McSpredder

I claim no knowledge of either philately or physiognomy, but a 1935 George V stamp (image grabbed from a website) shows a face with an upturned nose, whereas the mystery postcard seems to show a hooked nose.

That picture doesn't resemble the person who was UK monarch on 24th September 1937. I admit to being very poor at recognising faces, but to my eyes it looks more like Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov.

Knight Frank online brochure says sporting rights are to be included (but the final deal could of course be agreed on somewhat different terms).

Should I buy some inflatable dummies, or are those cameras able to distinguish between flesh and plastic?

Exactly, and a competent police firearms department could not possibly be unaware of the name and contact details for a person who organises shooting on a large estate. I didn’t see a date on the video, but presumably this was a recent incident, taking place at the same time as police are seeking extended powers to enter property and seize items without warrant (Government Survey, Question 1). What a remarkable conincidence. BASC advice published in 2010 was that “The police and certain authorities have the right to enter any property without a warrant if, and only if, they believe someone on that property has committed, is about to, or is actually in the process of committing an offence ....... Police are subject to the same laws of trespass as the rest of the public and may only benefit from legal powers if they believe they can apprehend a person who has, is about to, or is actually committing an offence." https://basc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2013/02/police_right_of_entry_firearms_seizures.pdf

Politician: more people = more votes. Business owner: more people = more customers. Academic: more suggestion of climate change = more jet-setting to attend international conferences.

Quite a few field of winter barley had been cut when I drove past Kelso (Friday) and Coldstream (Saturday). Some straw already baled and carted. Not seen any OSR harvested yet, but a lot of it looks nearly ready (still standing yesterday, but might not be after the downpour we had this afternoon).

Soft pillows were used in the past to murder large numbers of people. Are those weapons still on sale?

We called them running boards. Handy when rounding up cattle, because the lads could jump on and off as required, and cowdung on boots didn't get transferred to the interior of father's car. Police also made use of them, if this old film ("The Hangman Waits") is to be believed.

Wasn't that the Doe Triple-D ? Ernest Doe company, from somewhere in Essex?

Also works a treat with scorpions. And if the ants cause a problem by climbing up onto the dining table, just stand each table leg in a open tin of paraffin - they don’t like swimming in it. I bet Ditchman, like many old "colonial retreads", will remember those tricks. Alternatively, you might try biological control using a nematode (Steinernema feltiae), as suggested by the RHS. https://www.rhs.org.uk/prevention-protection/biological-control-garden

I have never expressed any enthusiasm for war, and it would be totally dishonest to suggest that I had. Have you perhaps mistaken me for somebody else?

It was not I who introduced white feathers into the discussion, and it would be entirely false to suggest otherwise. The only person who has mentioned cowards is yourself. It was not I who inserted “propaganda to a populace bought up on WW2 films” into the discussion. It was yourself.

The white feathers were handed out during WW1, so why attempt to associate them with Hitler? Muddled thinking on your part? You might have been brought up on WW2 films. Some of us grew up among individuals (parents, relatives, neighbours) who had returned from war with horrific injuries, families grieving for those killed on active service or as a result of bombing raids on civilians, relatives so traumatised by prison camp torture that they would still be waking with nightmares half a century later, people who had been rendered stateless and were living in UK's Displaced Persons camps. Our information came as first hand accounts, not film scripts.

Hitler analogies? 'this war is none of our business' sounds very much like 'a quarrel in a far-away country between people of whom we know nothing' Here is the next part of Neville Chamberlain's oft-quoted speech, with a few names names changed: "I can well understand the reasons why the Czech Ukrainian Government have felt unable to accept the terms which have been put before them in the German Rusian memorandum. Yet I believe after my talks with Herr Hitler Mr Putin that, if only time were allowed, it ought to be possible for the arrangements for transferring the territory that the Czech Ukrainian Government has agreed to give to Germany Russia to be settled by agreement under conditions which would assure fair treatment to the population concerned. You know already that I have done all that one man can do to compose this quarrel. After my visits to Germany Russia I have realised vividly how Herr Hitler Mr Putin feels that he must champion other Germans Russians, and his indignation that grievances have not been met before this. He told me privately, and last night he repeated publicly, that after this Sudeten German Crimean and Donbas question is settled, that is the end of Germany’s Russia's territorial claims in Europe.”

Was she saying that Uganda never descended into genocide, or that her father wasn't as bad as some other rulers? Idi Amin was certainly popular for a short time, a lot of people being very pleased to see the back of Milton Obote, and I remember folk driving round and round Kampala, hooting all the time to demonstrate their delight. His radio broadcasts in those first few days seemed to be coming from a pragmatic ruler who was going to be, above all, reasonable in the best sense of the word. Amin won a lot of support from Baganda people when he arranged a state funeral for their former leader, the Kabaka. The euphoria didn't last long. Things soon got rather nasty, and not just for Asians. I was fortunate to be living a few miles outside the city, and my contract was in any case due to end before the situation got really bad, but friends who stayed on to complete longer term contracts were beaten up, thrown into jail, etc. Life also became distinctly unpleasant for a lot of Ugandan Africans.

There are said to be over a million households in UK that keep chickens, amounting to a total of five million birds. (It must be true, because it was published in the Daily Mail). https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8136277/Chickens-five-times-popular-pets-hamsters.html Keeping track of all the information will presumably create a large number of Civil Service posts, with full cost recovery funded from bird keepers' registration fees. It could a common subject of conversation among the one million households (perhaps two million voters?) just about the time of the next general election. And the pigeon racing fraternity will also be interested, as will all the little old ladies with their budgerigars. Does Therese Coffey think this will be a vote-winner for the Conservatives?

..... or a labrador.

Please warn your non-shooting acquaintances that this minister’s attitudes could damage leisure activities totally un-connected with field sports. How does she think elite sports teams can be assembled if the mass of the population is only able to practise and develop skills on pitches with rabbit holes and mole hills? A big city stadium may be able to exclude pests, but the cost of installing rabbit-proof and mole-proof fencing around every village football pitch and every rural school playing field would be astronomic (steel mole netting can cost £10/m). Would Wales have much chance of hosting major golfing events if the fairways were likely to be pock-marked with burrows, and molehills might appear overnight on the greens? Would you send your child for riding lessons at an equestrian centre with rabbit holes? Maybe safer to take her across the border into England. Rats and mice in a sports pavilion? They might damage the structure, gnaw through wiring and initiate a life-threatening fire, or spread disease by urinating all over the kitchen area, but it’s a leisure facility, so the Welsh Government minister apparently regards the killing of such rodents to be uncivilised. The minister has said: "Personally I'm a lifelong vegetarian but there is nothing wrong with eating meat…”, so she obviously thinks animal slaughter is OK. What she abhors is the pleasure, not the killing, but how would she feel if those abattoir staff actually enjoyed their work? Is she just a smug politician, strutting around in her highly paid post, looking down on the people who do the dirty work and hoping that they are having a miserable time in their rather poorly paid jobs? If a Local Authority pest controller enjoyed killing rats, or an RSPB employee enjoyed shooting foxes, would that be uncivilised? Or is the minister’s contempt reserved for farmers and amateur pest controllers?

She also held that sword absolutely vertical throughout the procession, never wavered at all. Very skillful weapon handling. I got the impression she would probably be able to use it, as well as carrying it.

Would that be a statement from the Proof House, or just the seller's opinion? Is it in writing, together with a photo and measurements of the indentation, or was it just a verbal statement? I am wondering what might happen if the OP ever wishes to sell this rifle.

Hydrostatic transmission. You can download a manual, which might be of some help: https://www.seddonplant.co.uk/download/172

With plastic wads, my chrome lined Berettas both tend to get grey streaks that need a lot of work (solvent + PB brush) to remove. I never see that grey streaking when using fibre wads, so I assume the deposit is probably plastic rather than lead. Also, it has never been apparent in my old S/S (one British, the other AYA), with any type of wads. Is there some reason why plastic would adhere to chrome rather than steel? That sounds rather unlikely, because I imagine the modern chrome surface would be smoother than the insides of those old plain steel barrels. Or might it be something to do with barrel dimensions, as the Berettas are probably tighter bored than the old (and slightly worn) S/S?

If newspaper reports are to be believed, one of our ambassadors was secretly offering a foreign country the right to station troops permanently in UK territory, despite knowing that it was directly against the wishes of the UK government. The minister has resigned on account of pressure applied by diplomatic service and/or civil service staff, while the ambassador who attempted to subvert government policy has retained his post. Who has been bullied by whom? Or did those newspapers get it all wrong?

If the neighbours' alterations required planning permission, you should be able to see their drawings on the local authority website. Also worth looking any other recent planning applications in your area, as there is a fair chance that other people have had similar work done. https://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Residents/Planning-environment-and-community/Planning/Planning-applications/View-planning-applications.aspx