This is a very short, ANONYMOUS survey.
Please help us to do a better job.
Tick all answers which are applicable.
Click “NEXT” after each question. Only click “SUBMIT” at the end.
Thanks.
[SURVEYS 1]
Support your local
Whether you favour the Half Moon or the White Horse, please give them your support this Christmas. We are lucky to live in villages with good pubs and excellent licensees, and in these hard times we should not take them for granted.
As usual, they will be working hard for your pleasure. We asked both pubs to let us know what is happening this Christmas and New Year. We are still waiting to hear from the White Horse, but here is the Half Moon’s programme:
Sunday 23 December: Lunchtime Carvery as usual. An excuse to get out of the kitchen! Christmas Eve: Carols and mince pies from 8pm, with accompaniment by the Horsington Marsh Chamber Orchestra (Janet Coles and Brian Tunnicliffe)
Christmas Day: A quick pint from midday -2pm. The annual ritual of showing off your new M&S jersey and –oops -spilling a drink down it.
Sunday 30 December: Come and pit your brains against Horsington’s finest in the last quiz of 2012. 8pm. Teams of 4-(ish). Leave your mobile phone at home.
New Years Eve : closed all day .
New Year’s day: Delicious brunch from midday- 3pm. Bar closes at 4pm.
Wednesday 2nd January. Music Night 8 pm.
Until 30 January: Balvenie Whisky promotion. Enjoy three different delicious upmarket Balvenie malts for £8.95 and receive a free Monkey Shoulder*.
Starting in January: Curry Night returns. 2 for £10. Tuesday evenings. Come in for a drink, a chat and a “Ruby Murray “.
Landlord Andrew and Philippa wish everyone a very happy Christmas and look forward to welcoming you. As we are sure Paul and Sarah at the White Horse do as well. Let’s hear from you.- Ed
*Monkey Shoulder is a blend of 3 Speyside Malts matured in Bourbon casks. (Quiz question: Monkey Shoulder is the nickname for a temporary shoulder injury suffered by the distillery workers who used to turn the barley by hand.)
Winter treat from Wincanton Choral Society
The Wincanton Choral Society Winter Concert on Sunday 9th December promises to be a wonderful treat.
This choir (including several Horsington residents) gets better and better. We are very priveleged to have the sort of music that people pay a fortune for at the Albert Hall a mere five minute ride away in Wincanton.
This year’s offering is Vivaldi’s Gloria followed by the more peaceful and beautifully melodic Cantique de Jean Racine by Faure. There will be three pieces from Vaughan Williams lively Cantata for Mixed Voices. In Windsor Forest, with familiar Christmas carols for choir and audience to round off the evening. . The soloists are Maria Marton, soprano and Sarah Pottinger, mezzo soprano.
The conductor is Simon Twiselton. The accompaniment will be Piano played by Jacquelyn Bevan, and a String Quintet with Edward Burns 1st Violin, Jane Margeson 2nd Violin, Richard Willetts Viola, Michael Moorsom Violoncello and Keith Wood Double Bass.
Tickets can be obtained through www.bradsons.co.uk or 01749 838843, or best of all, buy them from Jane Jones- 01963 370562
Tickets are £12.00 (18 and under £6.00) or at the door Licensed Bar.
7.30pm at Wincanton Sports Centre, West Hill.
Just Fancy That
The Daily Mail, 27 November 2012: “BBC chairman Lord Patten yesterday admitted the corporation was ‘over-managed’ by a vast number of highly paid, jargon-spouting bureaucrats.”
The Horsington Blog, 12 November 2012: “It has long been held that the BBC exists to create meaningless jobs for gobbledegook-spouting lefty middle managers. Let’s get rid of a few layers and see if it makes a difference.”
Good to know that Lord P reads the Horsington Blog. We’re happy to help if you need any more inspriration.
Widespread travel disruption
Your editor is writing this from an island surrounded by nearly a metre of water, somewhere on Horsington Marsh. He has no plans to travel, as the BBC, perplexingly, has not called him up to London for an interview. Just as well, as Templecombe is closed, and there are widespread road closures due to flooding. Check out the Travel News link on Blogroll bfore you go anywhere.
Independent Sue Mountstevens is the new police commissioner
The Blog predicted that independent Police Commissioner candidate Sue Mountstevens “could spring a surprise if the going improves”, and lo and behold, she romped home by a convincing margin to beat the other candidates from the main political parties.
The Blog congratulates her, and wishes her well in her term of office. She has a difficult job to do.
Horsington electors who are unhappy with the result might reflect that at a few minutes to closing time, only 80 electors had bothered to cast their votes at the village hall.
Work starts on Church roof – but funds are still needed
Work will start this week on the restoration of the roof of parish church of St John the Baptist, Horsington.
Money is still needed for the restoration fund.
Many people who were at the Jubiliee lunch and who were featured in the video have still not bought a copy in aid of the roof fund. If you would like a copy of this historic, once in a lifetime memory capsule, please contact the editor – editor@idnet.com
The video features just about everyone who was there, and costs £10.00. There are two bonus tracks. More stories:
Should Blog editor apply for BBC D-G position?
The embattled BBC spent hundreds of thousands of your pounds on headhunters to recruit the last D-G, George Entwistle, who has departed after just 40 days.
They could save licence-payers the same again by appointing the editor of the Horsington Blog as the Director General. It would be nice to do something useful, and the money would come in handy.
Here’s my list of priorities.
De-layer the management. It has long been held that the BBC exists to create meaningless jobs for gobbledegook-spouting lefty middle managers. Let’s get rid of a few layers and see if it makes a difference. If the man on the Clapham omnibus doesn’t understand a BBC job title –out!
Sell off BBC 2 and 3, Radios 1 and ,2, halve the website. Use the money to improve programme quality (especially sport) and slash the licence fee.
Light a bonfire under the news. Ensure political neutrality, ban political correctness, nannyism, boring pressure group spokesmen and reporting on events before they happen. Give Humphrys a final warning on interrupting (and that Montagu woman too).
Eradicate nepotism, cronyism, luvvyism and swearing.
Ban the phrases “stepping aside”, “going forward”, “platform”, “genre” and other meaningless twaddle. “Showcase” is not a verb.
Appoint a new BBC trust. Elections anyone?
It is surely only a matter of time before they contact me for interview, but I must make it clear from the outset that I will not move to Manchester. Horsington is so much better!
A man called Neil Turner has created a Government e-petition to hold a referendum to scrap the TV licence fee. You can sign the petition here
If you would like to influence the editor’s first 100 days at the Beeb, please send in a comment.
Runners in the Police and Crime Commissioner stakes – November 15th
On 15th November you will be asked to vote for the person you would like to become the area’s first Police and crime Commissioner (PCC).
Three party hacks and an independent take to the track to fight it out for an £85,000 annual prize. The Blog’s racing correspondent Gordon O’Blimey gives us the lowdown on the runners and riders:
Pete Levy – Lib Dem. Ex-Wiltshire Constabulary officer and military policeman. He has promised to do 10 impossible things on his first day, but that could be a drafting error. Blog odds – 16-1 (Too much baggage, and unlikely to jump well).
Ken Maddock – Conservative. Ex leader of Somerset County Council. He only has three priorities, but they cover just about everything. Blog odds 7/2 (A fast, slick runner, with plenty of experience, but haven’t we had enough of him?)
Sue Mountstevens – Independent. Businesswoman, magistrate and police authority member. Just four priorities and no party politics. Blog odds 12-1 (A useful filly who has performed well on smaller courses and could spring a surprise if the going improves).
John Savage – Labour. Very worthy. A doctor and CBE. Serious quango and public body man. Only four priorities, but one is the “development of a long term strategic vision….” He’s had enough time to do that before the election. Blog odds 25-1 (Unlikely to suit this course and going)
Vote at the village hall until 10 pm
Pilgrim Singers at Horsington Church
Wincanton’s Pilgrim Singers, led by Jane Fenton, are singing at at a Taizé Advent service at Horsington Church at 6pm on Sunday 25th November.
Taizé is an interdenominational Christian community based in France which has prayer and song at the heart of its worship.
Should be an uplifting evening. The Pilgrim singers are excellent.