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Thread 31 Starmer - September Rain

1000 replies

DuncinToffee · 01/09/2025 12:08

Pull up a chair for some friendly chit chat about politics and beyond BrewCakeBiscuit

Taxes optional but greatly appreciated.

Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5399546-thread-30-starmer-magic-roundabouts?page=40&reply=146834602

OP posts:
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75
Evenstar · 04/09/2025 14:44

We had another lovely trip to our local RHS garden the other day for their Walkies evening. I love Nut Brown Hare and Guess How Much I Love You so it was the perfect spot for a photo of my little dog

Thread 31 Starmer - September Rain
PandoraSocks · 04/09/2025 14:48

About 20 years ago I bought a £50 wardrobe from IKEA, planning to buy something a bit more expensive at a later date.

I still have the IKEA wardrobe.

BIWI · 04/09/2025 14:51

placemats · 04/09/2025 14:40

I'm thinking of taking the Rivera night train to Penzance from Paddington, spending the day there and then returning. Obviously will book a cabin both ways. A treat I wanted to do for my 60th, but COVID intervened. A tick off the bucket list. Has anyone else done this?

We were thinking of doing that, and then taking the Pullman back, so we could have lunch in the dining car.

But the cost is astronomical! So we’re just going to Plymouth, staying overnight and doing the Pullman for lunch on the way back.

If it’s a real treat though, go for it!

Alexandra2001 · 04/09/2025 14:52

Squirrel pox? can appear anywhere.

Piggywaspushed · 04/09/2025 14:54

What I actually like about this thread is that lots of people on here that in Labour isn't working/ often doesn't work. Disgruntled people to the left of Labour are heard on here, disagreed with by some , sure, but not derided , scorned or mocked.

As I said previously an alternatively left wing anti Labour thread was set up and became an awful bun fight despite the OP clearly stating its purpose and intention. The original LIW thread had a few disappointed left wingers on it - but we quickly learnt it was in fact a thread for Tory/Reform voters or those who had lent Labour their vote. That's absolutely fine - it's allowed and a good idea . The disgruntled left wing can carry on muttering darkly in corners since we seem not to be accorded the dignity of a space to discuss how much we liked Diane Abbott's book and the difference between Polanski and Corbyn or what we think of the New Party .

It's pointless keeping repeating we aren't all Labour fans or Labour voters. But this seems to be one of the few threads where we constantly have to justify our right to exist. I. for one, am pretty open to the idea that the Rayner graffiti may have come from the (many) Brighton left. The idea that AR is a rabid leftie is quite amusing to the actual Left.

A quick AS would reveal that some posters on here do spend a lot of time on politics threads but that many use this as their politics chat and then spend much of the rest of time in the litter tray (figuratively, I hope), books, Telly Addicts etc. We're not on some kind of messianic quest.

Piggywaspushed · 04/09/2025 14:55

I know nothing about squirrels, sorry. I can talk about Dickens a lot.

placemats · 04/09/2025 14:56

PandoraSocks · 04/09/2025 14:48

About 20 years ago I bought a £50 wardrobe from IKEA, planning to buy something a bit more expensive at a later date.

I still have the IKEA wardrobe.

The wardrobe is for my son. I've already got a great wardrobe from IKEA.

cardibach · 04/09/2025 15:03

Evenstar · 04/09/2025 14:44

We had another lovely trip to our local RHS garden the other day for their Walkies evening. I love Nut Brown Hare and Guess How Much I Love You so it was the perfect spot for a photo of my little dog

My adult (29) daughter and I still end a series of messages to each other with M&B from Guess How Much I Love You.

BIWI · 04/09/2025 15:14

Piggywaspushed · 04/09/2025 14:55

I know nothing about squirrels, sorry. I can talk about Dickens a lot.

To my great shame, despite having a literature degree (joint honours with another subject), I have never read any Dickens Blush. And that despite having a full set of his works, inherited from my grandfather. I keep meaning to do something about it, but never sure where to start. Which book would you recommend as a starter?

Piggywaspushed · 04/09/2025 15:19

Oh we have a lovely Readalong thread (led by yours truly!) which you'd be very welcome to join/ lurk in. (we did have one unpleasant visitor once who told us all we were sad).

I'd say overall our favourites on there have been Bleak House, David Copperfield, Nicholas Nickleby and Dombey and Son (the current read). I actually really don't much like the big hitters - Great Expectations did nothing for me.

There's something quite satisfying about reading a book and coming upon a famous character .

The latest Dombey bit we've read has a great bit where two slightly older characters are moaning about the Good Old Days and how everything about England has changed too much. Nothing new under the sun!

Piggywaspushed · 04/09/2025 15:21

I never read any Dickens until I started teaching. Not taught it at school (lots of Hardy though, more fashionable then). Then for years all I had read was A Christmas Carol and extracts from Oliver Twist. I decided about 10 years ago to put this right and I am so glad I did.

Piggywaspushed · 04/09/2025 15:23

With thanks to an off thread poster, this is the section:

'Those darling byegone times, Mr Carker,' said Cleopatra, 'with their delicious fortresses, and their dear old dungeons, and their delightful places of torture, and their romantic vengeances, and their picturesque assaults and sieges, and everything that makes life truly charming! How dreadfully we have degenerated!'

'Yes, we have fallen off deplorably,' said Mr Carker

BIossomtoes · 04/09/2025 15:27

I thought I hated Dickens for years because I tried to read his work when I was too young. It was a revelation when I was mature enough to appreciate it. David Copperfield is my favourite.

pointythings · 04/09/2025 15:30

I read a lot of Dickens because my mum was a massive fan, but I am really a science fiction/alternative reality kind of girl. I do love me some steampunk though.

PandoraSocks · 04/09/2025 15:30

I have never got on with Dickens. I love Hardy though. Tess of the D'ubervilles is a novel I fell in love with at 17 and still love. Though my view of it has changed somewhat. Especially my view of Angel Clare 😡

BIossomtoes · 04/09/2025 15:34

I always thought Angel Clare was a pious, sanctimonious little misogynist.

BIWI · 04/09/2025 15:39

OK - maybe I’ll have a go at David Copperfield. (And will search out your readalong as well @Piggywaspushed!)

PandoraSocks · 04/09/2025 15:40

BIossomtoes · 04/09/2025 15:34

I always thought Angel Clare was a pious, sanctimonious little misogynist.

And you were right. Never have I grown to hate a character so much. I was a bit swayed by him at first, especially when I saw the Polanski film as Peter Firth was so angelic and pretty.

PickAChew · 04/09/2025 15:45

Piggywaspushed · 04/09/2025 14:55

I know nothing about squirrels, sorry. I can talk about Dickens a lot.

I still have the dread after being forced to read so much Dickens at school. I just found it so stodgy (but not in the same delicious way as school dinners. Mmm. Cornflake breezeblock and pink custard)

itsgettingweird · 04/09/2025 15:46

placemats · 04/09/2025 14:40

I'm thinking of taking the Rivera night train to Penzance from Paddington, spending the day there and then returning. Obviously will book a cabin both ways. A treat I wanted to do for my 60th, but COVID intervened. A tick off the bucket list. Has anyone else done this?

No but I’ve considered doing a sleep train with ds who is train mad.

I’ve looked at Paddington to Penzance but Cornwall isn’t particularly wheelchair friendly!

We had a shock in Bournemouth the other week at how hilly it is!!!

Piggywaspushed · 04/09/2025 15:48

PandoraSocks · 04/09/2025 15:30

I have never got on with Dickens. I love Hardy though. Tess of the D'ubervilles is a novel I fell in love with at 17 and still love. Though my view of it has changed somewhat. Especially my view of Angel Clare 😡

Tess was the book that made me love literature.

Angel is an awful drip.

itsgettingweird · 04/09/2025 15:50

pointythings · 04/09/2025 15:30

I read a lot of Dickens because my mum was a massive fan, but I am really a science fiction/alternative reality kind of girl. I do love me some steampunk though.

We have a steampunk day at a local heritage museum. DS and I love to visit and admire all the costumes

placemats · 04/09/2025 16:00

I'm a big Jane Austen fan a this year is the 250th anniversary of her birth. She's the best novelist ever born in England.

I also have read all the Brontë sisters and Agatha Christie novels.

cardibach · 04/09/2025 16:00

PandoraSocks · 04/09/2025 15:30

I have never got on with Dickens. I love Hardy though. Tess of the D'ubervilles is a novel I fell in love with at 17 and still love. Though my view of it has changed somewhat. Especially my view of Angel Clare 😡

Me neither. I have a Lit degree (joint honours) and taught English for 35 years. I love Hardy, the Brontë’s, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot etc, but I find Dickens impossible to read. I recognise that this is a ‘me’ problem not a Dickens problem, but life’s too short to read a book I’m not loving. I prefer 20th century novels really.

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