This is Northumberland Calling 1.11.24

The Return of Envy Politics, Spanish flooding and Canadian thought police edition

Hello America (Particularly Central Ohio) this is Northumberland Calling

The First of November and All Hallowed Day aka All Saints Day — a day of holy obligation if you happen to be Roman Catholic and the reason why the US election is always the first Tuesday after the first Monday. They decided not to hold on it on a date which has great religious significance for many.

The Budget was very much ‘Politics of Envy’ from Labour. They went after the large landowners, particularly the farmers in a major way whilst taking a penny off a pint of beer if pulled at a pub. Farmers and many small business owners are very unhappy. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/31/labours-budget-is-a-closure-of-the-mines-moment-farmers/ or https://archive.ph/uSHhr

Kemi Badenoch is the favourite to win the Tory leadership election, but the voter turnout has not be great and is most likely tight. More senior Conservatives from across all party sub-groups have declared for Kemi. The result is announced on Saturday. My fingers are firmly crossed for a sane leader aka Kemi but then I have been Team Kemi for a long time.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/10/31/kemi-badenoch-robert-jenrick-tory-leadership-race/ or https://archive.ph/N3q0z

This is the latest on the terrible flash flooding in Valencia Spain. More than 150 people are dead and they are still finding bodies as they have been unable to reach the underground carparks. The ordinary people of Valencia feel abandoned because the central government response thus far has been patchy in the extreme. Valencia will not have rail services for weeks, including the ultra fast service to Madrid (Sound familiar? Central governments rarely are able to cope)  The Cadiz region is supposed to experience something similar today as well as Valencia getting dumped on again. The Times are reporting that there has been a waterspout tornado off the coast already this morning and they are evacuating people from Jerez (where sherry is produced) People in the region are supposed to stay inside.  https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/10/31/spain-deploys-army-to-valencia-as-flood-deaths-surpass-150/ or https://archive.ph/9rcfx

The Times: https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/valencia-spain-floods-death-toll-hrg2jc9tr

The Telegraph has been doing a series on the changing mores of Canada. I had not realised how authoritarian things had become there. This sea change is important because Canada, more than any other country, led the way on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Basically Canadians wrote it, including the former prime minister John G. Diefenbaker. In 1960 he said "I am Canadian, a free Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship God in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, free to choose those who govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind." You can read more about this landmark endeavour here: https://diefenbaker.usask.ca/exhibits/online-exhibits-content/the-canadian-bill-of-rights.php#:~:text=%22I%20am%20Canadian,%20a%20free,for%20myself%20and%20all%20mankind.%22

 As this essay makes clear, Diefenbaker would not recognise what has happened to Canada during the Justin Trudeau era. His simple statement and indeed his quest for universal human rights as he understood them would be considered dangerous. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/28/canada-free-speech-online-harms-thought-police/ or https://archive.ph/rg6Al

This one details the transgender situation in Canada and how free speech, even to the extent of saying that one knows biological facts is being stifled in Trudeau’s Canada: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/26/canada-trans-extremism-lgbtq-gender-sex-critical/ or https://archive.ph/D5c0z

Scotland which has many intractable problems such as the ferries to Hebrides keeps focusing on the trivial, such as altering the words of various sea chanties and nursery rhymes to make them acceptable to the modern toddler (or more likely the modern toddler’s hyper-alert parent). ‘What Shall We Do With a Drunken Sailor’ is a great pulling on the ropes to keep the time song for sailors, I am not sure why it need to be sung in nursery school in any formulation as there are other songs… or why taxpayer’s money needs to be spent on such things but that is me. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/10/31/scotland-children-songs-book-trust-drunken-sailor/ or https://archive.ph/x3RHR

Last year, the Duke of Northumberland’s son put his early landed inheritance – The Rothbury Estate up for sale (perhaps he knew the way the wind was blowing with Labour… ). Local people were worried about who might buy it. The answer  became clear this week – the Northumberland Wildlife Trust  in conjunction with the Wildlife Trusts raised the £30 million required and it has been saved for the nation and wildlife. The focus for the farms will be regenerative farming. The estate included the very popular walking area of the Simonside Hills. https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/news/wildlife-trusts-buy-rothbury-estate-partnership-northumberland-wildlife-trust

Because it is always interesting to see what the very old aristocracy think, this is quite good from Lady Glenconner who is 92 and a former lady-in-waiting to Princess Margaret. She does not turn on her central heating and instead puts on a coat. There are stiff upper lips and then there is Lady Glenconner.  They used to make people far tougher. https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/celebrity/article/lady-glenconner-stiff-upper-lip-interview-dtbzkgbxc or https://archive.ph/bd3wX

Here my editor got back to me. She agrees that a new prologue is required but has actioned the next tranche of money (always a good day when that happens). Thus I am working hard on getting this story done.

Paddy spanielling

Paddy went spanielling (a great word that my daughter discovered — it is basically what spaniels do when they go nose down running) in a field and came back when called. Many of you may recall his earlier exploits so this is truly momentous. Getting him to break from his spanielling and return to me in a reasonable time.

The clocks changed on Sunday so Britain is now back on GMT. It means I can once again take Paddy out in the morning for a walk (for a few weeks).  It is now getting dark around 5. Northumberland is far enough north that the change does make a difference, particularly to school children.

If you want to find me during the week, I have started putting things on Celia M’s Jottings in Purple  

which is where a number of refuge FP commentators are hanging out as they dislike the current FP policy on comments. The discussion is usually lively as you might expect from former FP commentators. Depending on how firmly my Procrastination Princess tiara is attached (aka how well my actual writing is going), I may end up getting distracted.

Hopefully everyone else’s week was a good one. I look forward to seeing you in the comments.

If you like what you read on here, why not subscribe?

It’s free and I don’t have any plans to put in a paywall. If you want to ‘reward me’, why not buy one of my books? Currently a number of them are on special at $1.99.  Or you can even leave a review on Amazon (it can be as simple as enjoyed the book) as this helps the algorithm pick up my books (basically you need more than 50 for Amazon to start recommending them)

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Michelle-Styles/author/B00288QUJM?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1729240286&sr=8-1&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true