife died while the husband was left permanently invalid. And a very narrow escape: A Mormon girl in Utah caught the pneumonic form of the disease (which can be passed between people just like a cold or Covid) from her cat and went off to church camp where she fell ill. Very luckily the doctors did the necessary tests and public health authorities traced all her contacts and got everyone on the indicated antibiotics promptly, otherwise a major outbreak could have followed. The girl herself barely pulled through and spent weeks in the ICU.

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Ruairi's avatar

It turns up in Peru now and then- because Peru is a land of horror. Also Paddington is from the Selva in Peru, which is a land of human and natural horror.

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David Cockayne's avatar

Birmingham's current humiliation causes especial pain to its educated classes because they are aware that it was described, in an 1890 New York magazine article as 'the best governed city in the world'.

The reason was that for the preceding twenty years the city had been run by a self-made radical, Unitarian businessman by the name of Joseph Chamberlain. A young Musk with a Liberal conscience and Christian zeal (or maybe the other way round).

The Tories, of course, called him a dictator and he probably was. But he transformed the grim life of Brum's working classes, creating a city that was 'parked, paved, assized, marketed, gas & watered and improved.'

In those days, that's what radicals did, and could do.

https://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/politics/62949/birmingham-council-local-authority-insolvency

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Chamberlain#Mayor_of_Birmingham

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Holly McC's avatar

Please do write on the loss of the medieval calendar. Saw a reference in one of your linked archived articles. The West has lost something precious there - I would love to learn more about the traditions.

My American children used to celebrate Michaelmas every year at their Steiner school with a play about St. George and the dragon followed by a school-wide soup feed; it was a great tradition.

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Ruairi's avatar

Re Irish speaking- Brendan Behan quip about Idiots from the Beaches of Donegal - and with regard faith schools - I think one you may know well- has got a bit more involved with its practices. You have to say the Angelus at Midday for example.

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Joshuardo's avatar

Enjoy Westmorland from a Westamlian (albeit us younger ones are all very happy being called Cumbrians now). We were the only county not to send someone to the Godly colony in New England which I always use to explain away any dysfunction the US has.

I assume you’re going to the Lake District but if the opportunity comes, the eden valley is also nice and more peaceful. The Lyth Valley is nice on the way out of the Lakes as well and should have some remnants of the damson bloom around Easter.

You can often tell locals from non locals out walking by who’s up for a chat or who says “how do” and acknowledge your presence if you want to talk to one.

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Ed West's avatar

thank you. visiting the Lake District, but can't afford to rent there. Talk about pricey!

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Joshuardo's avatar

Me and almost all of my mates have left now. It used to be very affordable according to the previous generations until the massive price increases in the 90s 2000s sadly.

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Keith's avatar

By the way, Tove K is a woman.

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Ed West's avatar

Ah thank you, have edited! I didn't know.

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Keith's avatar

I don't know how many of her pieces you have read but some of them can create a mini sea change in how you see societies. I subscribe to perhaps 80 Substacks (paying only about 6) but her pieces are often the most astonishing and at the same time highly plausible. It's as though she emersed herself in anthropology for a decade or so with all it's weirdness and violence, got married, settled down in the Swedish countryside and had 6 children and while doing that and chopping wood she thought, away from the ephemeral noise in the Guardian and on Question Time, about all that she had learnt about anthropology. It probably helps that she has some form of high-functioning autism. Some of her conclusions feel like genuine lightbulb moments that for me at least are really rare nowadays.

40k. Congratulations! And I suspect your numbers will hold up in a way some other very good substacks might not, due to the variety of subject matter you cover and your more personal style. There are some really necessary sites that keep us informed about the latest societal disasters caused by mass immigration but I'm finding it ever harder to read them three times a week. Once I managed to get up to speed with what was happening in my country I found the only reason for me to actually read more pieces describing the awfulness of what is happening to us was to consolidate my frustrated anger. No matter how necessary these Substacks are, I doubt that I'll renew my subscription to them next time around since I can no longer bear to read them.

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Neil C's avatar

My wife dragged me to UncannyCon last year, and I ended up buying a book on Borley Rectory. There wasn't enough on UFOs for my liking, though. The Morley-Jourdain timeslip at Versailles is the most interesting one if you ask me https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moberly%E2%80%93Jourdain_incident?wprov=sfla1

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Ed West's avatar

'my wife dragged me to...' sure :)

Yes that's a great story

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Ruairi's avatar

Its a terrible story- either it's a dream and it doesn't matter or you mime hanging Robespierre from a rope and save Christendom.

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