The Western Riverside - Disaster Symptom I

Well!! The disaster has begun, the bulldozers and pile drivers are hard at work and the roofing timbers are in place on Building 4B.
When we met in the Hilton Hotel all those years ago to protest and complain to the Architects and and others about the impact of the plan we were evidently ignored. I personally told the Architect that I thought his designs were brutal and he was surprised. Either way Bath will be a less pleasant place to live in the future.
My reason for writing on what is now a redundant issue is more to do with my feelings on Public Transport. I am not a car owner nor a driver having never taken a single lesson in car driving.
My concern lies in the continued wholesale destruction of, what will come to be know for the crass stupidity that it is, old railway routes.
In the case of the Western Riverside it is obvious for all to see that when, in not too many years time, we need an additional rail corridor into the centre of Bath from Bristol and Radstock it will no longer be available having been planned out of existence. Buildings B4 and B10b sit squarely across that route.
When will these short-term profit driven strategies be finally outlawed.
We are continually being preached to about saving the planet. We recycle what we can, we use energy saving bulbs, we eat food that's sourced as locally as possible but all that is worth nothing, while profiteering councils and other planners continue their headlong destruction of ours and our children's future. Denying the preservation of access to the resources and refusing to countenance anything that involves long term commitment.

I am so angry.

KEEP THE FECK OFF OLD RAIL ROUTES FOR THE USE OF METROS AND TRAMS - this is one for central government if its got the balls to face up to the petrol heads and the oil companies.

PLAN TO GET PEOPLE OUT OF THEIR FECKING CARS - and this one's for local authorities if they've got the balls to get out of the pockets of the local business community. They'll look pretty silly when customers can't get to them to be profited from.

THEY WILL DESTROY US ALL IF WE LET THEM

GIVING UP BOOZE CAUSES CANCER - shock study • The Register

GIVING UP BOOZE CAUSES CANCER - shock study • The Register There are lies, damned lies and statistics.... (Who said that?) Yet again the health lobby rears its ugly and expensive (funded by the taxpayer) head in an attempt to justify it's own existence. 'If we don't keep saying something (however wrong) we'll get rumbled and (heaven forbid) scrapped with the other 'waste of money' quangos. What fun!!!

The Beer Duty Escalator Rumbles On

BBC News - Budget 2011 at a glance: George Osborne's key points: "No additional changes to alcohol duty rates but 2% above inflation rise in excise duties for wine, spirits and beer to go ahead"

Well this will close a few more pubs then - not enough to continue to allow the Pub owning Property Companies (Punch, Enterprise and their ilk) to carry on fleecing their tenants and their tenants customers, this 'Pub friendly' lot have hammered another nail in the coffin of that Great British institution - The British Pub.

When Britain finally wakes up and finds that between the Pub owning Property Companies and the Treasury they've sleep walked into a situation where there is nowhere left to sit and chat with friends over well cellared, hand crafted ales or indeed gas filled euro-fizz for that matter, then a little more of what makes Britain and the British unique will be gone forever. See what's happening in Cornwall.

We know what happens when Beer Duty is increased because we've seen it before. The Treasury puts 7.2% on the Duty for every pint as it leaves the brewer. The Pub owning Property Company will then squeeze a little more off the price they're paying for the beer from the brewer, then add it and more back in to the price they sell it to the tenants for. The poor tenant has no choice then but to put the price up, lose more customers and go to the wall. I don't expect that the rise at the bar will be any less than 10p on a pint and could be as much as 20p.

This is why when you pop in to the pub next Monday evening, there will be fewer people drinking fewer pints, to talk to.

Now we come to the supermarkets; with this 7.2% increase the duty on a pint will now be 44p add in another 50p in VAT at 20% and we're on about £3 for a pint of ale in a pub. The supermarket will sell a 4-pack (about 3 pints) for no more than £3.50 (Tesco - 2 for £7) of which £1.32 is Duty and 70p is VAT. So cheap alcohol bought in the supermarket costs not only the British Pub dear it also amounts to a loss of 26p per pint to the Treasury. On the 2010 figures for UK beer consumption, and bearing in mind 52% (11,618 million pints) of beer is purchased in supermarkets and drunk at home costs the UK £3,021 million pounds.

Where should we go from here? I'm no genius but I can see that if we are going to see the pub survive and tenants able to make a proper living while curtailing the ill effects of excessive consumption the obvious answer is to curb alcohol sales in supermarkets while pricing the beer to the pub competitively with off-sales pricing. The bonus is of course, more drinking will be done in a controlled and 'responsible' environment and less damage will be done to peoples health through excessive consumption of cheap supermarket booze.

My feeling is that an 'off-sales' levy should be brought in to reduce the price difference and at the same time compensate the Treasury for the reduced tax take due to falling volumes. In addition a reduction in health care cost due to excessive consumption would keep the health lobby happy. The only losers would be the supermarkets but business is business!

...and another Shameless Introduction - 2011 Version

I saw the hit count on this blog quadruple last week so I thought I'd better check what my few visitors were looking for and lo and behold it was people looking for the text of the new Shameless introduction. Nothing unusual there as over the years most visitors are looking for that or the link to WNXX but it seems I have failed.

What you've all been looking for is the NEW new Shameless Intro.

Well here it is as far as I can get it despite the muffled and sometime unintelligible bits.

Anyway 'ere 'tis...

Anyone watching thinking, "we know fuck all about knowing fuck all about 'owt", needs to watch their back.

So you've had your Labour reclassifying skunk sending prices sky high literally, literally taking the grass off its own roots.

Now you've got your con-dem-nation, Liberals noshing Tories like altar boys picking dibs up.

Have we had a national fucking stroke or what?

Is revolution a word or was it never?

Anybody watching needs to know we cope better than average with irony in Chatsworth.

Well for fuck sake we live in Manchester and they charge us for water.

I wandered lonely as a cloud necking mushrooms rarely found. Green and pleasant land in ancient times?

Yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap.

It's not theirs anymore. This is our England now.

Party!!!



Correct me if I'm wrong please.
Full credit to the author.

Thanks anon. for the 'necking', Regards.
Thanks anon. for the 'skunk', Regards.
Thanks anon. for the 'clown', Regards.
...following the Comment below and listening again I think it is probably 'cloud' after William Wordsworth. Ta Anon. Regards.
Yes of course 'owt' is correct rather than 'ought'. Thanks Anon. Regards.
...so is it 'alter boys picking dibs up' or 'alter boys picking dimps up'? Regards.

Slow Roasted Pork Belly – with the Cajun ‘holy trinity’ of Bell Peppers, Onions and Celery

Feeds 2 – 3 hours cooking - Easy
This dish was inspired by an ‘Mmmm that looks nice’ feeling when I saw their Pork Belly Stack with Rosemary Mash and Deep Fried Leek Strips, at The Nineteenth House pub in Bath. I’d only dropped in for a pint on the way home.
The dish is relatively easy to cook requiring very little experience; something to impress without too much effort. Serve with a Dijon Mustard Mash.
Ingredients:
Pork Belly - cut in rectangles and about 350g per person
1 Red Onion
2 Bell Peppers
1 Carrot
1 Stick of Celery
2 Cloves of Garlic
1 bottle of Red Wine (150ml for the dish)
2 tsp. Herbes de Provence
Potatoes sufficient for 2 portions of Mash
1 Egg
1 tsp. Dijon Mustard
2 dstsp. Crème Fraîche
½ pint of vegetable stock (Bouillon)
2 tsp. Corn Flour
Salt and Black Pepper
Method:
Light up the oven and preheat to Gas Mark 8 (450°F, 230°C, Hot)
Score the skin and fatty surface of the pork into 15mm (1/2 inch) squares, sprinkle with a little of les Herbes de Provence with Salt and Pepper to taste.
Place in a fairly shallow roasting tin and place in the centre of the oven. After about half an hour check and if the skin is ‘crackling’ up nicely, reduce the heat to Gas Mark 3 (325°F, 165°C, Moderate) and roast for a further hour.
Now prepare the vegetables. Peel the potatoes sufficient for two portions of mash.
Cut the Bell Pepper into 2cm squares, along with the onion. Thinly slice the celery and carrot, crush and chop the Garlic.
When the meat has been in the oven for an hour and a half, take it out cover on a warm plate and set aside while the cut vegetables are tumbled in the juices in the tray, seasoned with black pepper and sprinkled with the rest of les Herbes de Provence . Rest the meat on top of the vegetables and return to the oven for a further hour.
With half an hour to go, make the Mustard Mash. Boil the potatoes and mash. Stir in the egg, Dijon Mustard and Crème Fraîche and a couple of twists of fresh ground black pepper. Put in an oven proof dish and place in the oven to keep warm.
Preheat a second roasting tray. Remove the meat and vegetable from their cooking tray and place on the fresh tray and return to the oven.
With the original roasting tray, place it on the hob and heat. When boiling, add the wine to de-glaze ensuring you stir in all the rich caramelised juices from the meat and vegetables and then reduce. Add the vegetable stock and thicken as required with a little corn flour. Finally glaze with a knob of butter before serving.
To serve the dish, place a pile of Mustard Mash on a warm plate. Pile the vegetables on the mash and pour a little of the sauce over it before topping out with the Pork. Dress the rest of the plate with the sauce.
Enjoy.

PS. I’m going to try this again but vary the flavours with Chilli and chopped leaf Coriander.

Something Nice from Inexpensive Lamb

This is Moroccan Slow Cooker Lamb

I found a pack of their 'Basics' Stewing Lamb in Sainsbury's yesterday so I thought I'd give this a bash. It's loosely based on a Moroccan style Chicken Dish I made a little while ago but this time I dispensed with the Harissa Paste.

Ingredients:
2 tbsp. Olive Oil
1.2Kg Stewing Lamb (larger pieces are good and bone-in will add to the flavour)
3 large Onions peeled and quartered
3 Peppers of various colours, deseeded and cut to 2.5cm pieces
1 Butternut Squash, peeled deseeded and cut into 15mm pieces
3 salsa strength Chillies sliced thin
3 large cloves of Garlic, crushed and sliced
1 x 250g carton of chopped tomatoes
125g dried apricots, soak just covered in water
1 tbsp. flaked almonds
2 tsp. Ground Coriander
2 tsp. Ground Cumin
1 tsp. Caraway seeds
2 tsp. Cinnamon
1 Lemon, zest and juice
Coriander Leaf, you can never have too much

Method:
Prepare your slow cooker: this usually involves reaching in, over or up, to the most out of the way place in the kitchen. It may even require standing on a chair so be careful. Give the lid, outer rim, handles and the cable a good wipe over with kitchen cleaner and a damp cloth. Plug it in and turn it on and set it to low, splash some water into it (a couple of tablespoons) and a teaspoon of bouillon or other powdered stock to warm the beast up.
In a large frying pan add the Olive Oil, Coriander, Cumin, Caraway Seed and Cinnamon. Bring up the heat and cook until it just begins to smoke then lower to minimum and allow the spices to release their flavours into the oil. Meanwhile cover the lamb pieces in flour. Add the lamb to the frying pan and increase the heat again. Cover the lamb in the hot oil and spices turning to ensure all sides are sealed and seasoned. When ready turn the lamb out into the slow cooker and cover.
Into the frying pan put the Chillies and Garlic and turn about for a minute to release their flavour. Add the Onion, Peppers and Butternut Squash and turn over. Allow the edges to darken slightly for flavour but try not to burn the Garlic. Tip the vegetables into the slow cooker and work in around the Lamb. Pour the Chopped Tomatoes into the frying pan to deglaze it and pour them straight in to the slow cooker.
Allow the slow cooker to come up to its working temperature. You'll find the Low setting will give you a very gentle simmer. Now tip in the Apricots and the water they were soaked in into the cooker and halve them. Add the Flaked Almonds, Lemon Zest and Juice and stir in.
Now leave cooking for at least 2 hours and certainly until the Lamb falls apart (be careful, you want it to stay in as few pieces as possible).
When ready to eat chop up a shed load of fresh Coriander, throw ¾ of it into the slow cooker and fold it in. Save the rest to garnish.
Prepare your Couscous, Rice or other accompaniment to taste and place it on a large serving dish as a bed and spoon the contents of the slow cooker over it, garnishing with the rest of the chopped Coriander leaf.
Serve with a Minted Yogurt

Enjoy. As before - any comments? You know what to do.

Agressive Aetheist and Proud

If any god bothering extremist wants to have a bash they're welcome. I don't give a ****.

To be continued...