philbanting.bsky.social
Christian, married to Miriam, #LibDems, #Remain. Active in Christ Church Selly Park, #Stirchley and beyond. Twitter @philbanting Instagram @philbantingbrum https://www.banting-family.org.uk
646 posts
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174 following
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It's the people behind Trump that worry me far more than Trump himself. Like George W. Bush, he's just the front man while those with a full-on authoritarian agenda use his public persona as cover
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Good to know there’s still some kindness in the world ❤️
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Canadian, but grateful for the Gulf Stream which means that England was the birthplace of cricket rather than ice hockey
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I've only ever heard "lawmakers" used to refer to politicians from other countries, especially the US. In Britain "parliamentarians" is more than adequate and I hope we will cling tightly on to it
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Bolivia is an oddball in that the legal capital is Sucre, but the government is actually in La Paz, which has a far bigger population. I've no idea why countries do this kind of thing. The Netherlands is another example.
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Perhaps you could teach the other parents to play Sprouts? www.papg.com/show?1TMQ
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When I said, "My cat's stuck"...
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Yes, for months all Saturday plans have been provisional because no-one knew wther the library would be open or not. My understanding of the current proposal is alternate Saturdays (not necessarily first/second in the month) so who knows how that will work out?
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It started when I bought a bag, and I asked if they had a bag to put it in...
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A dishwasher that could train the user to stack the dishes neatly would be the ideal purchase for a husband seeking a divorce
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But we were told that it would be open 21 hours per week, so how's that going to work? A dreadful mess
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My wife and one of my sisters are nurses, another sister is a librarian. I am an engineer, which I sometimes describe as an "uncaring profession". Still, the fact that planes don't fall out of the sky qualifies us to go on the left hand side of the chart IMHO
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What a history!
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I once saw Mastodon described as "Twitter for Linux", which seems a fair description to me: lots of good stuff, but you have to put a bit more work in to get the best out of it. I had an account for a while and liked what I found... until the server I was on shut down and took my account with it
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Niche factoid: the words of the German national anthem were written on Heligoland, when it was actually British territory
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I've stayed in Wicklow, and from what I remember drinks had to be paid for just like anywhere else
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The workman who installed our insulation looked strangely familiar except for the bushy beard and moustache. I asked what all the pipes were for and he muttered something about coefficient of performance. Odd how the snow never settles in next door’s garden any more
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My heart sang when, at my son's graduation ceremony, I heard the words "alumnus" and "alumna" in the welcome speech
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Perhaps Mexico proper should be Holiday Mexico
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Wonderful to hear a real expert giving us the benefit of his knowledge in such a clear fashion. Not like that clueless interviewer - I couldn't understand a word he said
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Living in Britain we made many trips to continental Europe and had no trouble driving on the right in a right-hand-drive car. Later I had to adapt to driving LHD cars and found that much more difficult - everything felt in the wrong place
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Cruel for Germany, that has an element named after it, to find itself in the No category. France and Poland have better luck. (Thinks: is it called Deutschlandium in German?)
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I'm not impressed by the strippergram. All he took off was his wig
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If I wished to emulate those 41 countries my first choice would be to have a written constitution guaranteeing the rights of the citizen and limiting that of the state
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That's great news!
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Totally this. In my former job I had an ID badge representing my employer's permission to be on the premises. When I left (at retirement) I naturally had to hand in the badge as that permission was withdrawn. The state should not have this type of relationship with its citizens
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Yes, it appears as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll on Ordnance Survey maps
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I've had a quick peek at some of the replies to his most recent tweets and let's just say that your decision to leave the cesspit appears well justified
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It wouldn't work now because so many of the pubs have closed or changed their names. And yes, you could miss it
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Very much in line with the "Brexit hard man" image
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Birmingham Corporation buses were mainly cream in colour, and remained so through various other incarnations of basically the same service, e.g. WMPTE - West Midlands Passenger Transport Executive. More recently they have turned dark red
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Post Office Tower for me
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Still Corporation buses in Birmingham (possibly less so since the colour changed)
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Every KCC employee's social media accounts are currently being trawled to try to find the name of their first pet...
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A friend who has recently left hospital described a morning bowel movement as a "get out of hospital free card" so sometimes there is indeed cause for excitement
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There is a kind of mental muscle memory to these things
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"Fiddlesticks" also does solid duty as a British expletive
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I can still remember my family's first ever phone number (SPRingfield 6711) but we left that house in 1969. It's pretty much a blank after that. I know my wife's mobile number but only because she was the first to get one and we shared it for a while