#House Removals Westminster

[gtremovalsuk]

Furniture Removal Tips You Wish You Knew Earlier

Little do people know that counting on the professionals will enable you to be in a win-win situation and sail through your removals just like a cakewalk. Whether you reside in a large house or want to move from one property to another that is located far away, relying on a professional removalist will help you get stress-free removals.

Furniture removal turns out to be a big headache, and here are a few tips that will help you:

Disassemble the Furniture in the First Instance:

It is essential for you to sail through your removals in Marylebone under professional guidance. First, it is crucial for you to disassemble the furniture pieces so that you can properly store them in boxes and rearrange them in your new house. Be careful while taking out the legs and tables, and click pictures wherever necessary so that they help you in the assembling process.

Use Appropriate Furniture Removal Tools:

Try to connect with professionals so that you can get the best removals across Swiss Cottage. Making use of the necessary furniture removal tools makes it easier for you to glide the heavy furniture pieces across the room without causing any damage to them. You can make use of furniture slides or old blankets, as they will reduce the friction between the floor and the furniture and prevent both from incurring any damage.

Start the Packing Process as Soon as Possible:

Little do people know that relying on experts to sail through your removals in Maida Vale is a win-win situation. Try to get in touch with the professionals, as they are well-versed in helping you get the best possible services and packing of your belongings just the right way. It is important for you to start with the packing process as soon as possible, as this will save you from last-minute hassles.

Do Not Stress Yourself and Seek Help From a Professional Removal Company:

Counting on the experts offering best-in-class house removals in Westminster seems like a cakewalk! It is not possible for you to stress yourself beyond your capacity, and seeking professional help will save you from a lot of legwork and hassles.

In a Nutshell: Try to get in touch with professionals as they are well-versed in helping you be in a win-win situation. Little do people know that counting on the professionals will make your removals easier, faster and worry-free!

[bigbenblog]

Waste Removal in London - Big Ben

Collecting waste cost-effectively is possible with our rubbish collectors handling the junk clearance process strictly adhering to your refuse disposal budget. When you are placed in the somewhat unfortunate position of having to engage professional clearing services to get rid of waste and mess in a number of forms, it can be very inconvenient and rather stressful to organise. However there are some very useful companies out there who offer affordable and very user-friendly solutions to the problem of excess site waste and rubbish. Our rubbish removal services are very reliable and can be brought in on the same day that you pick up the phone and dial 020 3743 8686 – we work a flexible rota and have a number of very trained waste removal specialists who can deal with mess and rubbish in any form. https://big-ben.co/waste-removal/

[scotianostra]

On December 25th 1950 four young Scots liberated the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey.

Here is a report from The newspaper The Guardian of the story that was enfolding.

“Scotland Yard had no further news last night of the Coronation Stone, the Stone of Scone, or the Stone of Destiny as it is variously called. There is "absolutely no trace” of it, but the police are still busy all over the country - especially on northward routes - looking for it. The stone was stolen in the early hours of Christmas Day from Westminster Abbey.

One theory is that the thieves - or from the point of view of certain Scotsmen, “liberator” - hid in a chapel overnight in readiness for their coup. They had first to prise the stone out of its housing under the Coronation Chair, which is behind the high altar. Then the stone - which weighs four hundredweight and measures roughly 26 inches by 16 inches by 11 inches - had to be carried round to the Poet’s Corner door where, presumably, it was loaded into a car. The police are looking for a man and a woman in a Ford Anglia car which was seen near the abbey in the small hours of the morning.

Descriptions of them have been circulated, and the police say they speak with Scottish accents. It is taken for granted that the stone has been stolen by Scottish Nationalists. The stone, which is rectangular and is of yellowish sandstone, has two rings let into it and normally lies behind a grille under the Coronation Chair. In 1940 it was buried in the abbey and the secret position marked on the chart which was sent to Canada for safety.

It is believed to have left the abbey only once, when it was taken across to Westminster Hall and used for the installation of Cromwell as Lord Protector in 1657. It has been “attacked” before and was once slightly damaged (in 1914), when a bomb was placed under the Coronation Chair during the woman suffrage agitation. Twenty-five years ago, Mr David Kirkwood was given permission to bring a bill for the removal of the stone to Holyrood Palace, but the bill went no farther.

The Coronation Chair is the oldest piece of furniture in the abbey, and has been used for 27 coronations. It was damaged by the removal of the stone; part of it was broken and a strip of wood from the grille was found lying on the floor. Scotland Yard sent a number of CID men, including fingerprint experts, to the abbey and have circulated a description of the stone.

There is no official confirmation of a rumour that a wristwatch was found near the Coronation Chair, but it has been stated that freshly carved initials “JFS” have been found in the gilding on the front of the chair. It seemed evident that the intruders were amateurs, for they made little attempt to hide their tracks. Whether or not they will make straight for Scotland with the stone is doubtful, though one Scottish paper said this morning that the stone might already have crossed the border.

It should not prove a difficult object to hide once it can be taken out of the car which is carrying it, and the police of the two countries are likely to find themselves with a difficult job - not so much in finding the culprits but in finding the stone. If anybody is brought to court either on a charge of stealing or of sacrilege, the case should produce some fine legal and historical points.“

In addition to numerous road blocks, a special watch was kept at docks and airports, while hundreds of CID officers checked hotels and B&Bs in the North of England. Following the delivery of an anonymous petition promising the “return” of the Stone – on condition that it would remain in Scotland – to a Glasgow newspaper, Special Branch officers soon started making enquiries about student political bodies at Glasgow University.

The liberators were indeed Scots, four students from The University of Glasgow, from the University of Glasgow (Ian Hamilton, Gavin Vernon, Kay Matheson and Alan Stuart, travelled to London, entered the Abbey in the small hours of Christmas Day and nabbed the Stone from beneath the coronation throne. They dropped it by accident and it broke in two. They loaded the Stone into their car boot and brought it back to Scotland – despite roadblocks and police searches.

The four became notorious for the daring heist and in Scotland they achieved nigh-on hero status, while in contrast the English were somewhat bewildered. All four of the group were interviewed and all later confessed to their involvement with the exception of Ian Hamilton. The authorities decided not to prosecute as the potential for the event to become politicised was far too great.

At the time, the leader of Scottish Covenant Association, Nigel Tranter commented

“This venture may appear foolish and childish on the surface, but it will have the effect down South of focusing attention on Scotland’s complaints. It takes a lot to get any news of Scotland’s national existence into the English Press, and this sort of thing is the only type of Home Rule story that gets a break in the English newspapers.”

Mungo Murray, 7th Earl of Mansfield and Lord of Scone, the spiritual home of the stone waded in with how he would be “extremely reluctant” to hand the Stone “to the English authorities,” assuming it should be returned to his property at Scone Palace. “In view of the fact that the Stone undoubtedly pertains to the line of Scottish kings, it belongs to the King as King of Scotland, not as King of England,” he said. “In the future the Stone should be kept at Scone or Holyrood instead of Westminster.”

Despite their best efforts, the authorities on both sides of the Border were unable to trace the Stone, at least until April 1951 when – draped in the Scottish Saltire – it was ceremonially deposited at the site of the high altar within the ruins of Arbroath Abbey. The Stone was accompanied by two unsigned letters, one addressed to the King, the other to the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, described as “successor to the Abbots of Scone” and therefore the Stone’s “natural guardians”.

It would be a further 43 years before a UK Government agreed that the Stone. when not required for use in such ceremonies, I covered this in depth on St Andrews Day.

Church-bells across Scotland didn’t ring out in celebration – as portrayed in the 2008 film, The Stone of Destiny – yet Ian Hamilton and his friends nevertheless showed how what had seemed permanent and immutable could be changed.

The Stone of Destiny will again be on the move and will be the centrepiece of a new £26.5m museum, in Perth. Construction work on the new museum at Perth City Hall is due to start in February, with it scheduled to open in 2024. The third pic shows an artist impression of how it might look.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Guy Fawkes and the Gunpowder Plot

By Ben Johnson

Published 30 October 2020

Remember, Remember, the 5th of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot!

Fireworks can be seen all over France every July 14 as the nation celebrates Bastille Day.

Across the USA some ten days earlier on the 4th of July, Americans celebrate their Independence Day.

In Britain, the words of a children’s nursery rhyme “Remember, Remember the 5th of November, Gunpowder, Treason and Plot” are chanted as fireworks fly and bonfires gradually consume a human effigy known as the ‘Guy.’

So who was this Guy? And why is he remembered so fondly 400 years after his death?

It could be said that the story started when the Catholic Pope of the day failed to recognise England’s King Henry VIII‘s novel ideas on separation and divorce.

Henry, annoyed at this, severed ties with Rome and appointed himself head of the Protestant Church of England.

Protestant rule in England was maintained and strengthened through the long and glorious reign of his daughter Queen Elizabeth I.

When Elizabeth died without children in 1603, her cousin James VI of Scotland became King James I of England.

James had not been long on the throne before he started to upset the Catholics within his kingdom.

They appear to have been unimpressed with his failure to implement religious tolerance measures, getting a little more annoyed when he ordered all Catholic priests to leave the country.

A group of Roman Catholic nobles and gentlemen led by Robert Catesby conspired to essentially end Protestant rule with perhaps the biggest ‘bang’ in history.

Their plan was to blow up the King, Queen, church leaders, assorted nobles, and both Houses of Parliament with 36 barrels of gunpowder strategically placed in the cellars beneath the Palace of Westminster.

The plot was apparently revealed when the Catholic Lord Monteagle was sent a message warning him to stay away from Parliament as he would be in danger, the letter being presented to Robert Cecil, James I’s Chief Minister.

Some historians believe that Cecil had known about the plot for some time and had allowed the plot to ‘thicken’ to both ensure that all the conspirators were caught and to promote Catholic hatred throughout the country.

And the Guy? Guy Fawkes was born in Yorkshire on 13 April 1570.

A convert to the Catholic faith, Fawkes had been a soldier who had spent several years fighting in Italy.

It was during this period that he adopted the name Guido (Italian for Guy), perhaps to impress the ladies.

What we do know is that Guido was arrested in the early hours of the morning of November 5th 1605, in a cellar under the House of Lords, next to the 36 kegs of gunpowder, with a box of matches in his pocket and a very guilty expression on his face.

Under torture, Guy Fawkes identified the names of his co-conspirators. Many of these were the relations of a Catholic gentleman, Thomas Percy.

Catesby and three others were killed by soldiers while attempting to escape.

The remaining eight were imprisoned in the Tower of London before being tried and executed for High Treason.

They experienced that quaint English method of execution, first experienced almost 300 years earlier by William ‘Braveheart’ Wallace.

They too were hanged, drawn, and quartered.

*Hanged, drawn and quartered:

Victims were dragged on a wooden hurdle behind a horse to the place of execution where they were first of all hanged, then their genitals were removed.

They were disembowelled and beheaded.

Their bodies were finally quartered, the severed pieces often displayed in public.

—

Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes while fighting for the Spanish, was a member of a group of provincial English Catholics involved in the failed Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was an unsuccessful attempted regicide against King James I by a group of English Catholics led by Robert Catesby, who considered their actions attempted tyrannicide and who sought regime change in England after decades of religious persecution.

The plan was to blow up the House of Lords during the State Opening of Parliament on 5 November 1605, as the prelude to a popular revolt in the Midlands during which King James's nine-year-old daughter, Princess Elizabeth, was to be installed as the new head of state.

[thedreadvampy]

fuck me so the migration bill passed in Commons yesterday.

still gotta go through Lords so it MIGHT get slightly defanged but let's look at how well that worked for the Police, Crime and Sentencing Bill last year which passed into law despite native public outrcy with most of its anti-protest and all of its anti-Traveller clauses intact. and there's not been nearly the same degree of concerted protest against this one yet.

in a bid to """""""stop the small boats"""""", the bill will:

Override the rights enshrined in international law to seek asylum, instead prioritising the Home Office's new legal duty to deport any undocumented migrant to concentration camps in Rwanda. yes I said concentration camps they are mass internment camps for a specific group of people to be incarcerated indefinitely without trial. that is what a concentration camp is. here's home secretary Suella Braverman laughing in front of the "estate" built in Rwanda to house deported asylum seekers

allow for indefinite detention of children suspected of being undocumented until they can be removed to the Rwanda camps. Tory rebels said 'could we not have to review that after 3 days to justify their detention?' and the Tory government said 'no but if we pass the bill we pinky promise that we'll think about maybe adding in an indefinite review period at some point' so it passed.

remove temporary protections allowing people claiming they've been trafficked as slaves to stay in the UK while their case is reviewed, and to recieve some support and leniency if it's found that they are Literally Here As Slaves. that's off the table in this bill, if you get trafficked to Britain as a slave who give a shit it's off to Rwanda with you buddy. even former PM Theresa "We Have To Create A Really Hostile Environment For Immigrants" May was like hey steady on there lads. that is incredibly specifically going to make preventing modern slavery way harder because who the fuck is going to come forward and say "help I'm being enslaved and trapped against my will in bad conditions in an unfamiliar country" when the thing that the government will do with that information is trap you against your will in bad conditions in a different unfamiliar country? NOBODY IS GOING TO DO THAT meaning that victims will be penalised in law for being victimised and traffickers will face even fewer consequences. which to be fair is the Tory playbook.

it's fucked. it's fucked and I feel so sick about it and so afraid of how overtly fascistic and genocidal this government continues to get.

meanwhile their new voter ID laws are in place and they've already been caught lying to voters in high-opposition areas by sending out flyers from party HQ claiming you don't need ID to vote. which you now do.

it's very bad lads. it's very very very very bad.

in the past 24 months we've seen a constant flow of legislation targeting Gypsy/Roma/Traveler communities, migrants, LGBTQ+ people (particularly trans people), disabled and chronically ill people, and protesters and dissidents. meanwhile we're in our biggest cost of living crisis in 45+ years, protections for the poor are being stripped and national services are being privatised.

the best case interpretation as far as I can see is that they expect to be ousted in the next General Election (but that isn't until 2025) and are getting everything they want to do in terms of attacking human rights and wellbeing as far as possible so that the next government will struggle to roll them all the way back

the thing is though that Labour are just nodding along with all these policies and are in the process of aggressively removing the remainder of open leftists from the party's core power structure, having already removed the ordinary membership's ability to guide party leadership or policy, and the SNP, which has often lately been the only meaningful opposition party in Westminster, is in freefall and on fire over an embezzlement and corruption scandal. that plus the voter suppression laws and control over media that the government are wielding FEELS A LOT LIKE even if we make it to the 2025 election we might still get another Tory term.

Winter of Discontent...2!!!! has been something of a damp squib - there have been widespread strikes but little obvious impact. this winter felt like the time things were gonna snap but I'm just not sure we're ever gonna snap hard enough.

Idk I feel sick as a fucking dog. I don't know what to do. If anyone knows of any ways to help (in Edinburgh, I can't travel easily out of the city) with the Migration Bill situation or with stuff more broadly, hmu. I'm pretty well tuned in on trans rights and abortion rights protests but I don't have connects for most other stuff.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

WOKE politicians 'support gay CONVERSION therapy' as confused kids 'fast-tracked to STERILISATION'

Andrew Doyle: On Friday there was a heated debate in the House of Commons about conversion therapy. Emotions ran high and few were more impassioned than the conservative MP Alicia Kearns who berated Alba MP Neil Hanvey for appealing on behalf of the LGB community.

So, here's how that exchange went.

Hanvey: People in the LGB community are often referred to as bigots and transphobes and other slurs just because we have concerns about legislation such of this. And we want to make sure that young LGB people are protected. And trans people. Does she agree with me that that must apply, that rule must apply, to all sides of any debate and not just one side that she favors.

Kearns: ... absolutely right, but there was one digit missing from his LGB: LGBT. We do not divide the LGBT community in this place. You can say that you have concerns about we doing. But by removing the T, you are suggesting that transgender people do not exist. You are suggesting they are lesser than other LGB people. And I will not stand for that, because it was trans people who stood with gay people at Stonewall. It was trans people who fought alongside for LGBT rights. So, when you say LGBT, when you remove the T, you suggest that they are lesser.

Doyle: Now it's clear to me that Alicia Kearns is well intentioned and sincere, and I mean no disrespect when I say that this is a subject about which she clearly knows very little. And that is dangerous, because if she gets her way on this issue, it will set back gay rights by decades.

So, let's address some of the key misconceptions. So, firstly, Kearns claimed that Hanvey was suggesting that transgender people don't exist, and at no point did he make such a claim. Sexual orientation and the belief in gender identity are totally unrelated concepts. Kearns seems to be suggesting that gay people have no right to campaign for their interests unless they simultaneously campaign for trans people. But why? Groups such as Mermaids campaign solely for trans rights. Are they therefore homophobic? Perhaps Alicia Kerns would like to berate them in Parliament. I look forward to seeing that.

Kearns went on to say that it was trans people who stood with the gays at Stonewall. Trans people fought together for LGB rights. Did they? I mean there were some trans people involved in the struggle for gay rights, certainly. But not all that many. The activists who changed history for the better were predominantly lesbians and gay men. At the Stonewall Inn, it was mostly gay men with some lesbians and drag queens who were involved in the riots. And it was likely a lesbian, Stormé DeLarverie, who sparked the whole thing. After the police raided the bar, she was being forcibly arrested and is said to have shouted to the crowd, aren't you going to do something?

Now, some trans activists have since attempted to rewrite history, claiming that a transwoman called Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick at the Stonewall Inn. The trouble is, Marsha P. Johnson wasn't trans. He was a drag queen. And he wasn't even there when the rioting started.

Now, if Alicia Kearns wants to know about the actual history of Stonewall, not the revisionist fabrications of activists, she could read "Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution," by David Carter. Or, she could talk to someone who was actually there, such as the gay rights veteran Fred Sargeant.

Now let's talk about the confusion that's at the heart of this parliamentary debate. What exactly is conversion therapy? A YouGov poll last year revealed that 65% of voters believe that gay conversion therapy ought to be banned, and 62% feel the same about "trans conversion therapy." And this would suggest that most voters do not recognize the difference between the two, and nor do many politicians. Now this photograph was taken in Westminster Hall. A cross-party collective of dozens of MPs with a placard that reads, "I support a trans inclusive ban." The image was posted on Twitter by Laboir MP from Nottingham East, Nadia Whittome.

In truth, and without realizing it, the these politicians are supporting a new form of gay conversion therapy, something that most of us thought would be consigned to the history books by this point. When we hear that phrase, "conversion therapy," most of our minds leap to a variety of horrific practices. So, in America, Christian fundamentalists have established programs to address the "problem" of homosexuality, there are camps where young people can "pray the gay away." Which I suppose is at least a step forward from brain surgery, castration and the kind of electric shock treatment favoured by scientific practitioners in the 20th century, or the corrective rape of lesbians to "cure" them of homosexual tendencies that still goes on in some countries.

Such practices are of course already illegal in the UK. So, why the need for a conversion therapy ban? Well, what's happening is there is a conflation of sexual orientation and gender identity and this is why so many are confused. In her book, "Time to Think," Hannah Barnes revealed that between 80 to 90% of adolescents who were referred to the Tavistock pediatric gender clinic were same-sex attracted. We've known for a long time there's a strong correlation between gender nonconformity in youth and being gay in adult life. Members at the Tavistock itself joked that, "soon there would be no gay people left." Whistleblowers revealed that homophobia was endemic. In other words, children who are likely to grow up gay are being "fixed" by medical practitioners to better conform with stereotypical heterosexual paradigms.

Barnes's research shows that the Tavistock clinic -- and this is a quote -- "ignored evidence that 97.5% of children seeking sex changes had autism, depression or other problems that might have explained their unhappiness." They are only 2% of the country's children that suffer from an autistic spectrum disorder, so why is it that 35% of referrals to the Tavistock fit into that category?

in almost all instances, children who are prescribed puberty blockers go on to cross- sex hormones, which in some cases leads to irreversible surgery. We're dealing here, overwhelmingly, with gay and autistic children fast-tracked onto a pathway to sterilization. This is what MPs such as Lloyd Russell-Moyle and Alicia Kearns and Keir Starmer are supporting. Whether they realize it or not.

Now, thankfully, more and more people are waking up to the scale of this problem. So, recently the equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch wrote to the Commons Women and Equality Select Committee about her discussions with former clinicians at the Tavistock. And the conclusion? So-called gender affirmative care amounts to what she described as, "conversion therapy for gay kids." And crucially, she cited a survey of detransitioners -- these are people who have been pressurized into transitioning and they later regret it -- in which 23% of respondents put their determination to transition down to experiences of homophobia.

Badenoch quoted a gender clinic in Germany. They said, "it must be understood that early hormone therapy may interfere with the patient's development as a homosexual. This may not be in the interests of patients who, as a result of hormone therapy, can no longer have the decisive experiences that enable them to establish a homosexual identity."

It is profoundly disturbing that Starmer's Labour party is now officially supporting gay conversion therapy in the form of a ban on "trans-inclusive conversion therapy," and that he's gaining cross-party support. Now, a charitable interpretation is that Starmer, Kearns, Russell-Moyle, Whittome, all the other MPs who are supporting this, simply do not understand that they are advancing dangerously anti-gay proposals. They are supporting the new Section 28. And all the while, they think they're doing the precise opposite.

If any of these politicians would like to come on to this show and discuss these issues, I would be delighted to have them. Consider it an open invitation. In the meantime, I'd like to remind Parliament that homosexuality was removed from the World Health Organization's list of psychiatric disorders back in 1993. Being gay is not a medical condition that requires treatment. Unfortunately, activists have been remarkably successful in confusing the issues through semantic ambiguities and the redefinition of terms. And so, although it sounds desperately counterintuitive, the truth is that in order to oppose gay conversion therapy, one must be opposed to a ban on "trans conversion therapy."

[witchoftheisles]

12 Grimmauld Place

Of all the world’s great cities London is one of the oldest, with its history spanning nearly two millennia. It is the capital city of England; it has been since William the Conqueror won the Battle of Hastings and was named King of England in the newly completed Westminster Abbey on Christmas Day 1066. Through its higgledy-piggledy streets, all teeming with life, runs the River Thames, weaving like an ancient serpent through the city’s bones, coursing away through the thousands of years as the rumbling city swells in size around it, like an ever expanding wave.

Islington is an Inner Borough of London, located directly north of, and a stone-throw’s away from, the old City of London. In the early 18th century to the early 19th century, a new style of architecture was born; the Georgian townhouse. Muggle architects were ever more drawn to the ancient Greek and Roman styles; architectural beauty marked by symmetry, proportion and balance. Towns flourished in this period and London Town most of all; Islington was the proud new home of several Georgian townhouses. In 1807, Henry Dupont started work on the square of townhouses that would become Grimmauld Place, on land owned by the Marquess of Colchester. In the spring of 1812, the houses were completed and became highly sough-after, fashionable houses to own by the British aristocracy. 

In 1865 Cygnus Black II, at the age of twenty-two, was walking through London after having visited the British Ministry of Magic in Whitehall. He suddenly found himself in a very beautiful and impressive square of townhouses, with a rather lovely and flourishing garden in the centre. He persuaded the Muggle gentleman living in number twelve to pass over the keys and the deeds (and in one night the home seemed to vanish from Muggle existence) and 12 Grimmauld Place remained in the House of Black for 131 years, until 1996. When Orion Black, the husband of Walburga Black who was the granddaughter of Cygnus Black II, lived in number twelve, he added more anti-Muggle protection and made the home Unplottable. When the last remaining male heir, Sirius Black III, passed away, he left it to his godson, Harry Potter.

The home played an important role in the Second Wizarding War; it was the base for the Order of the Phoenix from 1995 to 1996 and when the Golden Trio were on the run, it provided a safe haven for them in the late summer of 1997. 

After the war ended, at the end of the summer in 1998, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley moved back into 12 Grimmauld Place as they were soon to begin their careers as Aurors. As Neville Longbottom also started work in the Auror Office, he joined the boys in London. For the next year, they would be the sole occupants of the old townhouse, alongside Kreacher who lived there until he passed away in the winter of 1999. After Hermione Granger and Ginny Weasley graduated in the summer of 1999, they joined the boys and three became five. During that summer, Harry and Ginny got engaged, Ron and Hermione decided to find their own flat and Neville, who over the last year of the war became romantically involved with Hannah Abbott, decided to move in with her after the summer. Harry and Ginny discussed moving house but eventually decided, as they had a house inherited from Harry’s Godfather Sirius, and Ron and Hermione were going to be renting a flat in London, that they would stay and make 12 Grimmauld Place their home.

By the time Harry and Ginny’s first born son James came, 12 Grimmauld Place would be unrecognisable from the Pure-Blood style extravagance it used to be when owned by the Black family. The front door was painted a proud Gryffindor red, the silver serpent knocker became a golden phoenix knocker (in honour of the time the house had spent being a home to the Order of the Phoenix) and inside all of the old paintings and tapestries were removed. The history of the home remained in the old wooden floors and the doors and the wide sweeping staircase crawling up the house, but the old ideas were swept out and the home became brighter and more vibrant.

At the top of the home, on the fourth floor, the bedrooms belong to James and Albus. James inhabits the room that used to belong to Sirius (his namesake) and Albus inhabits the room that belonged to Regulus. On the third floor lies the master bedroom where Harry and Ginny reside, a smaller double bedroom that belongs to Lily and a shared bathroom. The second floor is home to Harry’s study, the sitting room (which was used as a playroom when the children were young, and then transitioned into a family room where the Potters love to enjoy each other’s company) and a bathroom. The first floor houses the impressive drawing room where the curtains used to be filled with doxies and an entire wall held a tapestry of the Black family tree but which now holds pictures of the Potter family. The ground floor is where the dining room is found, where many a large family Christmas has been held with much merriment and cheer. In the basement is the kitchen, with its stone floors, living beneath the house above; it seems to be constantly moving, the life-force of the family home.

[warwickroyals]

you've mentioned places like great lakes and new westminster. are these states or provinces, or just general regions? how is sunderland divided administratively?

Yes, hello, these are provinces and Sunderland has ten of them! They look like this (roughly, it's a work in progress)

The ten provinces are:

Alexandria, Algonquin, Cheyenne, Danforth, Great Lakes, Iroquois, Lakota, Missoria, and New Westminster

Each province is represented by a provincial government and they are considered to have shared sovereignty with the federal government. Each province has a Governor-General, who represents the Crown aka Louis V. Each province has a certain amount of MPs (Members of Parliament) who sit in either the House of Commons (lower chamber) or the Senate (upper chamber). MPs represent the legislative interests of their provinces and municipalities at the federal level. There is a fixed number of twenty senators (two from each province), who are appointed by the King on the advice of his prime minister, while members of the House of Commons are elected directly in federal elections, with the number of MPs depending on the population of their province, the larger the province the more seats they have in the House of Commons.

In Sunderland, you don't vote for the prime minister directly, you vote for them through your MPs. So, if the potential prime minister (the party leader) belongs to the Liberal party, you vote for the Liberal MP representing your area, if that Liberal MP wins they have a seat in the House of Commons. If a majority of the MPs in the House are of a certain party (the main two being Liberals and Tory Conservatives), their party leader becomes Prime Minister with a majority government. If a party wins the most seats but fails to hold a majority, this is called a minority government and the ruling party has less absolute authority and will have to coalition-build with other parties in order to get things done. So, it's extremely important that the Prime Minister and his Ministers are supported by their MPs in the House of Commons, this is something Sunderland's current prime minister is struggling with. MPs can resign, retire, switch parties, or die on a whim, so the amount of power a government has can fluctuate.

The Senate is more of the wild-west as Louis is free to appoint to whoever he wishes for whatever reason he wants (on the advice of the prime minister, but he can ignore the advice). The general rule is that these people have to be of noteworthy public standing, but they don't have to be politicians. They can be activists, lawyers, civil servants, etc. If the King tries to appoint a friend or a family member, nothing but public outrage can stop him. So, naturally, Louis doesn't appoint friends or family and has grilled James and later Nicholas on this being something you should never do as King. Louis's Daddy James II didn't have the same restraint. . . Nor did King Nicholas (removing the leftists meant sacking the senate against them) . . . Or King George who fought tooth and nail to have his moronic son-in-law appointed to the Senate in 1898 . . . but it's not a corrupt system at all, I swear . . .

The Senate has the job of approving the potential laws (bills) passed to them by the House of Commons, in short: if they dislike it, they send it back or veto it, if they like it, they'll hand it over the Louis for royal assent. Believe it or not, the fact that there is an unelected body, that serves until the age of SIXTY-FIVE, picking and choosing what laws get greenlit has caused SCANDALS, with the protests happening in this post being triggered by the Senate rejecting an affordable housing bill forwarded by the Liberals in the House.

Until 1999, those appointed to the Senate were given a title of nobility, typically an Earldom or a Dukedom if The King thinks you're a really good boy. The families of Irene and Tatiana are descended from prominent Senators, this is where their family titles originated from. This tradition ended when the first woman was appointed to the Senate in 1999, since women can't inherit noble titles, Louis stopped the practice altogether, instead of . . .y'know, just getting Parliament to allow women the ability to hold noble titles suo jure. Louis can technically still hand out noble titles, but he informally agreed to stop granting titles to non-family members. People at the time viewed this as him becoming more egalitarian and progressive for the new millennia, but in reality, he was just keeping his crop of aristocrat ass-likers more exclusive. So, now your senators aren't literal dukes and earls . . . yay, progress?

Finally: The "commander-in-chief" of a province is called the premier. Think of him like a governor in the United States. These guys are elected through provincial elections and they form their own legislative bodies to handle provincial legislation (healthcare, education, etc.). They operate largely independently from the federal government and have historically resisted federal micro-management.

If you're familiar with American geography or history, you'll know that the provinces have Indigenous names (Cheyenne, Lakota, Missouria, Iroquois, Algonquin) and others are named after royalty (Alexandria and Louisia) and prominent figures/locations (New Westminster, Danforth) . . . the implications of these names say a lot about Sunderland's history.

Hopefully, I'll be able to update my map soon, hope you enjoyed the political lesson.

[fandom-geek]

important news to ppl in the uk

today, the ballot of private members' bills was released for westminster. private members' bills are laws proposed by individual politicians instead of the government, and you can see the full schedule here

there's a few great bills in there, but i want to highlight the disestablishment of the church of england bill - scheduled for wednesday 6th december.

what does it do? it would remove the church of england as the state religion of england. it already happened in wales in 1920, scotland never had a state religion, and the church of ireland was disestablished as ireland's state religion (pre-independence) in 1871.

this would mean no more priests in the house of lords by virtue of being anglican, no more "defender of the faith" bs at the coronation - the uk would be a fully secular state.

so i recommend reading the statements by the national secular society and humanists uk, and contacting your local mp to support the bill. the bill is being introduced through the house of lords, by lib dem peer paul scriven, so it needs to get through there first - but it's worth drumming up support amongst mps so they know this has public support.

[bigbenblog]

Garden Clearance in Westminster - Big Ben

What is the best tool for clearing overgrown garden?

The best tool for clearing an overgrown garden depends on the size of the area, the types of vegetation, and your personal preferences. Here are some common tools that can be useful for clearing overgrown gardens:

Pruning Shears or Hand Clippers: Ideal for smaller gardens or for selectively removing specific plants or branches.

Loppers: Larger than pruning shears, loppers are useful for cutting thicker branches.

Hedge Trimmers: Electric or manual hedge trimmers can be efficient for cutting back overgrown bushes and hedges.

String Trimmers (Weed Whackers): Useful for cutting down tall grass, weeds, and light brush in larger areas. They come in gas, electric, and battery-powered versions.

Brush Cutter: A more heavy-duty tool designed for cutting through dense vegetation and small trees. It can be handheld or attached to a wheeled machine.

Chainsaw: For larger branches and small trees, a chainsaw can be effective. Ensure proper safety precautions and skills when using a chainsaw.

Machete or Clearing Tool: Good for cutting through dense vegetation and undergrowth.

Garden Gloves: Essential for protecting your hands from thorns, prickly plants, and other hazards.

Rake: To gather cut vegetation and clear the area.

Wheelbarrow or Garden Cart: For transporting cut vegetation and debris.

Before starting, assess the specific needs of your garden and choose the appropriate tools accordingly. Safety gear, such as gloves, sturdy footwear, and eye protection, is crucial when working in an overgrown garden. Additionally, consider having a plan for waste disposal, as clearing overgrown vegetation can generate a significant amount of debris.

[master-john-uk]

30th November 1954 Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill's 80th Birthday, and the State Opening of Parliament.

Following the "official business" and The Queen's Speech, members of both Houses of Parliament moved to Westminster Hall where Churchill was presented with a gift to commemorate his birthday... a portrait of the great man by controversial artist Graham Sutherland.

Lady Clementine Churchill viewed the portrait ten days before the presentation, and showed a photograph of it to her husband. Sir Winston was not impressed. He described as "dirty" and "malignant", and complained that it made him "look like a down-and-out drunk who has been picked out of the gutter in the Strand." Churchill also declared, "It makes me look as if I were straining a stool." (i.e. sitting on the loo).

In his speech, Churchill described the portrait as a, "remarkable example of modern art!" and tried to hide a grin, as he knew that most of those present would realise that he thought it was awful!

The painting was taken to Churchill's country residence, Chartwell near Westerham, Kent but was never displayed. It would appear that it was hidden in the cellars of Chartwell. It is reported that Lady Churchill ordered her private secretary Grace Hamblin and her brother to remove it in the middle of the night, and burn it at a remote location.

Some of artist Sutherlands preparatory sketches for the portrait are held by the National Portrait Gallery, London and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Canada.

[cathkaesque]

do you thing the UK should be divided in a hypothetical scenario of a communist revolution? should just northern Ireland be given back? what if Ireland is still capitalist? what about all the overseas territories?

I guess the answer to this is contextual. A seizure of power by forces with any kind of socialist bent (either by election or by a coup) would have to deal with an immediate collapse of the British economy in the form of a collapse in the value of government bonds (which underpin the resolution to the 2008 crisis, discussed here). This will be accompanied by the inability of the state to continue borrowing money, a collapse in the stock and property market bubbles, a 'credit crunch' as banks and pension funds no longer have the ability to continue lending, closure of most British businesses, accompanying collapses in the value of the currency and gross domestic products, and with it Britain's ability to continue importing essential items like food, medicines, textiles, inputs into domestic industries, computers and other consumer essentials (never mind luxuries). This will either be the context in which a socialist movement comes to power or the response of investors to a socialist government that actually has the guts to break with international financial institutions.

We had a sneak preview of this with the Truss government and I do think it's the UK's long term trajectory. Currently the UK is resolving this through extreme austerity measures, keeping the value of bonds high by feeding more and more of the country's social and industrial infrastructure to the financial system, but government borrowing costs are currently as high as they were at the height of the Truss government. I think Britain's slow motion financial collapse is inevitable - the question is how much of society is fed to that financial system before it dies. We are essentially faced with a choice between ending consumerism and financialisation and transitioning to an economy that can meet immediate needs for healthcare, education, housing, food, and little else, or the slow motion collapse of society and the environment while the joys of a consumerist standard of living become restricted to an ever shrinking slice of the world's population.

The socialist movement's task will be to ensure a society which is used to being able to live balanced on the top of the financial and global value chain system can still reproduce itself in the context of the disintegration of that system. To survive this period, the state will have to seize control of banking and investment and direct economic activity towards the immediate needs of the population. It will also have to manage a massive global population transfer from the South to the North due to the effects of climate change.

To achieve this, it's essential that the popular insurrections that are going to break out during this period (moments like the Estallido in Chile for instance, what's happening in France etc) are able turn themselves into political forces capable of carrying out this programme, and support each other in taking these steps as well. The class basis of these forces will probably be the 'marginalised' of the system - people in deindustrialised areas in the north, inner city populations, and the (frequently migrant) workforces in the domestic industrial system. These populations are often in conflict with one another (see how Brexit pitted the deindustrialised Northerners vs the migrant workers, culture wars around race etc) but I do think that's got to be the bedrock of any coalition.

I think people who want Scottish and Welsh independence and Irish Unification and anti-colonialists are going to be a part of a successful coalition strong enough to remove the current government from power. The direction politics is going in at the parliamentary level is also towards a consensus between the two main Westminster parties in favour of hard right toryism, and alternative policie only really get a hearing in places like the Scottish parliament at the moment. The current system is based on a very centralised economy and state, and breaking that power up and distributing it to local populations is very important. I think creating localised directly democratic structure to manage community welfare provision (I'm particularly inspired by the communal council system in Venezuela here) and devolving powers to local governments is an essential part of the whole process. Indepedence should be granted to all overseas territories.

When it comes to Northern Ireland I think it's always been a case of 32 county socialist republic. The Irish state as it stand is descended from the Irish Free State and the partition settlement of the Irish civil war. The Irish state has played a role in amelirioating republicanism in the North partly because it was in large part a revolutionary working class movement that would have implications for the social structure in the South. Sinn Fein have been pretty much integrated into Stormont now, and is also a pretty social democratic force in the South as well.

The other side of it is the role that Ulster unionism has played in connection to British fascism, Ulster unionists supplied fascists organisations with guns in the 1990s. Any socialist revolution will have to confront a whole host of reactionary forces. This will include fascist forces like the unionists, but also a ruined managerial and landlord class whose wealth is derived from their control over people and property, and the military establishment as well. It's not so much a question of the 99% vs the 1%, but the 60% vs the 40%, and in an imperialist country like Britain I'm not even sure we're the 60% in that.

Anyway that's a lot of Marxist gibberish that doesn't even really answer the original question - hope something useful is in there! Thanks so much!

[mariacallous]

If you’ve found the past few days in British politics tumultuous, spare a thought for the chair of the 1922 Committee, Sir Graham Brady, who reportedly returned to work on Monday after a half-term break in Athens to a pile of letters from rebellious Tory MPs trying to oust Liz Truss. We can only imagine his serenity as he contemplated the wonder of democracy at the Parthenon, before wandering into Westminster, putting down his carrier bag of duty free, and asking:“What did I miss?”

Just a little, Graham! Over the past few days, Truss’s entire government agenda has been rewritten – and worse still, not even by her. Today’s emergency statement by the new chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, confirmed the kind of change in direction that typically causes whiplash: almost all of the remaining tax cuts from the mini-budget have been scrapped, with even Truss’s flagship plan to cap rising energy prices scaled back.

Watching Hunt set out the new plans with the union jack behind him, it was hard to tell who exactly was the prime minister. It was all very “the military has taken control of the airwaves”. Penny Mordaunt later explained to the House of Commons as she stood in for Truss: “The prime minister is not under a desk.” Always good to clarify. At this point, Truss is less prime minister and more a competition winner, like aprimary school pupil given a tour of parliament and told they are allowed to “run the country for a day” while the grownups actually make the decisions.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, the “grownups” include a health secretary who hates certain commas more than smokers giving children cancer, a chancellor whose nemesis is junior doctors, and Grant Shapps. Not that you’d notice. The standard for leadership in this country is now so low that the Conservatives could appoint Hannibal Lecter to steady the ship and sections of the British commentariat would praise him as a “safe pair of hands”.

Hunt hasn’t specified as yet which public services will face the squeeze to make up the estimated £72bn shortfall, but he will require “all departments”, including health, to make “difficult decisions”.

“Savings” has a comforting implication of efficiency – some fat that can safely be trimmed. Rather than, y’know, brutal cuts to already collapsing public services that are only “needed” to offset the government’s own disastrous choices.

On the grand list of obscenities the Conservative party has inflicted over the past 12 years in power, further wrecking public services in order to pay for its own foul-up, all as poverty and needs spiral, is surely up there. Truss is launching Austerity 2.0 with a mandate so nonexistent that even her own chancellor didn’t vote for her. The government is essentially now just a living embodiment of the hotdog costume meme, crashing in and surveying the economic carnage while promising it will find the guy who did this.

Don’t panic, though, because the Tory party is already lining up its next guy. Senior Conservatives are said to be holding talks this week that could lead to the swift removal of Truss as leader. To which anyone’s response is likely, “PLEASE GOD NO. NOT ANOTHER ONE.” The idea that the solution to Truss’s premiership is to go back to the Conservative membership is very much like seeing the police tape up a crime scene and inviting the murderer to return to have another go.

Even Tory MPs seem to think so – there is talk that they could draw up a shortlist of two candidates, and agree among themselves who would be PM and deputy to avoid going to the members. As they lurch on to their fifth leader in six years, we risk running through the entire Conservative party in ever decreasing quality until every single Tory MP has had a go. By 2024, the next PM will be the chasm where Suella Braverman’s soul should be. Or a lettuce.

I don’t know about you, but I spend much of my day now pondering how I’ll survive the next two years until a general election, a plan that so far involves drinking bucket-gin and living off-grid. It’s not like we’re guaranteed electricity this winter anyway. As mortgage rates rise and food banks have to ration provisions, Britain is feeling increasingly uninhabitable. Indeed, if the government’s cost-cutting plan to let patients get antibiotics without seeing a GP goes ahead, we may have all been wiped out by mass antibiotic resistance by then anyway. At this point, I’d class that as a merciful escape.

[if-you-fan-a-fire]

“Attempt By Mob To Make Raid On Royal Palace,” Kingston Whig-Standard. October 31, 1932. Page 1. ---- Police Able to Hold Off Thousands of Unemployed in London ---- AT TRAFALGAR SQUARE ---- Dozen Injured as Orators Address Crowd From Base Nelson Column ---- LONDON, Oct 31— Mounted and foot police held off thousands of unemployed and “hunger marchers" from the King’s Palace and from official residences on Downing Street yesterday after a disturbance at Trafalgar Square. 

Booed by unemployed and sympathisers, the police were forced to retreat at least once as the mob attempted to swarm streets leading to Buckingham Palace and Westminster. They were finally forced back into Trafalgar Square, where communistic and unemployed leaders were condemning the Government.

Today's casualty list hardly exceeded ten or twelve persons injured, although ambulances were kept busy for a while, as compared with the sixty or seventy Injured when “hunger marchers" from all parts of the country gathered on Thursday in Hyde Park. 

The unemployed will attempt to present a petition before the House of Commons. 

Thousand gathered for the mass meeting in Trafalgar Square, stormed entrances to the Mall (leading to Buckingham Palace at its west end) and Whitehall, which street is flanked by Government offices. 

Led by a dark, bareheaded man screaming “Smash the Palace windows!" the crowd attempted first to rush Admiralty Arch, which commands the Mall, but failed when the massive iron gates were closed against them. They were pushed back by a police rush. 

Whitehall Protected A crowd of many thousands then poured into Whitehall but were met by a stonewall of “bobbies” at the Honrse Guards' Parade (an open space off Whitehall, well known as the scene of the daily guard relief ceremony.) They were driven back. 

Fighting broke out just as speech-making from the pedestal of massive Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square had ended. The crowd commandeered a taxi in an attempt to force through police lines. With a mighty surge, a company of bluecoats was driven back but only for a moment. Most of the crowd scurried to safety and the street was cleared within a few minutes, when the "bobbies" charged. 

Then rioters closed in again on the isolated police squads of about thirty, who drew batons, appearing engaged in an even fight. Mounted police charged out from under Admiralty Arch and broke up the disturbance. At another place, a policeman was pulled from his horse, which kicked him while he was on the ground and he was removed to an ambulance.

Stones Are Thrown Some atones and sticks were thrown and windows at the head of Northumberland Avenue (a wide thoroughfare descending to the Thames Embankment) were broken. Iron grills in front of the Hotel Victoria were closed and a crowd stood Jjeering and booing liveried servants behind them. 

A large automobile, carrying on elderly man and woman, forced its way to the hotel entrance and a mob turned on it, threatening the occupants, who were then escorted by a detail of police, who broke through the mob. 

It was not until well after dark that the normal appearance was restored to Trafalgar Square vicinity and traffic was able to make way. By that time the unemployed, escorted by mounted police, had drawn off to the music of fifes and pipes.

[thoughtlessarse]

In Diane Abbott’s Westminster office, alongside a picture of her with Jesse Jackson and the framed front page of The Voice from 1987 declaring “A New Era” with a picture of Abbott, Bernie Grant, Paul Boateng and Keith Vaz – the four newly elected Black MPs – there are a number of large empty packing boxes. Abbott points at them and laughs. “Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother. But when they called the election we didn’t know whether I would be allowed to stand, so I had to get ready just in case,” she says. It has been a heady few months for Abbott. So much so, in fact, that the memoir she has written, A Woman Like Me, is already out of date. It includes the story about Tory donor Frank Hester, who had said Abbott made him “want to hate all Black women” and that she “should be shot”, which happened in March. “At first I couldn’t take in his words,” she writes. “It was a clear incitement to violence.” But the book was finished and at the printers before her intense battle with the Labour leadership to keep her seat and her consequent elevation to mother of the House, the honorific title bestowed on the female MP with the longest uninterrupted service. The way Abbott tells it, for several months going back to last year, she came under significant pressure to do a deal with the Labour leadership to stand down after she had the Labour whip removed for writing an appalling letter to the Observer which, among other things, compared being Jewish, a Traveller or Irish to having red hair. “The deal was that they would restore the whip and then literally that day, within hours, I would stand down,” she says. “Not the same week. The same day. And then maybe I could go to the Lords.” Abbott would not agree for several reasons. First, she felt it so smacked of a deal that people might think she had sold her constituency, one of Labour’s safest seats, to salvage her reputation. Second, she didn’t want to go to the Lords. “The thing about the Lords is that it’s full of people you thought had died,” she says. “You should never say never, but it’s never appealed to me. I’ve got a couple of friends there. But the people who go from the House of Commons to the House of Lords usually do so because they can’t let go of the status. And the status has never been my thing.” But mostly she refused because she felt that the whole arrangement was designed to belittle her. “My humiliation was their intent. That’s why I wouldn’t agree to it. They thought there was political gain in it. Keir Starmer had kept saying, ‘It’s a new party, it’s a new party.’ If it’s a new party, then what could be more emblematic than getting rid of Diane Abbott. People tried to tell them to leave it. But they were insistent.”

continue reading

Her comments on Jews and (Irish) Travellers were ignorant (Potin's didn't ban Black people) as both face discrimination as much or, and in the case of Irish travellers, more than Black people in the UK. The only difference is that Black and brown people are easily identified by sight alone. However, Labour under Starmer handled the issue badly and made it all but clear that she was not welcome in the party. I was surprised she didn't stand as an independent as I'm sure she would have won, but I hope she defects to Corbyn's new pro-Gaza startup of independent MPs.