Forum Topics

Hallelujah - my redeemer Burnham Cometh

Unless there is a big surprise from Reform in his own backyard, it looks as if we will soon have a new Labour PM in the form of 'Mr Manchester' Andy Burnham when he is elected in the Makerfield constituency and his own Party then forces Kier Starmer out.Well at lease he cannot be criticised for lack of experience in politics because since he left Cambridge he has never had what some people (me !) would say is a 'proper job'.He has been a Labour advisor, Councillor, MP, Minister and Mayor.But does he know what it is like to compete for and hold down a role in the private or even the public sector and have to competitively compete in the market place of life ?And he does seem to have changed his mind over social issues, most notably gender identification.Some good points from Andrew Neil in the MailOnline.https://www.dailymail.com/debate/article-15859349/ANDREW-NEIL-real-beef-Streeting-Burnham-promoting-dreary-socialist-agenda-70s.html(Sorry Mr Ainsworth. Could not find anything pertinent on this issue from your beloved Guardian !)'My beef with the Streetings and Burnhams of the Labour Party – indeed with the current Leftward drift of the party as a whole – is how they propose to make us more equal: higher taxes – especially on the wealth creators – more welfare, more government ownership and more regulation. In short, the same dreary socialist concoction that brought us to our knees when Labour was in power in the 1970s.I recently suggested Labour should rebadge itself the Welfare Party. But perhaps the Back-to-the-Future Party would be more appropriate.Burnham is especially guilty of this. In the Makerfield by-election, which he hopes will be his springboard to the Labour leadership, it’s almost as if he’s running against Margaret Thatcher and wants to return us to a mythical pre-Thatcherite idyll.Even though she stepped down as Prime Minister 36 years ago (and died 13 years ago) she gets it in the neck from Burnham for all the ills of the constituency for which he has suddenly decided he wants to be MP'.By railing against ‘40 years of Thatcherite neoliberalism’ he (Burnham) is burnishing his credentials with the Labour Left, which has always despaired that so little was done to reverse the Thatcher revolution during the Blairite era.He intends to put that right. In his response to Blair’s mini-manifesto he argued for a ‘very interventionist’ government with ‘strong public control and direction’ over investment and key industries such as transport, energy and even housing – the antithesis of the New Labour years. And all in the name of a more equal society.He intends to put that right. In his response to Blair’s mini-manifesto he argued for a ‘very interventionist’ government with ‘strong public control and direction’ over investment and key industries such as transport, energy and even housing – the antithesis of the New Labour years. And all in the name of a more equal society.So let’s look at how that might work out. But before we do, a word about inequality. Left-wing rhetoric increasingly implies that the rich and well-paid barely pay any taxes at all.Nothing could be further from the truth. Our tax receipts are more dependent on a small number of the well-off than almost any other advanced economy.The top 10 per cent of income-earners stump up 60 per cent of all income tax revenues. The top 1 per cent pay 30 per cent and the richest 0.1 per cent account for 11 per cent – which is a bigger share of income tax receipts than the lowest 50 per cent of earners contribute.'I wonder how it will all work out ?

John Hawkes ● 2d14 Comments ●

Do You Know You're a Slave Yet?

Well you ought to - you've been one long enough, and it's been going on for thousands of years. All that's changed is the presentation. For a long time, you'd do your day's slave labour without pay, of course, and be housed & fed for free; but in more recent times, to con you slaves, you've received an income for working, then have that income taken away for housing & food, with anything left over taken away in taxes, with your rulers continuously looking for new opportunities to get rid of any cash surpluses, whether that be through orchestrated wars, pandemics, banking collapses, immigration, climate scares - they don't care, as long as it gets rid of cash quick, to keep you skint; and they're really ramping it up now.So if you really don't know you're a slave yet, it's time you did; so take a long hard look at yourself in the mirror, and have a long hard think; then accept you've been had, and decide what you're going to do about it..

Michael Brown ● 0 Comments ●

I can't breathe

Can anyone tell me where and when the white lives matter march is after the young lad in Southampton was arrested and handcuffed by police whilst dying from 5 stab wounds ? His last words were ' I can't breathe'.....sound familiar?Will our footballers and Starmer etc be taking the knee for this poor lad? Will they heck as like.2 tier policing, yep its here.

Andy Pike ● 1d17 Comments ● 1h

Putney’s Oldest Buildings

What are the oldest buildings in SW15?  
I know the Winchester House Club is old and looking online the house dates back to the early 17th Century, but what are the others?  Anything Georgian? I think the churches must be some of our oldest buildings, but what’s the oldest house? Thank you for any info.

Martine Guy ● 5d22 Comments ● 3h

Front  page Putney Bridge Station

Woman assaulted, picture of the man.

Barbara Stevens ● 3h2 Comments ● 3h

I'm sure we all condemn anti-semitism in all it's forms right?

No matter who is depicted of course.  Cartoons from The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph and The Times

Michael Brigo ● 26d71 Comments ● 7h

Large-scale knife problem - likely ban?

Kitchen knives might well face a ban when a Reform government takes power in UK. Possibly.In the year ending March 2025, 95 homicides were committed using a kitchen knife in England and Wales. This made the kitchen knife the most frequent murder weapon among all sharp instrument fatalities, accounting for 46% of all knife homicides.It stands to reason.

David Ainsworth ● 9h1 Comments ● 8h

Random pic 1 June 2026

An unmarked police car leaving Whitehall in a hurry ... https://flic.kr/p/2sbyDqL

Michael Ixer ● 21h0 Comments ● 21h

Random pic 31 May 2026

A Roneo copying machine manufactured by Gestetner. At the Lyon History Museum. It was used by local ecologists to copy leaflets in the years 1970-80. https://flic.kr/p/2rHQKZD

Michael Ixer ● 1d0 Comments ● 1d

Random pic 30 May 2026

A Sparsholt College Sunset https://flic.kr/p/2s6LTHX

Michael Ixer ● 2d1 Comments ● 2d

Random pic 29 May 2026

Alf, the friendly dachshund puppy, Notting Hill Gate https://flic.kr/p/2s8m4YD

Michael Ixer ● 3d1 Comments ● 2d

Random pic 28 May 2026

Windmills on the Adriatic Coast https://flic.kr/p/2s1CgTi

Michael Ixer ● 4d1 Comments ● 2d

Voting By Religion ~ Katie Hopkins

The views of Katie Hopkins.  If you are Right-leaning you probably agree with her over many topics, but if you’re a Lefty you will probably dismiss her an an evil bigoted witch.   Pearl-clutchers will be shocked and disgusted by her fruity language and will post multiple !!!!! to emphasise their horror.🙀I think she’s great.😸Hopkins begins by talking about Laila Cunningham, a politician and former Crown Prosecution Service prosecutor. She was elected to Westminster City Council in 2022 for the Conservative Party and defected to Reform UK in June 2025. In January 2026, Cunningham was announced as Reform UK's candidate for the 2028 London mayoral election. Listen and see what you think about her views on voting by religion: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1GjJve9yyQ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Sue Hammond ● 3d8 Comments ● 2d

85 Bus

Just made the mistake of choosing to catch the 85 back from Kingston instead of the train.  It was pretty crowded the whole journey but when we got to the stop by St John’s Avenue on Putney Hill, it got really hot and lacking in any breeze inside the bus.  
We were getting off opposite Putney station.  Everytime the lights signalled green, the bus couldn’t move across URR because it would have been stationary on the yellow box, so we had to wait about 4 changes of traffic signal until PHS had a gap for the bus to go into. People asked several times for the bus doors to be opened, but the driver wouldn’t do so.  I love the hot weather, but I got to the point where I thought I had had enough and might faint. The reason for this situation was the traffic jam on PHS.

Martine Guy ● 4d12 Comments ● 2d

Brexit Revisited

There is a small cohort of contributors on here who seemingly cannot curb their urge to pollute threads with their Brexit musings however tenuous they may be to the actual thread.   In some cases there is absolutely nothing to link them at all🙄 but a few members in particular will attempt to start a Brexit debate anyway.  If they can also throw in some FDS along the way, they will.Anyway the point of this thread is for the members who just cannot get over the Brexit result, to air their collective anger, grievances and frustrations in one thread without polluting any of the others.   Brexit moaners, fill yer boots!

Sue Hammond ● 4d16 Comments ● 3d

Local history

On BBC Radio 4 this morning the programme 'In Our Time' was about "The Levellers". It included a section on "The Putney Debates".

David Ainsworth ● 11d6 Comments ● 3d

Quill Lane Putney

Today it was put on our road Forum, telling residents locally to keep your windows and doors locked even if you are in. A resident in Quill Lane had a break in while they were in. They took phones bags etc, contact Police if you see anything suspicious.

Barbara Stevens ● 27d6 Comments ● 3d

Now we know why jimmy crankey resigned

She never knew what her husband was up to.Pull the other one. He comes home with a £100k Jag and a £60k+ motorhome and she never said ' hey Jocky where did you get this money'? Maybe she thought he was the great suprendo.What governance of the parties funds eh, and they let her run a country.

Andy Pike ● 6d55 Comments ● 4d

The Resignations Have Started

Only Private Secretaries atm the moment but bigger beasts are expected to follow.Four Parliamentary Private Secretaries (PPSs) stepped down as more than 60 members of Sir Keir's own party publicly told him it is time to go.One of them, Joe Morris, is an aide to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, seen as the Blairite candidate to replace the PM. The MP in the seat next to his in east London is also among the rebels. The decision by the four - the others are Tom Rutland, Sally Jameson and Naushabah Khan - could be the trigger for more members of the government to join them. It came as a Labour civil war gathering pace today as factions draw battle lines for who will replace Sir Keir, who has been left as little more than a bystander.https://mol.im/a/15807279

Sue Hammond ● 21d69 Comments ● 5d