The Truth About Prince Andrew
He has always been surrounded by mystery, with even questions about his real father being asked on Have I Got News For You?
But now the truth is finally published.
Recession! What Recession?
Or is it just that some people have more money than sense!
But why are people paying £129 for one of Heston Blumental’s christmas puddings, that he created for Waitrose? The story is here in the Daily Mail.
I don’t care and I suspect it’s not gluten free!
Have the BBC Shot Themselves in the Foot?
Panorama tonight reports that members of FIFA have taken bribes in the past. I would not know if they have, but then the records of the worlds’ top sporting bodies on corruption is generally not as snow white as it should be.
But I would not like to be the man from the BBC negotiating the next set of TV rights for the World Cup. I suspect that the matches won’t be shown on the BBC.
England Break Records in Brisbane
The First Test was a draw, but England did manage to break a few records, as this report on the BBC says in this report.
But Englishmen breaking records at The Gabba is not new and I’m surprised that no-one has brought up the feat there of England’s most unlikely Test cricketing hero, Colin Milburn. Playing for Western Australia, he scored 243 runs in a day before given out the first over after tea. He had actually scored 181 between lunch and tea. A friend of mine was actually there and the crowd laughed as a roly-poly figure came out to bad. But Milburn was unstoppable and he had the last laugh.
Colin Milburn would be in any list of great and unusual sportsmen. Others I would include might be Andy Ripley, Tommy Harmer and Murray Halberg.
The Office of Budget Responsibility
The Office of Budget Responsibility or OBR may well turn out to be one of the lasting ideas of the Coalition Government.
It is supposed to be independent, and lets hope it stays that way!
But isn’t it in a way, exactly the same as any business having an external set of auditors to check what it is doing?
After all, the biggest failures in business are often ones where a bully like Maxwell gets the auditors to approve his dubious actions or at least not notice them.
It could also be argued that some of the biggest political economic failures have been caused, by dubious thinking by politicians and bad or corrupt economic models. As an example, many of my Irish friends, thought the Celtic Tiger woyuld come a cropper and planned accordingly.
Only time will tell if the OBR is a good thing! I do worry though, that sometimes it is less gloomy than the government, but then it may have much better figures, that lack any political gloss or bias.
I Can Now Shuffle a Pack of Cards!
I tried this a few months ago and couldn’t do it, but I thought I’d have a game of patience about an hour ago and I shuffled them without too much trouble.
So my left hand must be getting better!
But the patience didn’t come out!
Just Another Boy Band!
A texter has just described the Beatles thus on Radio 5.
They obviously never saw them live as I did, or watched as they saved a city from self-destructing, as Liverpool most likely would have done, if they had never come along!
They also inspired me, as in my years at Liverpool University, enough of what they created rubbed off on me, so that I became a modest success. Would I have become the same man without Liverpool and the Beatles? I doubt it!
Should Museums Sell Off Unwanted Art?
It is notr a sinmple question, but I’ll give a simple example concerning my council, St. Edmundsbury.
Mary Beale was the UK’s first professional female painter. She painted society and other portraits in the early seventeenth century. Twenty of her paintings survive and were given to the council some years ago. Only four are exhibited in a dark corner of Moyses Hall Museum. Compare this, with Ipswich’s superb treatment of their Gainsboroughs and Constables!
So if they were offered a sensible solution, where this unique piece of artistic history was loaned or even sold to say a new gallery in a town or city where they would be appreciated, they should take it. After all there are not too many successful female artists from that era and she derserves a lot better.
The Anonymous Widower 