Octopus's Garden 8

Octopus's Garden

Issue Eight - October 1995

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FROM OUR PARLIAMENTARY DEATH-WATCH CORRESPONDENT

The Government's majority in the House of Commons shrunk again over the summer, despite the lack of any more by-elections. Alan Howarth, MP for Stratford-upon-Avon, became the first Conservative MP to switch direct to Labour, and the first since Christopher Brocklebank-Fowler (Of course I'm not making these names up! I'd make them much more believable if I was!) joined the Social Democrats in 1981 to switch at all. I understand that the button badges stalls at the Conservative Party Conference the following week did a roaring trade in "Howarth Traitor" badges, which seemed rather inappropriate in the week that John Cairncross, the "Fifth Man", and probably the most senior placed Soviet spy in British Intelligence, died.

The majority is now down to a notional 5, although in practice Sir Richard Body (elected as a Conservative, but currently sulking) and, to a lesser extent, the Official Ulster Unionists(*) can be relied upon to help John Major in any critical votes. After all, the alternative would be an early General Election. They have no intention of being, in the words of Jim Callaghan in 1979, like turkeys voting for an early Christmas.

And just think of all the fun you Americans are missing out on by having an executive elected separately from (and hence not dependant for continuation in office on) the legislature...

(*) Not to be confused with the Democratic Ulster Unionists (lead by the Reverend Ian "Can ye hear me at the back, mother?" Paisley), the Independent Unionist sitting for South Down, or even the Progressive Unionists, with no seats in parliament, but strong links to the former Unionist paramilitaries.

Forelithe II 3019 (93?? ts??) Downfall XIII

"RICHARD M. JOHNSON"

DWARVES/GOOD (Mike Gonslaves) :: 2A(ELi)-Nur, A(DGu) stands, Dain & 2A(Bro)-Dag, A(Bre) S A(FEr), A(FEr) S A(Bre), A(NMi) stands, A(Fld) stands, A(EWa)-GMo.
ELVES/GOOD (Donald Scarr) :: A(Lor)-Aza, A(And) stands, A(CDm)-NDo, F(SOU)-Cit, 3A(Rhu)-Hol, A(Gun)-Fra, A(Shi) stands, A(Ise)-Dun, A(Fan)-Ise, _F(GUL)-Fld_.
GANDALF/GOOD (Iain Bowen):: NMR! Aragorn/Dead(Dru), Gandalf(. . . . . .) stand unordered.
GONDOR/GOOD (Chris Q. Hardy) :: F/A(SIt)-SGo, Fa(. . . . . .)-. . . . . ., 2A(Los)-MTi, R(. . . . . . )-. . . . . ., [[_2A(Osg) D ; A(Osg) S ROHAN A(CAn)-NIt ; A(Osg)-MMo M C(MMo) stand = A/C(MMo)_]] (no such unit), A(Osg) stands unordered, C(MMo) stands.
MORDOR/EVIL (Despair) :: 2A(NIt), _A(SGo)*_, Lord of the Nazgul/3A(Hrd), A(Kha), A(Hdw), 2A(Udu), _A(Nur)*_, Nazgul(. . . . . . ), Sauron(Oro) all stand unordered.
ROHAN/GOOD (Pete Gaughan) :: C(Dag)-Wil-RRu, _A(CAn)-NIt_, A(DMa) S A(CAn)-NIt , A(Emy) stands unordered, [[_A(Nin)-Wol_]] (no such unit), Theoden/A(Ent)-EEm.
SARUMAN/GOOD (Lance Anderson = Despair) :: NMR2! _A(Hol)*_, A(NiE), A(Min) stand unordered.
UMBAR/NEUTRAL (Despair) :: C(Nrd), 2F(ETH) stand unordered.

RETREATS :

MORDORIAN A(SGo) & A(Nur) disband, no retreat ordered.
SARUMAN A(Hol) disbands, no retreat ordered.

Forelithe III 3019 Adjustments

DWARVES : Iro, Ere, Blu, Fld, Esg, -RRu, FEr, SRh, DGu, Bre, +Nur: =10 no change
ELVES : EKH, Lor, Iml, GHa, Hdn, Crk, And, CDm, Eot, Gun, Shi, Dun, +Cit +Hol +Ise: =15 +A(GHa), A(EKH), A(Lor).
GANDALF : +Dru: =1 1 short, no home s.c.s
GONDOR : MTi, Pel, +1, DAm, SIt, Osg, Lam, +SGo +MMo: =9 +F(Pel), A(DAm), A(MTi).
MORDOR : Bar, Udu, -MMo, -Nur, +6, -SGo, Kha, Hrd.: =10 1 short, no build ordered
ROHAN : DHa, Eas, HDe, Wol, EEm, Ano, +RRu: =7 +A(HDe), A(Eas).
SARUMAN : -Ise, KDm, -Hol, -Dru.: =1 g.m. rem A(Min).
UMBAR : -Cit, Hav, -+1.: =1 g.m. rem A(Nrd), F(ETH).
NEUTRAL : Tha. =1: =1

GENEVA :

Note the change of address for Iain, as above -- his e-mail address remains unchanged. The deadline for Afterlithe I 3019 orders, retreats and adjustments is FRIDAY, 24th NOVEMBER, 1995, to Peter Sullivan. E-mail : peter@manorcon.demon.co.uk

PRESS :

There be none.

Finally, as part of my contribution to the Information Supercliche, this subzeen is now available on the World Wide Web at http://www.DocuSerV.com/DocuPages/manorcon/octopus/index.html. (As with Jim's ftp site, I think you'll find all those upper and lower case letters actually matter -- this is Unix, after all.) This is mainly a web site for information about Manorcon, but I had a bit of spare capacity, and wanted to test my ability to write documents in HTML (HyperText Mark-up Language, the "file format" of the Web), so you should find the last couple of issues of this subzeen there for browsing as well. Now all I have to do is actually put some interesting content in...