CoffeeHousers' Wall, 7 September - 13 September

Graeme

is anyone out there, ashamed, embarrassed or angry that the UK has such a dreadful government? Who is this fool Brown? His party let IRA terrorists into government and try to deny justice to IRA victims? he sells us continually down the river to all and sundry. I have never voted Tory, but I will in desperation to get rid of this dreadful NuLabour rabble. Thanks, just had to get that off my chest.

SaveBulletsHanGthemAll

On the bright side I see that Damian McBride and Dolly Draper were served with court papers by Nadine Dorries this morning. Maybe Kevin Maguire and Charlie Whelan should not open your front doors for a while.....

Have a nice day Kev

Athanasius

Now that we have a new editor of the magazine, how about some changes to the Coffee House?

I'd like to start by suggesting Hadrian runs the 'faith based' blog. Or anyone who knows something about theology perhaps.

Verity

A moron going by the name of Daily Mail Reporter, writes this: "Mr Griffin is expected to make the far-Right party's debut on the BBC1 current affairs programme next month."

Duh.

I'll repeat that: Duh.

Where do they find people to write for The Mail? Sink comprehensives? He/she is writing a whole article about a political party and doesn't know what end of the political spectrum it occupies?

And what happened to the sub? He/she is equally ignorant?

Elsewhere, in the same edition of The Mail, appears the headline: "'Race-hate' gang beats devout Muslim to brink of death in front of his granddaughter, three."

Since when was Islam a "race"? Illiterate Daily Mail Editor: What's the genetic make-up of a Muslim, please?

And how did your illiterate journo come to dub the BNP, which is a far left party, far right? How did the sub miss this gigantic error?

Two large errors of fact on one front page.

Paul Hughes

Yes, Graeme. I have never been a Labour supporter but the depths to which this government sinks, on a daily basis, is a true new low for British politics.
I was listening, the other day, to the mother of a Lockerbie victim. She was on R4, perhaps you heard it. Her final words, the whole piece having been very powerful, were that the affair signified a moral collapse.
I'm not given to tears but I felt so shamed that I was almost moved to shed some. It was chokingly shocking.
If only we could exact some real justice from the system. If only we could see Brown and his lying acolytes truly punished for their wickdness.
I don't dislike Gordon Brown for his political principles. He hasn't any. I despise him for his incessantly self serving tribalism, his mendacity, his inability to say anything which anyone could ever believe. He disgusts me. Aux armes, les citoyens!

Jeremy

AVENGING ANGELS

Dame Diana Rigg and Patrick Macnee from The Avengers.

--------------------------------

Thank Pete - you've given it a better title than the one I had for it.

I was going to write some blurb of my own to accompany this pic, but on second thoughts one could do far worse than simply read the article by Sinclair McKay in this week's Spectator. The article can also be seen in the current Magazine section of this site.

With the posting of this picture I would like to acknowledge the passing of Tim Guest - author of "My Life In Orange" - who died at the beginning of August, aged 34.

Steve L

Personally, I'm beyond ashamed or embarrassed. It's not even that I despise Brown though I do) - contempt isn't adequate. I simply can't believe that someone can be so deceitful, dishonest, scheming, nasty, nasty, destructive to to country he's meant to be serving.....

And how on earth can it continue? He must realise he'll go down in history as the worst Prime Minister by a country mile....

And this hanging on...

If he had any care for the state of the country, he'd realise the games up and allow a change now by calling a GE rather than let things just drift on.

Pah!

Trumpeter Lanfried

Graeme, I notice the phrase 'I have never voted Tory' cropping up very often nowadays, not least on Cif.

It's nothing to be proud of, you know. Had you, and thousands of others, voted Tory, we would not have been saddled with this disfunctional apology for a government.

Pete-s

An observation - week before last lieboar were going on about Camerons use of the phrase 'Broken Britain'. That stopped all of a sudden when we had those two court cases of the two wouldbe school bombers and the feral children attackers and their degenerate family. Makes me think of the footie chant 'It's all gone quiet over there'

Chris Mumby

Forecasts of climate change are about to go seriously out of kilter. One of the world's top climate modellers said Thursday we could be about to enter one or even two decades during which temperatures cool.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17742-worlds-climate-could-cool-first-warm-later.html

A bit of realism at last?

Verity

Honor Blackman, with a stronger sense of presence, was far more effective as Steed's partner than Diana Rigg, who is a smirking luvvie.

TrevorsDen

The Telegraph are running a poll purporting to show the Tories have problems in the 'north'.
The poll in fact is full of loaded questions - no doubt put to suit the Telegraphs narrative.

A UK Polling Report commentator points out
"In 2005 the shares of the vote in “The North” were CON 27%, LAB 46%, LDEM 22% - so CON 33%, LAB 35% represents a swing of 9 points. The GB figures in this poll are showing a national swing of 8 points - so actually these figures show the Conservatives doing better in the north than elsewhere."
So in fact the poll shows a massive swing to the Tories in the far North of England - just what it needs and the Telegraph writes it up as a problem for Cameron.

This is just a Heffer inspired smear. Just the Telegraph peddling its own agenda - or pointing to the Telegraph reporters being numpties

Either way a worthless poll from an increasingly worthless paper

Derek

On the day when three muslims were found guilty of planning mas murder on transatlantic flights from Heathrow, I was interested to notice online that some of the English Defence League protesters in Birmingham on Saturday protesting muslim extremism were holding up an Israeli flag. I know the slant that the left and the islamists are trying to put on that; but, although it's only a straw in the wind, could it mean that people are finally about to abandon their unthinking anti-Israel positions and to recognize that Israel and Great Britain face a common enemy?

Tiberius

TrevorsD: since Cameron became leader, the Tories have made gains in the North. As George Osborne pointed out after one set of local election successes, you can do better in General Elections once you have built a base in the locals. I would agree that the 'paper's interpretation is quite Hefferite.

Verity: you really do have a knack for getting under the skin. We've done the post-modern political science exercise on fascism being of the Left (not). Are you familiar with Schapiro's book "Totalitarianism"?

And as much as I like Honor Blackman, she is nowhere near as sexy as Diana Rigg. As for presence, I think Honor just shouts her lines louder. But they both gave great performances as Bond girls.

Derek

I think it was about a week ago that one of the Spectator's bloggers here put his toe into the scalding water that bubbles around the topic of immigration but only to touch on the aspect of North Koreans fleeing the Dear Leader. Now I am sure this is an aspect of global immigration that wrings the hearts of our political class with anguish as they settle back to watch the news in Notting Hill Gate and other such points on the moral compass. The water seems to be far too hot to handle closer to home where the Labour party have done so much damage.

I did however want to share a taste of how some Chinese view this kind of problem. I was talking to a schoolkid who attends a high school in Shanghai for which places are competitive, i.e. he was very intelligent. He had a geography lesson last week. They discussed time zones. The discussion moved from there to Xinjiang and the Uighurs, who have been restless of late - I'm sure you've read all about it.

This lad noted that his schoolfriends had hated the French last year; this year they hate the Australians. He personally hates the South Koreans. They would probably also hate the Japanese as much as some circles in the country want them to, but they rather admire their cartoons too much.

After his geography lesson many of his classmates were very angry and discussed the Uighur problem in heated tones. It was resolved that a peaceful end to the unrest could be brought about by killing all the Uighurs.

The British government, by causing the problem of a class of cultures in Britain and then neglecting to face up to it, is in danger of allowing that kind of childish approach to a serious issue in Great Britain.

Is this something they planned all along or are they just obtuse?

Vulture

Well said, Derek. From the suicide video of one of the would-be airline bombers: 'We have warned you many times to leave our lands.' Note :'our lands' - so much for these people's loyalty to Britain, the land of their birth.
When are we going to wake up and admit that letting millions of peasant economy villagers following an unreformed medieval religion, settle in this country was not really such a great idea. It's far too late now of course. In the words of a much-derided former Tory politician :'I look ahead and am filled with foreboding. Like the Roman I seem to see the River Tiber foaming with much blood'.

peter

What, seriously?

You mean if we ask you to consider a more nuanced view of the Middle East, you'll take a line more sympathetic to a bilateral two state solution?

No?

Thought not.

EC

The Avengers. In terms of M.Appeal Diana Rigg gets my vote as the best of the lot. Verity is disenfranchised on this one too! Unless of course ...

Suki

Today's verdicts on the Islamic terror airline bomb plot show how useless our 'security' services are.

Why has it taken them two trials to get these verdicts. Because they are useless.

The Americans had to wade in with the second trial and give them email intelligence that doesn't need wafting about in public. Of course, Channel 4 News is cock-a-hoop about that. (The priority for MI5 seems to be for 'intelligence sources' to chew the fat with its ghastly reporter Simon Israel.

Even these emails reveal how useless MI5 is. The terrorists tell each other in them they are being followed. See what I mean by 'security'?

What's the point?

The Americans were generous enough to help out with a really shoddy prosecution this time but really, they ought to think twice before lending our 'security' services - otherwise known as The Tariq Ramadan Fan Club - a crayon.

Ronnie

I think Verity should go on Question Time. Much scarier than the BNP.

Derek

Save the Bumble Bee

I was shocked to hear on the BBC World Service radio news this morning (following fast on some preposterous statement that building on the west bank of the Jordan River is a breach of international law) that the bumble bee had died out in Great Britain in the 1980s. Is there no end to our national decline?

egh

EC - re Verity's Avengers - "Unless of course..." That's just what I was thinking!

hysteria

Verity - gotta disagree on this one - Rigg was WAAaaayyy better that Blackman!

Jeremy

On the subject of The Avengers, I find that I do have a couple of things to say.

Firstly, I am of the generation that was a shade too young to have seen or remembered Honor Blackman as Cathy Gale. My earliest memories of the show are associated with Diana Rigg as Emma Peel. However, having done a tour of the fansites and come across some quite telling footage of Ms Blackman on YouTube, I can now see that it was indeed she who created and laid down the template for the "Avengers girl" which the others largely followed (undoubtedly adding bits and re-interpreting it suit their own particular strengths as they went). I think that needs to be stated. Ms Blackman had (or created) a visual style of her own which veered, on occasion, towards the gothic - perhaps even the funereal. This gave her character, and the partnership with Steed, an edge of visual menace. There is one episode - of which I have seen but a clip - in which she wears a small black ladies' top hat. Given the fact that she is already wearing black, and that the episodes in which Ms Blackman featured were in any case shot in black and white, the overall visual effect of the costume is menacing, strange and, as I said, funereal. One poster on another site even suggested to me that the episode called "The Undertakers" might even have been a punning reference on the part of the show's creators to precisely the visual impression created by the two main protagonists when they appeared together on screen.

That said, I have also found some copy that I posted beneath a previous drawing of Steed (not reproduced here) which might be of interest to you:

"It's amazing what you pick up about a character when you draw him. Drawing John Steed, for example, has given me a new respect for Patrick Macnee - the actor who played him in The Avengers TV series.

"Macnee - and I dare say the team around him - created something special with Steed. That is to say, they created a new fictional British hero; but one who also stands at the forefront of a tradition which stretches back through Bond to Hannay to Holmes and beyond. It really was a very singular thing to have done. And unlike the actors playing Bond or Hannay or Holmes, Macnee had no literary template to turn to. It is surely much harder for an actor to have to create and give form to the character he is playing than to simply play a character who has already been defined for him by a series of successful novels, short stories, or a play. To reiterate, what Macnee did with John Steed was to create not only a new character, but also a new British hero. That is really quite a singular and special thing for him to have done.

"Steed is, I think, a more important character - a more important addition to the pantheon of fictional British heroes - than perhaps he is often given credit for being."

Derek

The published text of Obama's speech to schoolchildren, to be given in person today, is being warmly welcomed on the two blogs posted so far on America's "Commentary" magazine. (http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/category/contentions).

May be our leaders could find something to say to inspire our students?

cuffleyburgers

I may be coming late to the party, but there seem to be increasing numbers of reports of Brown's anti-depressant medication - he might even be on the strongest drugs known (withdrawn for general use and apparently almost impossible to obtain). Given his long break, and increasingly bizarre behaviour this is an easy story to believe, and given the tribal nature of labour, it seems entirely credible that their reaction should be the same as the old politburo, and of course Mandelson is there to prop him up until the Irish have safely voted "yes" after which he can safely step down for health reasons...

Plus the opposition are doing nothing because they are salivating at the prospect of Labour being terminally wounded at the next election, despite the damage that can happen as a result.

Truly the British people are being collectively and metaphorically b@@gered by a train.

Any other info regarding this story/rumour?

You might like to look at the not born yesterday blog.

Andy Carpark

From the Times obituary of Canon David Isitt

When he joined the staff of Bristol Cathedral in 1977 his first sermon concerned the lack of a word for joy in the Eskimo language and the challenge this posed the Bible Society in translating the biblical words “there is more joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth”.

However, Isitt informed his listeners: “Eskimos do have an expression for that moment when the dogs come home for the day and are released from their sledges with much tail wagging.” So in the Eskimo New Testament the phrase became “there is more tail wagging in heaven”. “If our Christian living of the Gospel isn’t setting tails wagging,” he said, “why then it’s hardly begun.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article6825095.ece

Hysteria

Derek - there was never a problem from the conservatives with BO speaking to the kids (Reagan and Bush 2 did it).

The issue was with the liberals in the Dept of Education who felt it ok to politicise it with a lesson plan. The offending sentences have been withdrawn, and the MSM say "that's ok then - sense has prevailed"

But the point is the civil servants felt it was right and proper to insert the politics "What I can do to serve the president" language.

Like the back story with Van Jones the MSM don't give us all the story - jut the bits to keep the plebs quiet.

Bit like all the uproar about the guy going to a Town Hall with an assault rifle - carefully edited by the media to let you think it was white guy - when in fact it was a pretty pissed off black guy!

We have a go at the BBC for bias in the UK and the US has similar problems.

We are being led over a cliff....

Jihadism, deficit, power crunch.......

Nicholas

"But the point is the civil servants felt it was right and proper to insert the politics "What I can do to serve the president" language."

Creepy. How may I serve the Fuhrer? The cult of personality which lies behind the tarnished Brown brand. Father and Saviour of the Nation, Friend of The Schoolchildren, etc. Denounce those who "talk down" the words and deeds of the Great Leader. North Korea maybe but not England. Get lost Brown and take your wannabe commies with you.

Louise

And on BBC2's Taqiyyanight last night, Gavin Esler told us all (again) that the would-be liquid airline bombers were 'disaffected'.

The budget on that show still doesn't extend to buying a copy of The Koran.

Oh, and a Muslim man was on saying because there was a re-trial, it will make the Muslim community think there was a stitch-up.

Because nobody else has ever been re-tried in this country and certainly no terrorist - oh, hang on, that's not right, is it?

Silly me. I keep forgetting about the special privileges of our Muslim community. Why should Muslims be treated the same as other people in the eye of the law?

louise

And on BBC2's Taqiyyanight last night, Gavin Esler told us all (again) that the would-be liquid airline bombers were 'disaffected'.

The budget on that show still doesn't extend to buying a copy of The Koran.

Oh, and a Muslim man was on saying because there was a re-trial, it might make the Muslim community think there was a stitch-up.

Because nobody else has ever been re-tried in this country and certainly no terrorist - oh, hang on, that's not right, is it?

Silly me. I keep forgetting about the special privileges of our Muslim community. Why should Muslims be treated the same as other people in the eye of the law?

M.R.

I don't know what credence can be given to the the following website, regarding GB's health, but it certainly makes some eye watering observations.
See:- 'Not born yesterday and John Ward'.

Verity

Louise - Taqqyia. Correct. Taqqya and kitman are alien to our society and belief system, which is why people fall for them so easily.

There are too many followers of a primitive, alien, unreformed religion in this country and there needs to be a huge sluicing out to protect our way of life and mores. If we value our own society, this has to come.

Verity

Louise, I am still trying to figure out the socialist motive for favouring the Islamics, who, let's face it, in addition to blowing up buildings, trains, stations, hotels, embassies and airliners in the cause of their diety, have some deeply repellent habits on a smaller, everyday life, scale, too.

I think the left thought they would use the Muslims as a weapon against the British to teach us a lesson of some sort. Out of spite and viciousness. You only have to look at Jack Straw's face or, worse, Tony Blair's sickening face ...

In no other Western country are the Islamics favoured over the native citizenry.

It must soon become apparent that these people now have a tiger by the tail. If it weren't my own people being sacrificed on the altar of the vengeful Left, I would be quite amused.

cuffleyburgers

Verity

A case of your enemy's enemy is my friend

Archie

Gasp! Me.........disagreeing with Verity? 'Fraid so with regard to Diana Rigg, if only for the 'A Touch of Brimstone' episode. Grunt, grunt! (I also liked the later episodes with Linda Thorson, which puts me completely beyond the pale for most people!)

mac

"Win dinner in the Speccie boardroom with Fraser and da CH boys" (banner advert).

Accompanied by lashings of CH's legendary competition champers, perhaps?

David

who are notbornyesterday and can they be taken seriously? They have an article claiming Brown is really ill.

Verity

Could be, Cuffleyburgers, but if they think they're going to get any favours in return, they need to read much more about Islam - especially this particular strand.

Verity

Gosh, Archie, I don't remember any individual episodes! I just always thought Honor Blackman had been a better foil for Steed. They had chemistry. Diana Rigg was too vapid and self-regarding. Too luvvie-ish.

Verity

Please, please, please, please, can someone please organise the dynamiting, with extreme prejudice, of the UN? By this time tomorrow if that is at all possible? Could we at least make a start by this time tomorrow and then finish the job overnight?

http://tinyurl.com/m77krk

The UN has announced that it wants the greenback and other national currencies abolished and replaced with one "global currency".

This is an agenda-laden communist One Worlder organisation and it must be destroyed completely. Blown to smithereens.

Question: Who tango foxtrot elected any of this garbage to anything - ever? This organisation needs to be atomised.

We should get the IMF at the same time. In for a penny, in for a pound, so to speak.

Alexandrovich

"That woman who used to be in the avengers died the other day."

"What, Honor Blackman?"

"No, under a bus apparently."

Archie

Verity: a foil yes, but extremely up herself, as the Australians say, so please forgive the expression! Diana Rigg had a more complementary role IMNSHO. The Avengers episode I referred to is banned to this day on some American networks. Spot-on regarding the ghastly UN, and Alexaandrovich: what a terrible joke. But funny!

Suki

The disgrace of the United Nations doesn't stop at an international currency either. After his schools speech, in which children were coached to say how much he inspired them, The One heads off to the UN to pose as King of the Universe:

'The problem is that this feel-good experience will feel best of all to Iran, which has interpreted Obama’s penchant for form over substance to be a critical weakness. As a Tehran newspaper close to the regime snickered in July: “Their strategy consists of begging us to talk with them.”'

http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MWNkMWViY2YyZjU5OTY5ZDcyNDQ1MzIwY2NkNWUyOTU=

Anne Bayefsky really is one of the most on-the-ball commentators to have emerged recently and exposing what the UN is really up to is quite her forte.

Do click on her writing if you see it. She seems to write for quite a few sites and she's a real tonic to those just taking dictation from O'Teleprompter.

Verity

Suki, thanks for the pointer. I see that she is a Senior Fellow of The Hudson Institute, which is impressive indeed.

The piece in The National Review was very canny and well worth the read.

Derek

Here in the Wild East, I have not seen an issue of the Spectator since that of 1st August, as the magazine's Subscription Department has not yet recovered from the confusion into which it was thrown upon receiving an email from me asking how I could extend my subscription online with a Visa card when it expired on 3rd September.

Consequently, since I don't like to read the articles online, I have not seen any sign of the return of Paul Johnson or, alternatively, of any courtesy notice by the magazine explaining his disappearance. Now, I know that the Spectator is published by bankers, but nonetheless we, that is subscribers, do expect the magazine itself to be run on a day to day basis by gentlemen. Frank P, robustly claiming that the eminent writer was "shit-canned", has offered the only explanation so far, which has not been denied by the blog, but he has not responded to my request for evidence of this, so I am still completely in the dark.

Meanwhile, I notice that Mark Steyn is alive and publishing in the Washington Times where on 7 September he took the opportunity to remind his readers that in the United States the president is not the people's ruler but their representative (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/07/obama-goes-to-school/).

What a shame that Mr. Steyn is no longer available in the pages of the Spectator to remind Her Majesty's prime minister of his position in our constitution.

Pete Hoskin

Derek: the Paul Johnson situation was no secret, and he hasn't written for the magazine for approaching 6 months now.

Here's Stephen Glover's take from the time:

http://is.gd/34rIJ

Derek

@ Pete
Thanks very much for the explanatory link. I don't remember seeing anything in the Spectator at that time, but perhaps I missed an issue, and back then I was not in the habit of scanning the Independent online.

Derek

Here is a quotation for collectors of Mandelsonianisms from an exclusive interview with the man, published in today's China Daily:

"I am very relaxed about China being invited to the UK for what you call an arms fair. I would call it an equipment fair".

(http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2009-09/09/content_8669489.htm)

Verity

The China Daily must be hard up for features if they've interviewed a British nonentity like Mandelson. I wonder how many people read the article ... And the thought of Mandelson being "relaxed" about anything gives me a funny lurching sensation in my stomach.

Frank P

Derek

"Frank P, robustly claiming that the eminent writer was "shit-canned", has offered the only explanation so far, which has not been denied by the blog, but he has not responded to my request for evidence of this, so I am still completely in the dark."

I did in fact attempt twice to answer your query, but on each occasion my response was 'shit-canned'. They have a large 'shit-can' at Old Queen Street, which contains a great number of my recent essays (in the 'attempts'sense) along with Paul Johnson's column. I assume it also contains its previous Editor.

I mistakenly, in my responses to you, attributed the 'reduced frequency' of Paul's column rumour to Pete; but now that he has reposted Stephen Glover's link, I now recall that is where I learned of it, when Pete previously linked it. I assume it is true, as I'm sure Pete would not promulgate a calumny. As I said on the previous wall, Paul was constructively dismissed if D'Ancona's action was accurately reported. My small gesture of disgust was to cancel my subscription. I'd like to think that the £150 or so quid a year played a small part in the departure of the erstwhile ed. as I'm sure many made a similar gesture, but I doubt that's how the ex-Hammersmiff, now, Channel Island boyos work. Such trivia is no doubt devolved to the Tartan Mafia aka Scotia Nostra.

Frank P

Verity

"a funny lurching sensation in my stomach".

Whoa, babe! Not mornin' sickness, is it?

Verity

No, Frank P. Just revulsion.

Nicholas

Been reading the wartime journals of Charles A Lindbergh in between my hopeless applications for the iron rice bowl of a job as a diversity or outreach co-ordinator for which I am supremely unqualified (I'm not a lefty, I don't have a beard to hide behind and I'm a man who hasn't voluntarily cut his balls off to please ghastly, screeching, menopausal wimmin like Harriet Harmthenation).

In 1938 Mr Lindbergh had these interesting observations about the English:-

"One thing I like about the English is that they treat people as though they are honest. I don't think they lose anything by that policy in the long run. The officials of so many countries make you feel as though they constantly suspect you of trying to do something you should not."

Not anymore we don't, Mr Lindbergh. We have embraced the petty nose-poking officialdom so beloved of our European neighbours and now treat everyone by default as a criminal. In fact one of the main aspirations of our present socialist-communist government is to turn our once beautiful island into the biggest open prison (and windfarm) in the world. The EUSSR want to do the same thing with the whole of Europe.

"Personally, I believe the assets in English character lie in confidence rather than ability, tenacity rather than strength; and determination rather than intelligence. However, any conclusion one reaches in regard to the English is constantly shaken by the exceptions which arise. It is necessary to realise that England is a country composed of a great mass of slow, somewhat stupid and indifferent people, and a small group of geniuses. It is the latter to who the empire and its reputation are due. They lead and conquer while the mass holds in a deliberate, semiappreciative manner what their leaders have gained."

In 1997 a minority of that great mass of slow, somewhat stupid and indifferent people voted in another minority of slow, stupid, indifferent but wholly malevolent people to lord it over us, steal our money, waste it and bully us relentlessly. They did the same thing in 2001 and in 2005. Hopefully in the next election some of the confidence, tenacity and determination to rid ourselves of tyrants will come into play and the Brownshirts and their monstrous regiment of helmet-headed wimmin will get booted out for good.

Frank P

Verity

Ahhh, I see. Mourning sickness. Grieving over the death of the culture, heritage and spirit of a nation usurped by Marxist traitors. Me too!

However, may I suggest that you spend ten minutes over on Melanie's blog to read her latest post. At last someone with balls (albeit a lady) has emerged from among the Speccie blogsquad to report on America suffering the same fate. Not that you'd guess if you read the MSM either States-side or here. Thank God for Melanie Phillips. Where have all the young (brave) men gone?

Pete Hoskin

Verity: the offending comment has been removed. Thanks for flagging it up. It shouldn't have got through the net.

Derek

Frank P

I am sorry to hear that you were spiked. Let's hope the magazine finds an equally distinguished replacement for Paul Johnson's chair - not easy, people who live in mock gothic castles shouldn't stow thrones. As I surfed online to try to find out what magazine Paul Johnson might now be writing for, I noticed that his sons are involved in a publication called Standpoint Magazine which has an an attractive editorial policy (albeit called a Mission Statement - a bit 1990s that), a state of the art subscription page - click on country for delivery, etc. (hoorah!!) and a very interesting subscription price...

Derek

Look, I don't want to bore everyone with my subscription saga, but I did decide to go ahead and try out Standpoint's online subscription procedure. It was very efficient - zap, zap, zap - and blow me if the order confirmation didn't show that it was handled from - Sittingbourne, Kent - yes, the same address as the unit that Spectator subscriptions are outsourced to. The difference though appears to be in the Spectator website which is not set up for online credit card subscriptions from abroad - or from home either for that matter. Of course, it may be a different story when I try to extend the Standpoint subscription and may be the magazines won't show up like the last month's Spectators - let's wait and see, so far so good.

johnfaganwilliams

Although I suspect most coffee housers aren't supercar fans or buyers - just a hunch - it was important to note that hidden in the news about the launch of the new McLaren was Ron Dennis's comment that he was hope to help re-introduce hugh technology manufacturing into the UK. When you think of the technology powerhouse the UK was even in the immediate post war years this seems to me to be far more important than the release of a 200mph car. Some of the technologies in the car are extraordinary and, combined with the work of (co-incidentally) ex-McLaren design guru Gordon Murray and his new city car design and build concept actually do make some of us believe that given a responsible government attitude to industry and research the YK could again be a great nation at building things rather than just arranging for ways to allow consumers to buy them. Add to that the "fact" that the Triumph motorcycle factory in Hinckley is the most modern in the world and who knows maybe the next time there's a car scrappage scheme some of the benefits might actually accrue to genuine Brit manufacturers - pace Germany.

Andy Carpark

Very disappointing that Sir Terry Wogan is retiring from Radio 2. The natural choice to replace him would have been Derek Jameson. Instead we have this upstart, Mr Chris Evans, of whom I have never heard.

johnfaganwilliams

sorry about literals in 8.11 post. Comment box bleeds off the page on my machine for some reason and I'm a poor typist.....

Nicholas

I really am enjoying reading Lindbergh's wartime journals and his visit to the Soviet Union in 1938 is interesting because everything he describes is so redolent of New Labour and what New Labour aspire to here. It really amazes me that the socialist-communists are not more discredited for their "system" and still have such a following. Who does this remind you of:-

"We have it all explained to us by one of the most objectionable women I have ever seen. She represented Soviet propaganda at its worst. Not an original thought in her head. Was born to be a temperamental and mediocre cook, and would have been much happier as such."

The soviet "system" must breed irritating non-entities like Jacqui Smith. And 20 years after its collapse in Eastern Europe the idiots are still trying to impose it on us. They really do need to be obliterated for all time.

Verity

Very well-observed post, Nicholas!

Best wishes in the employment hunt are on the wing.

Frank P - To which particular post of Melanie's do you refer, please?

Many thanks, by the way.

Tiberius

Chris Evans - an appointment which is another example of BBC idiocy to rival the Ross/Brand misjudgement.

This is the guy who got Virgin Radio fined for breaking protocol with his verbal incontinence by telling listeners to vote for Tony Blair prior to the 1997 GE. Nice call, Chris - the country is now on its knees thanks to NuLabour.

He patronized Gabby Roslyn on stage at an awards event by giving her the trophy he had won because "she has to put up with something I don't - me".

Give us all a break, Chris, by quitting before you start because actually none of us want to have to put up with you.

Nicholas

Thank you very much for your best wishes Verity. I will need all the help I can get being over 50, white, male, heterosexual, English and right wing.

Agree with Tiberius about Evans. One of the BBC's many New Labour propaganda megaphones hiding behind a trendy facade.

Frank P

Verity

The round-up of Trevor Loudon's/Glen Beck's expose of Van Jones and the Marxist roots of Obama/Michele and their backers (much of which we aired on her blog during the Presidential campaign - largely ignored by the MSM on both sides of The Pond and unfortunately ignored too by a majority of US voters, sadly):

http://www.spectator.co.uk/melaniephillips/5318326/the-second-tier-of-influence-goes-under-the-bus-at-midnight.thtml

Beck only goes back to Frank Davies/Alinski et al. But eventually he will get back to the Frankfort boys and to our dear friend Antonio G, who we've been banging on about for the past 7 years on the blogosphere's various platforms we frequent (some might say infest;-)).

Personally, I've been banging on about comintern agitprop and treachery since 1952 during my army service - and thereafter in other guises, much earlier in the Long March, which has now reached and occupied the White House (it occupied 10 Downing Street 1n 1997 after a couple of previously failed attempts).

Melanie's synthesis is better than any you'll find in the current media. No doubt she will pay for it with the derision and scorn, which will be heaped on her head; but nobody can deny the data. It's rock solid. The silence of the lambs of the MSM is deafening. All they bleat is O-baaaaa-maa ...Obaaaaa-maa in adoration of their Good Shepherd; The One!

Ye Gods!

Breaking News: I see that she has now followed up with another post, which I must shoot back and read. Bravissimo our Mel!

Jeremy

Whilst we are on the subject of repealing bad Labour legislation, can we also include the Extradition Act 2003?

You will recall that it was passed through the House of Commons accompanied by repeated assurances that there would be full reciprocity from the Americans. This has not materialized.

A piece of legislation which enables the agents of the American government to forcibly remove British citizens from this country without having first presented any prima facie evidence against them is clearly iniquitous and open to the most flagrant of abuses.

In my view it should be repealed as a matter of some urgency by an incoming Conservative government.

Steve.W

This is all about how Biometrics destabilised Somaliland and I got it from Private Eye so it might be true!

A letter from Hargeisa (the capital) printed in the Somaliland Globe:
Somaliland is the only place in the Horn of Africa that is democratic, stable and tolerant ... our record of closely contested polls compares pretty well with our neighbours. Our friends faraway nevertheless thought that what we really needed was a state of the art biometric finger printing and facial recognition system to compile a voter's roll ...
Alas, this model of donor co-operation has somewhat underperformed. Presidential elections have been postponed four times now and are 18 months late, and now we have the prospect of civil war as our politicians cannot agree on a way forward.
Procedures were not carefully planned and implemented and as a result the data of hundreds of thousands of people i.e. finger prints, photos and other personal details were either missing or accidentally or deliberately deleted; the server that was meant to process the images and fingerprints to detect double votes still lacks properly trained and knowledgeable people to operate it.....

- The European Union gave millions of Euros in aid to the National Electoral Commission (NEC) in order to carry out voter registration campaign throughout Somaliland -

Surely it couldn't happen here in the UK?

Vulture

@Nicholas:
You've told us abt how perceptive Lindbergh was on the iniquities of the Soviet Union under Stalin. A pity he wasn't similarly far-sighted about that other dictatorship he visited and admired rather more than Russia: Nazi Germany. So much so that he became the leading advocate of 'America First' and keeping the US out of WW2. Lindbergh was a brave man - but like many of his ilk he was a political simpleton.

David Ossitt

Nicholas
"being over 50, white, male, heterosexual, English and right wing"

Heterosexual; according to a spokesman for one of the homosexual pressure groups who was speaking on radio four the other day, homosexuals make up more than ten percent of the population.

On hearing this; my wife remarked ‘not round, here their not’ this led to a discussion on the subject.

After which; we decided that the spokesman was either wrong (we would have thought one in a hundred) or else he was mistaken in the wishful thinking that the country reflected the numbers prevalent in his own neck of the woods.

.

Nicholas

Verity, actually the book gives a rather different impression than that. His admiration was coloured by genuine concern about their re-armament and the threat they posed, in the context of his seeing and not being impressed by Britain and France's response. The book reveals a greater complexity of thought process and I would disagree that he was a political simpleton. I think the characterisations of him owe much to hindsight - the book should be read in the context of the political situation prevailing at the time. Of course it has its share of transient over-simplifications. misperceptions, prejudice and indeed rants. But one would expect that in a daily journal. His focus was naturally on airpower and its potential - his admiration for Nazi Germany's build up of airpower was genuine and empirical from a technical perspective but he knew exactly what it represented. There is nevertheless a vanity and cocoon of self-obsession often seen with wealthy Americans, which can be irritating.

His overarching view seems to be a desire that England (by which he means Britain) and Germany "work it out" to avoid war which he thinks will be disastrous for Europe - as indeed it was. Something aired here not so long back and judging by our history since 1945 not without merit.

My interest in his observations are not to be confused with any particular admiration of the man, but he had the socialist-communists down pat and made me realise that Brown's politics and ideology are rooted in the Soviet world of the 1930's. That is a damning indictment of Brown & gang and I'm surprised, always, by the fact that British socialist-communists (I draw no great distinction - how long is a piece of string?) are not more discredited by the proven history of their, literally, terrible ideology. Eastern Europe abandoned the false creed because it lived through and suffered decades of its iniquities. Here in Britain we seemed to have tolerated a rose-tinted, romantic delusion by its adherents and allowed them to start us on the same journey. Many writers and commentators seem to believe now that totalitarianism in the West is inevitable and maybe that indeed is our historical destiny. Each age of the world seems to face the rise of a great evil and the most worrying aspect here is the apparent alliance between the socialist-communists and radical Islam. Not surprising, they share a puritan desire to control everyone and an ideological fanaticism that shouts down or seeks to gag the legacy of the Age of reason. However it won't be defeated by treating Brown & gang in a polite, parliamentary way. They fight dirty and will use every subterfuge, deceit, lie and conniving manipulation they can to preserve their power. Those journalists and politicians who view New Labour as just another political party "with some good ideas" are sadly deluding themselves. They represent something every bit as evil and threatening as Stalin's Soviet Union. We need to fight them and destroy them - whatever it takes.

Derek

I give up trying to start a discussion of the New York Times reporter whose rescue resulted in a British soldier's death, as posts on that topic don't seem to "take".

I will make a couple of comments on Verity's response at September 9th, 2009 2:41pm to my noting Mandelson's comment in the China Daily the other day.

The importance of the China Daily is neither in the number of its readers or in whether it is hard up for features. It is of course a government, nay Chinese Communist Party, organ. What it published is therefore an indication of what the party ants to be said.

The quotation from Mandelson had him comfortably willing to refer to an arms fair in England as an equipment fair.

The Chinese have not been able to buy arms legally from Europe since June 1989 and are getting a bit ratty about it. It is of course a matter for debate as to whether they now should be able to.

The communists, however, want to show that western opinion is coming around to the view that the ban should be lifted.

What is interesting is the quotation as a classic example of Mandelson actually applying spin to a comment. Usually the spin is applied independent of the comment spun. Here, Mandelso, intent on buttering up the Chinese, quotes the language they have been using - "arms fair" and then offers them a gift, his spun term which they are now free to try on for size themselves, "an equipment fair".

What a diplomat - a Talleyrand for our times - albeit as defined by Napoleon.

On Alan Turing, the English patriot and computer genius - on another thread, now buried in the archive, some of us commented on the proposal that the government apologize to him, dead these fifty or more years, for castrating him. I think it was the sense of the House (CH), despite some demur, that there was no longer anyone to apologize, and no longer anyone to apologize to, for the brutal punishment meted out to the late Mr. Turing.

Mr. Gordon Brown has however now said he is sorry.

Will the government now please apologize to the nation for Mr. Brown?

Verity

Nicholas, who were you referring to above? I scrolled back but didn't see a name. Just "him" and "he". Please let me know and I will reread it.

David Ossitt, I've read many times that homosexuality is a pretty steady 4% all over the world. It has nothing to do with race, the society they live in or the circumstances in which they were raised. It's something that happens in the womb, when, perhaps (I've read), the mother was under particular stress at the critical period of her pregnancy when the development of the left lobe of the brain (or perhaps it's the right lobe) that develops male thought patterns was inhibited by the mother producing a large amount of female hormones.

Derek, referring to the egregious Mandelson and the China Post, you write: "The quotation from Mandelson had him comfortably willing to refer to an arms fair in England as an equipment fair."

Well, no. "Lord" Long And Pretentious Title of Ego, listen up, boy: In Asia, you never, never, never, never, never "correct" your hosts. Even in private. Never mind a newspaper. He can refer to the fair in any terms he likes in private with his own kind, but you do not "correct" the Chinese in public. If they referred to it by its official title of 'arms fair', that's what stands. Major breach of protocol and typical of this appalling creature's ignorance and crudity. Even his debauched face gives me the creeps.

Verity

I get the same uneasy feeling from Peter Mandelson's face as I do from Tony Blair's face. They are both extremely creepy looking people.

Nicholas

Verity, sorry I mean Lindbergh himself whose journal I am reading.

Suki

A propos the New York Times journalist, what has sickened me in the last few days is the way the media, knowing what that journalist did is indefensible, have connived to say the special forces should never have gone in because a deal may have been brokered.

A tack that neatly takes the spotlight off the mainstream media.

Jihad is no like ordinary wars. Reporters know this yet constantly report as if this was not the case. Reporters are not left alone by jihadists as they might be in most other wars.

Get out of the way and stay at home. You have no business whatsoever getting in the way of our armed forces and how dare you connive to take the blame off yourself by talking about some deal that may or may not have been done. The reporter should not have been out there. Period.

Get out. And don't think the public can't see through you.

Verity

Thanks for that lucid and excellent post, Nicholas. You made several striking points, but this one leapt off the page: "Many writers and commentators seem to believe now that totalitarianism in the West is inevitable and maybe that indeed is our historical destiny."

I believe that is why we have the unenlightening and nauseating sight of the Leader of the Conservative Party bending the knee, in hope of preferment, to the EUSSR. He cannot imagine any other way. (I don't think he's much of a reader.)

Aidan

Has anyone looked into the role played by John Hemming, the Lib Dem MP, in the Phoenix/MG Rover debacle. He was very happy back in 2000 to take credit for rescuing Rover - see the Guardian article on this link http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2000/may/02/rover.uknews. Was this just bad judgement on his part?

Frank P

The Daily Telegraph has bought into Obama's bullshit big-time, it would seem.

Garland's Cartoon on 10th September 2009 depicts the White House in the background, with Obama looking from an upper window. Beneath him are are a display of banners (supposedly being held up by demonstrators, bearing slogans, such as: "Obama Granny Killer"; "Commie Out", "Keep the Nazi out of The White House" "KillPresident Hussein"; "No Death Panels"; "!no Government Health Care"; Socialism Kills"; etc.

Obama himself, from his upper window, is holding a banner, bering one word - "Nuts!"

The caption is as follows:

(The World War II Paratroop Officer's reply when told he must surrender immediately or face annihilation.)

Attributing this Marxist shyster with the gallantry and insouciance of a WWII paratroop officer is a deep insult to every member of the Allied armed services of WWII. He and his wife are pimping communism to the American public and the West in general and he deserves any epithets that outraged citizens who value our freedoms can muster, either verbally, written or displayed on posters.

He's a conniving trickster and douche-bag. There is no bill, there is no courage, just the baleful objective of State control and the furtherance of Commintern. Shame on the Editor of The Daily Telegraph. Another publication I shall never buy again.

The "Nuts" is however appropriate in one sense, but the card should be hung around his neck as a warning, not held up as a response.

mac

Nicholas,

Admirable posts.

As Frank P has said, the influence of Antonio G, Adorno and their ilk is strong; I found out how pervasive when completing a (third age) MA a couple of years ago. Signor Gramsci is undoubtedly the darling of comradely contemporary Academe. And Critical Theory was the numero uno prism through which every issue had to be considered. (Oh, and I quickly learned that without invoking Derrida or Chomsky any opinion offered was sniffily treated as hated 'realism'.)

Discredited or not in practical government, Lefty idealism remains very deep-seated. The comrades never give up . . .

Frank P

Btw: apparently it is not possible to link to the cartoon archives of the D Tel. - hence my somewhat inadequate description rather than a link reference.

Frank P

Verity

You will enjoy this:

http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=36267

I remember you dubbing Obama "The Manchurian Candidate" way back, when he first put his had above the parapet.

johnfaganwilliams

assume as there is no response to my attempted thread re English manufacturing progress that coffee housers are more interested in who presents a breakfast programme on the BBC. Confirms all I think about UK 2009 really. Byeee!

Jeremy

A question for the mathematically and economically literate:

If a paperback book had a cover price of three shillings and sixpence in 1964, what would be its equivalent value today?

Rhoda Klapp

Jeremy, I believe in the Mars bar conversion system. A Mars was 4d in 1964, and you'd be lucky to get one for 40p now, that's eight bob, 24 times the 1964 price. Twenty four times 3/6d is £4.20p, and you'd be lucky to get a paperback for that.

Frank P

Jeremy

Why not just pop up to Waterstones and find out, you lazy sod.

Better still, Google Amazon, as you seem to be unable to drag yourself away from your lap ...top.

There are some strange folk in this pub, landlord. I think I'll have a word with the licensing justices (those were the days).

Nicholas

You also have to consider the 2.4 factor. The old pound had 240 pence in it and the new one only 100. Therefore price rises, which came a plenty, were 2.4 times higher in real times. They should have based the new decimal currency on the ten shilling note.

Frank P

Nicholas

"It won't affect the pound in your pocket ... (puff puff)"

Btw: is it true that he didn't smoke a pipe really, it was just a prop for his more avuncular speeches? Come to think of it, I suppose a pipe was always a prop for poseurs (even more so when it became the fashion to stuff it with happygrass). God preserve us from beards, pipe smokers and short-arsed men. All the problems of humanity can be traced back to one or the others or a combination of all three. What's that, you're only five-foot-three? Nah, I don't believe it!

Frank P

Rhoda Klapp

"A Mars was 4d in 1964,"

I always knew Mick Jagger was a cheapskate. No wonder Marianne Faithfull dumped him - along with the wrapper, I guess.

Nicholas

Frank P: Six foot four and a half, clean-shaven and plagued by resentful, short-arse beardies my whole life, especially pompous little interim managers who think that big, hairy-arsed, ex-AF's don't know how to appreciate good wine (as others might think I don't know how to appreciate good art ;-).

egh

Well I have paperbacks from the era that say 2/6, 3/6, and 5/-.
I just bought a re-issue of a 3/6 one: $15.00

So.. (say it was approx. $2.40 to £1 ... 1d=1c) = 1500d = 8/4 x 15 = 125/- = £6.5.0d.

[Oh, all right - it's ignoring all sorts of factors]

But what else would that amount have bought at the time?

Nicholas

Made me smile to read that the woman superintendant responsible for the police intervention in the Harrow mosque "riots" described the behaviour of the "rioters" as "unacceptable". As well as being a priceless understatement it revealed only too clearly her grooming in the school of New Labour Speak - or perhaps Common Purpose Speak. Criminal behaviour used to be couched in self-explanatory terms where it had inflicted actual injury to others - (e.g. affray, breach of the Queen's Peace, assault, etc.) now anything deemed "unacceptable" is interpreted as criminal behaviour by New Labour and their patsy police, which severely restricts our opportunities to knock policeman's helmets off or throw rotten eggs at the other corrupt and useless representatives of the Brown State formerly known as Members of Parliament (and once representatives of the people).

Frank P

Nicholas

Heh, heh, heh! I guessed so. Good luck with your endeavours; set up your own blog and sell the ad space - you'd make a fortune. Btw, if you're Furriskey under a new non-de-plume, you can me a glass of red next time we cross paths.

Frank P

Nicholas

My last comment was in response to your 11.33am shot. But your 12.46pm effort is a cracker, too.

I think we should start a compilation of idiot statements made on TV (or radio, or to the press) by the current incumbents of, what these days I am reluctant to admit to strangers, was my erstwhile 'office'. I see and read them every day.

I preferred the good old days when they had articulate press bureau guys to make reasonable intelligent and succinct comments on the nine-o'clock news about cases or events of wider public interest. In those days it was considered that policemen should keep their mouths shut - even though some might suspect that it was an indication of stupidity; rather than opening them and proving it beyond reasonable doubt.

But these days, when they are merely mouthpieces for a corrupt Marxist administration they are just cyphers for the party line, as you so pungently posit.
"Unacceptable" indeed! But that's the way it's going to be, unless, or until, some sanguine group gets a grip of this country. Is the material out there to do it? Dunno any more! Wish my bag of rotting flesh 'n' bones was 20 years less into the process of decay; I'd find a bunch of likely lads and do it myself! Now, I'll just have to join in the background noise until the ticker stops - and hope someone will pick up he baton I handed over years ago: (now apparently left lying in a dusty cupboard at he Yard, with a label on it marked,

"Defunct methodology - DO NOT TOUCH, not even with the sanitised bargepole in the other cupboard".)

Shame on you my heirs and successors: what happened to our dreams and hard work?

Verity

Fat bully John Prescott's decking a member of the public was, I understand, unacceptable. Not criminal assault.

Yes, Nicholas, all this is Common Purpose-speak. I hope someone is working on an exposé of this loathesome outfit.

Blair was the Trojan horse. How could people not have sensed the evil that surrounds him?

Verity

The moderation of comments has slowed from a trickle to an occasional droplet. It's not worth hanging around the site.

I think they are short-handed. Where is David Blackburn, by the way?

Pete Hoskin

Verity: David has been on holiday for the past week, so I've been covering comments. He's back now and took over moderation this morning.

Frank P

Verity

Blair was just the head of the Trojan Horse - the arse-end was a mare. Deadlier than the male, indeed.

David Ossitt

Verity.

"that develops male thought patterns was inhibited by the mother producing a large amount of female hormones"

An interesting theory; one that I have never heard before, but if it is correct, I wonder what process in the womb produces a female with lesbian inclinations.

Or was Queen Victoria correct; in her assertion that a woman could not possibly be a homosexual?

Verity

David, the book was called "Brain Sex". I can't remember whether it tackled the Lesbian issue as I read it because I've always had gay friends - as have most women. I'm not a medical person, but it seems credible that if a male foetus's little system was flooded with an excess of female hormones just when that lobe of its brain that distinguishes male from female behaviour was developing, it would affect it.

Pete, David Blackburn's only been on the editorial team for around three months and already he's getting vacations? What a bunch of lotus-eaters!

Jeremy

Much as I liked the charm and simplicity of Rhoda's "Mars bar conversion system", which included the priceless phrase "..40p, that's eight bob.." (thank you for explaining the "new money" to me, Rhoda), I have to say that egh's (to me) incomprehensible number-wriggling appears to have arrived at something closer to the right answer.

Sir Allen Lane must be spinning in his grave.

EC

Thanks mac,

Your comment reminds us that that we must also be vigilant with regard to French philosophical pox on reason of the 1970/80's.

The good news is that Alan is still Sokal-ing it to 'em!!!!

Verity

"The SAS has been ordered by the Government to train Libyan special forces despite the country having armed the IRA, The Daily Telegraph can disclose." By Thomas Harding, Defence Correspondent.

Is this for real?

Air tap-dancing draws nigh.

Archie

Frank P: a little trivial, but as an antidote to al-Beebeera, I like to listen to the phone-ins (phones-in?) on LBC, a comforting number of whose contributors from the public would not be out of place here. One of the presenters plays a sound snippet of a heavenly choir whenever President Oblimey's name is raised. Dashed amusing!

Rhoda Klapp

Jeremy, there is a site which has several useful inflation calculators..
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/historic-inflation-calculator

..although its £2.69 result for 1964's 3/6d looks wrong to me, the Mars Bar system is better.

Northpaw

Speaking of Mars Bars, I see Elton John wants to adopt a little boy.

"David has always wanted to adopt" he says of his other half, "but I have always said no because I'm 62 and I travel a lot"

So either this is a new fad of no more than a year's span, or Mr John has been stuck at 62 for 'always'.

egh

David Ossitt: Hope you'll forgive the intrusion, but your mention of Queen Victoria's notion caught my eye!

We know she was wrong - lezzos are legion and they're aggressive-sneaky, and usually turn out to be nasty with it - a lot like Liebourites, come to think of it.

It occurs to me, however, that Q. V. might have spoken as a woman who doesn't realize what lezzos are, and/or what they're playing at with their 'lezz-be-friends' tactics, etc.. When a girl isn't one, and doesn't think like one, it can take a while to realize she has a jigsaw puzzle in front of her, and she'd better get the picture straight! I think it's a horrible picture for a heterosexual women to have to contemplate.

Or was Q. V. making a witty reference to her own fecundity?

Or was it a witty reference to the feminine/maternal approach to keeping up appearances (for the sake of the family)?

....

Verity

egh - you pathetic, slavvering, fantasizing, needy, needy little man! Making up fantasies about someone about whom you know absolutely nothing. Zero. Zilch.

But you are in train to developing an obsession, and I don't want a needy slimeball posting his obsessions about me on the internet. There are sites for men like you, and I suggest you visit them and leave Coffee Housers free of your fantasies.

You did this further up the thread, in overheated partnership with EC, as well, and I drafted a letter of complaint to Pete, but never sent it because I thought you were too pathetic to complain about.

I believe most of the men who post on this site, whether they agree with my politics or not, would come to my aid in this.

Pete H or David Blackburn, whoever is on duty today, could you please note the above. I have been posting here and at a couple of other sites as Verity for six years. If I am going to be attacked not for my posts or my beliefs, but in response to some sicko's perfervid, baseless fantasies, I am out of here. Just look at the "conclusions" he has worked up in his sick brain based on nothing more than his own feverish imaginings. I hadn't even finished my breakfast tea when I read all this gunk! What a way to start a Sunday!

Frank P

Verity

Did I miss something here? Has it been erased? Wasn't egh referring to Victoria with the V, rather than Verity in his post at 11.07am. Or are you defending Queen Victoria? Admirable, but a bit OTT perhaps if you are, as she may well have joined in the discussion were she still around and had a giggle about it. Ladies who have given birth to that many progeny are usually very philosophical. I know one of my Grannies had 13 kids and my mother managed seven. I never saw them shocked, embarrassed or insulted. They just issued an imperious stare and all before them withered. Just sayin'

Jeremy

Rhoda,

Sorry to change the subject, but are you familiar with The Beatles' track, "Mean Mr Mustard", from the Abbey Road album? It includes the priceless lyric: "(He)keeps a ten bob note up his nose"...^^

EC

Jeremy,

In 1968/9 you could get four gallons of Five Star for ten bob.

Sgt. Pepper- brilliant album.
The same medley also described "Polythene Pam" thus:

"Well you should see Polythene Pam
She's so good-looking but she looks like a man
Well you should see her in drag dressed in her polythene bag
Yes you should see Polythene Pam
Yeah yeah yeah

Get a dose of her in jackboots and kilt
She's killer-diller when she's dressed to the hilt
She's the kind of a girl that makes the "News of the World"
Yes you could say she was attractively built
Yeah yeah yeah"

All this followed by, I believe, "She Came in thru the bathroom window."

However, notwithstanding all her charms as set out by Messrs Lennon & McCartney, I doubt whether the real life Pam would have appreciated the finer points of Diana Rigg's M Appeal.

Unless of course....
She was really a tattooed former hod carrier turned HGV driver called Bert from Liverpool.

We'll never know.

Jeremy

EC,

The firt time I heard "Polythene Pam", the thought struck me that punk rock both begins (and quite possibly ends) with that track.

They were astonishing. And far from fading away, as time passes they just seem to grow more and more special.

Rhoda Klapp

I remember a gallon of 2 stroke for my Vespa was 4/6. About 1967.

Abbey Road is one of their best albums, I put it above all but maybe Revolver.

I said 40p = eight bob not because anyone wouldn't know, but because the impact of eight bob on those who were on pocket money at the time is so much greater than 40p to those who have to live with today's orices.

On the other hand, when I first worked on computers a mainframes' memory was measured in k, a meg was unthinkable. Later a meg was £1million. Now I can get umpteen gig for twenty quid and put it in my pocket. So it's not all one way.