Very serious issues of war and peace are at stake as Vlodymyr Zelenskyy and others meet Donald Trump at the White House.
For Trump however a firm adherent to the Society of the Spectacle where image trumps content the meeting represented a serious challenge. After complaints that Zelenskyy was not wearing a suit at a meeting in February on this occasion he can been seen wearing a suit and tie which has a considerably more significant visual impact than Trump’s mixture of orange, light blue and red tie.
Never has suit and tie wearing sent a more serious message. As well as the beard of course
The Etiquette Culture Wars: How to set the table for dinner. Which side is your bread plate on?
William Hanson writes on Etiquette. Views on how to eat peas and how to correctly eat toast have been forthcoming but he has now turned his attention to repatriating tabletops (Financial Times 16th August).
He notes that in Britain all forks are set with their tines (that’s prongs to us humble plebeians)pointing upwards, knives with their blades pointing to the left, spoons with their bowls facing upwards… glasses are set last and placed to the right of the setting, above the knives and spoons.
He concludes the British place setting is the most logical, elegant and enduring. Let’s not allow it to become muddled by misplaced forks and rogue spoons. Reclaim your cutlery and lay your table with the quite confidence of a nation that knows which side its bread plate is on
Much of this explains why I can never work out which knife belongs to who and what it should be used for at official dinners of various kinds…
It is astonishing that Labour councillor Ricky Jones, who was caught on video calling for throats to be slit, is let off scot free – whereas Lucy Connolly got 31 months prison for posting something no worse. The development of two tier justice is becoming increasingly alarming
Your post is quite astonishing. You either believe in jury trial or you do not. For as long as I can remember the Conservative Party has seen it as a key part of our freedom under law. If so, you have to accept the right of a jury to bring in a verdict with which you might disagree. You call it “two tier justice” and try to blame the Labour government for something that you know or ought to know has nothing to do with them. That is the hallmark of the the rabble rouser not a Shadow Home Secretary.
The above letter appeared in the Sunday Telegraph on August 17th
For context it refers to a fishing activity at the official residence of the Foreign Secretary (David Lammy) in Kent, where he was joined by US VP JD Vance. Lammy did not have a licence, but subsequently apologised and applied for one. The Foreign Secretary has now been given a warning by the Environment Agency. Telegraph letters writers (not from Tunbridge Wells) have complained that they were fined for a first offence. However The Times reports that in 2024/5 765 people were prosecuted and 1, 965 given a warning.
Either way David Lammy should have known better. Izaac Walton’s The Compleat Angler (1693) starts with fishing at the River Lea in Tottenham(his, and my, Constituency)
This was and is a classic August silly season story. There are much more serious reasons for criticising David Lammy.
However letters from Tunbridge Wells have a certain place in letter writing history. They are reputed to be written by people who are ‘disgusted’ and often in green ink (used by actuaries, noted for attention to finer details). To be fair the letter here makes an entertaining point. Perhaps the letters writers of Tunbridge Wells are in a recovery phase.
Indeed a correspondent on BlueSky points out that there have been two letters from Tunbridge Wells in the Guardian recently, one on how to store copies of Guardian Feast and the other controversially questioning Jeremy Corbyn’s potato husbandry. Progress in history…
Nigel Farage has launched a Reform football T. It costs £39-99 but confusingly all players are called Farage. This does indeed sound like the Reform UK leader’s idea of team sport.
Farage is often to be found criticising politics in sport, not least any sign of anti-racism (obviously) but as usual there is one rule for Nigel and another for everyone else
The T was launched at a football match in Clacton a couple of weeks back where a Reform team played a team from the local Wetherspoons…. Its not clear if Farage was actually present in Clacton for the game or if the new Ts come pre-worn by the Reform CEO himself
The contradictions of Punk IPA. Brewdog complains of delisting in giant Pubcos & then shuts 10 of its own bars
The Telegraph has reported that Brewdog Punk IPA has lost 2,000 bar top spots in recent times. It has been replaced by Camden and Beavertown beers, both promoted as ‘craft’ but in reality owned by global big beer.
How accurate the figure is might be debated but Brewdog don’t seem to dispute it. They say that along with other Independents they are being squeezed in the market. However given Brewdog is 22.3% owned by private equity outfit TSG, whose stake in the brewer in reality caps all others, its debatable how Indy it really is.
The Telegraph report notes that if Brewdog lost its listing in Wetherspoons 800 pubs (where Punk sells more cheaply than in Brewdog bars) then Punk as a brand would be finished.
Brewdog noting the trend argue that brewers and pubcos are focused on selling their own beers in outlets they own. In which case the decision to shut 10 Brewdog bars seem difficult. Brewdog also say they plan to sell more in the Indy sector. Good luck with that. There are better beers & breweries with better reputations out there.
Brian Aldridge is a fixture of ruling class Ambridge but he is 80 years old and the demands of running a farm are clearly telling. Of course he can still be involved as a consultant but surely it’s time for Adam to take charge at Home Farm and see if on that basis Stella will return… The involvement of Kate is not required. She should surely be exiled to Willow Farm as previously agreed
Eddie Grundy avoids arrest by ICE as JD Vance swerves The Bull
JD Vance spent a few days in Oxfordshire surrounded by a phalanx of secret service operatives. It’s not clear how much of the English countryside he actually got to see but the suggestion that he might stop by the Bull either did not happen or was not reported by the BBC. He did try and visit the Bull Charlbury but unofficial action by the hostelries workers stopped that happening
In Other News
Lynda’s angst about failing to credit Akram for the fete has been resolved. Meanwhile it sounds like Robert has been seconded to Coronation Street
Marlene has ended her liaison with Martyn Gibson and this is surely a very sensible decision.
The village shop has moved into the Village Hall. Surely it’s time to relaunch it as an Ambridge Wetherspoons
The history of protest: Yvette Cooper would have labelled the Suffragettes terrorists
Yvette Cooper rightly venerates the Suffragettes who won the vote for women but as former Green MP Caroline Lucas pointed out a few weeks ago, if she applied the same criteria she does to Palestine Action, then the Suffragettes would be labelled as terrorists too.
While the Suffragettes organised mass demonstrations for the vote in the years before World War One, a more militant section went beyond breaking windows to attacks on property and arson. Some of these, deliberately or not, involved significant injuries to individuals.
According to Yvette Cooper writing in the Observer on 17th August 2025
Palestine Action has claimed responsibility for – and promoted on its website – attacks that have seen those allegedly involved subsequently charged with violent disorder, grievous bodily harm with intent, actual bodily harm, criminal damage and aggravated burglary.
The problem with this perspective is that all of the things Cooper mentioned are existing offences that can be prosecuted as such. When people are arrested for ‘aggravated burglary’ for example they are not usually called terrorists.
As Amnesty International have underlined again the Terrorism Act 2000 gives an absurdly wide catch all definition of terrorism. Peter Hain pointed out in the Guardian that if Palestine Action are terrorists what term might be used to cover ISIS and Al Qaeda?
Beyond all that trying to prosecute people who disagree with Cooper’s ban as ‘terrorists’ for holding up placards, as the current DPP is trying to do, represents a significant slide towards authoritarianism.
One might conclude that when at school and University Yvette Cooper clearly was not paying attention to two important matters:
1 The First Law of Holes
2 The actual history of protest, starting with the Chartist slogan ‘peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must’
Marx on Brighton & Ramsgate 1870 & 1871. You do need a weatherman
In August Marx was often to be found at the seaside, sometimes with his family, sometimes alone if had been banished there by his doctor for health reasons.
In 1870 he stayed with his family in Ramsgate from the 9th to 31st August 1870. He wrote to Engels on 8th August 1870 just before his departure from London noting that he was not going to Brighton as planned since ‘the former place turned out on inquiry to be too hot’. Its not clear what Marx’s precise meaning was but he often preferred sea breezes for health reasons.
However the following year he had relented and stayed alone in Brighton from 17th to 29th August recovering from ‘overstrain’. He wrote to Jenny Marx on 25th August 1871
On the whole the weather here has been stormy and rainy, so that I have not ceased to have colds with accompanying cough . But the wonderful air and the bath that I take daily have had a very good effect on my GENERAL STATE OF HEALTH
It’s one of those stories that has something of the flavour of an urban, or perhaps, rural myth and the likelihood that it is true enough for the TUC to post on social media.
JD Vance his family and a large number of security operatives stayed in the Oxfordshire location of Charlbury for a few days earlier this week. He managed a visit to a farm shop, a BBQ with guests co-ordinated by George Osborne and, reportedly, (this story being less likely than the one I’m posting here) breakfast with Farage.
One thing he did not do was to eat at the Award winning local Charlbury pub, The Bull. Noted for excellent food and good beer it is suggested that an attempt by Vance’s entourage to book was rebuffed because staff refused to work. That of course would be unofficial industrial action. Perhaps as likely and possibly in conjunction the owners of the pub realised that Vance eating there would not be great publicity for the venue. Kamala Harris reportedly at there in recent weeks, but until now this had received no publicity.
There is a long history of public figures of the right (and the left for that matter) being shunned by pubs and restaurants which perhaps provides a wider context.
