Once again, Brexit unleashes turmoil in Parliament. Three Conservatives have resigned the party whip in order to become independent, unhappy with the Prime Minister’s handling of Brexit. Looking at who they are, the government is better off without them. Though elected on the Conservative manifesto of 2017 to implement the referendum result, all three are desperate to stop it, pretending that a second referendum is giving the people the final say. This, while simultaneously refusing to call by-elections in their own constituencies, not wanting their own electorate to have a say.
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Posted 1 day 4 hours ago
I’ve noticed that people at Salem have been, on average, dressing up for church. This is not something I have been promoting. I resort to Hardy Amies’ ABC of Fashion (1964). On dressing up to go to the opera, he writes:
Correct dressing at the opera is a compliment to the management and to the artistes. It is another form of applause. Of the theatre, however, he writes:
Posted 2 days 4 hours ago
Thomas Jollie was the Congregationalist minister at Altham and then Wymondhouses. The following appears in his notebook from 1684:
Dangers threatning from the fals accusation of a poor woman
in her passion and wanting an opportunity for a church-meeting,
I sett apart a day in the beginning of the nth m. for
prayer and fasting in my family, calling in the assistance of the
next family to us. The answer of the prayers of the day afor-
Posted 3 days 4 hours ago
Who used to own million-dollar apartment, a Maserati, three BMWs, two Ferraris, a Land Rover and a Regal 2500 boat? Who ran up a $228,000 clothing bill and spent $140,000 on meals and other entertainment as business expenses? Who spent $21,000 on designer jewellery and $14,000 at Diamonds Direct, also claiming them as business expenses?
Posted 3 days 20 hours ago
During these dull February days it’s good to remember sunnier ones! On holiday a few months ago, walking along a dusty track through an olive grove, I found myself smiling, somewhat inanely, I fear. Really, though, it was a response to the beauty all around me – the rich ochre soil, the gnarled grey trunks and shimmering grey-green leaves of the olive trees, and over all the intense blue of an endless Cretan sky.
Posted 4 days 4 hours ago
In Banff’s Old Parish Churchyard, a particularly old burial ground, is a memorial to the town’s Congregationalist pastor. It’s an aesthetically pleasing pink marble affair, bearing a very simple inscription:
For fifty years the faithful pastor of the congregational church
Posted 6 days 4 hours ago
At Orton Church in Westmoreland are displayed three ancient bells. One, dated 1637, has written upon it:
Iesus be ovr Speed
Posted 1 week 3 hours ago
A local charismatic church has called on its members to ‘rediscover’ some forgotten truths. Their pastor wants them to ‘exercise our Christ-given position of authority over earthly governments and demonic strongholds’.
I wish they’d get their act together and rediscover how to do it quickly. This country is in a bit of a mess and the government could do with some help.
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