Victoria Beckham
She gets a bad press, but then I’ve always had a sneaking respect for the real Victoria.
I do remember one day, when she was being criticised on Radio 5, when she phoned up from a book signing in somewhere like Stoke, and decided to take on all comers.
Stupid she wasn’t.
And now today we have this article in The Times about her fashion collection. One paragraph oozed praise.
This was another lovely, polished, wearable turn from a woman who is daintily trampling on every preconception we all had about her: more elegant dresses, in inky greys, emerald and oxblood, with boat or draped necks, some with draped backs and a new volume in the bodice that gave them a slightly more chilled feel — and a blush-pink, lamé trench dress inspired by Dick Tracy femme fatales.
Good luck to Victoria! And of course David. But behind every famous man…
Leopards Don’t Change their Spots
The Times has a dramatic picture on the front this morning. It shows one of their reporters being manhandled by someone from the BNP. Here’s the first paragraph of the article that accompanied the picture.
One man grabbed my nose and tried to remove it from my face. I was seized and shoved out of the door towards a parked car. I threw my hands out to steady myself. A BNP thug snarled: “Don’t touch people’s cars mate.” Obviously, I offered no resistance.
Apparently, the BNP were objecting to an article in The Times on Saturday.
I don’t object to that article and feel it is a sound analysis as to the prospects of the BNP. But I do worry about its conclusions. If there’s one thing we don’t want it’s for the BNP to gain a foothold in Westminster. Without that after a couple of years, they will probably return from whence they came.
Incompetent New Labour
In the report in The Times on Prudence’s Death Tax, there is an interesting comment.
Off topic I know, but I have got to point this out ,if only to show how utterly incompetent Labour are. Would you believe that Labour did not know that ALL of the Trademarks they hold for their name “Labour” “Labour Party” etc etc are ALL invalid. They only realised in November 2009 when they were told !!. They were granted one of the replacements 2 days ago and rest are still only applications. As I say, all the old ones are invalid because LABOUR did not know ,or care ?, that Unincorporated Associations cannot own any property including trademarks in the name of the Association. What incompetents Labour are.
Surely, if they can’t manage themselves, they can’t be competent to manage UK Plc.
Prudence’s Death Tax
According to The Times Prudence and his few supporters in Nulabor are possibly proposing a 10% death tax on all estates. Read some of the comments to the article
Now, I’m someone who has a bob or two and when I die I will pay substantial death duties. On the other hand, I would hopefully have sufficient money to make sure that I had enough nubile nurses to keep me happy in my last days. So just because I have saved, why should I pay for those who have not saved for their last days?
To actually suggest it is a crass idea and a vote loser. After all probably ninety percent of the population want to make enough money before they retire to really enjoy it.
But then what do you expect from a man who was a Chancellor, who had the same idea of taxes as the Sherriff of Nottingham?
It just shows how out of touch Nulabor is with everything.
Let’s take a couple of examples.
Suppose someone was dying in their thirties from some awful cancer. Because they have been ill for some time, they would probably not have any estate at all. Or perhaps just a small one. So the widow, who would be up shit-street anyway gets even more of her money taken away by a grasping government.
I also have two friends, who have very disabled children. Their care is expensive, so is it right that if the parents die, that disabled children are taxed, when they need the money. I suppose that their disabilities mean that they can’t vote, so it’s all right then!
Now we need to raise money for care of the elderly, but it would be better if we raised it say on energy taxes or VAT. Raising VAT to 20% would raise about £13billion, but I think that this may be a better alternative as Prudence’s lowering and raising of VAT didn’t seem to make much effect one way or the other.
We could also get rid of two unwanted aircraft carriers, the Joint Strike Fighter, Trident, tanks, identity cards and many other pet projects of Prudence and his cronies.
Toy Oh Dear
Toyota has a few problems. Not only do accelerators stick on some models, but now the Prius has a brake problem.
These may be serious and they are probably hurting Toyota’s image and the company will suffer for years to come.
The problems are very different. The accelerator is a mechanical design fault and the brake is a software one. But if you have the first, here is excellent advice from the BBC. I know you’ll be unlikely to be able to access this advice if you have a problem, but make sure that you read it.
The trouble is that we assume are cars are perfect, the roads are perfect, the weather is always fine and nothing untoward will ever happen as we drive along in our cars listening to the Beatles, smoking fags and eating sandwiches. I don’t do the last two as I abhor smoking and can’t eat bread, unless I make the gluten-free variety myself, but I hope you get the point.
We must have more driver education to make the roads safer and dare I say it allow everybody to enjoy driving more. It’s a great pleasure to drive a car fast and legally down a challenging and empty road.
I have two cars; a Lotus Elan and a Jaguar X-Type Estate.
The Lotus is simple with no-ABS, no-traction control, no-air conditioning and very little electronics to go wrong. It incidentally has a full electronic control system on the lump that does the work under the bonnet. The Jaguar has all these, but other than body styles, the two cars are both manual gearboxes, front-wheel drive, full leather etc.
Now when it comes to bad roads, the Elan is in a class of its own compared to the Jag. The ABS and traction control cuts in on the latter and makes things more rather difficult rather than easier.
So is one of the problems of modern cars, that they have just got too complicated, too heavy and we isolate the driver too much from the road?
I know that on bad days, I take the Lotus and enjoy that drive. Perhaps, if we all learned to enjoy driving, we’d do it better and have less accidents and breakdowns.
Does Ali Dizaei Wear a Wig?
Surely not! But just look at the pictures of him on the Internet and in today’s Times.
Just search “Ali Dizaei” in Google Images.
In some he has virtually no hair and in others he has lots! You will also notice that the pictures taken before the latest court appearance show him with a large amount.
Commander Ali Dizaei
This case does not show the Police in a good light.
Dizaei has been found guilty of misconduct in public office and perverting the course of justice and will spend some time in jail. It blew out of a row over a web site outside a London restaurant. I’ve tried the web site today and it is no longer there!
I’ve never met Dizaei, but he has been in the media in various negative stories over the last few years.
At the time, I gave Dizaei the benefit of the doubt and put it all down to things like racism and jealousy. Was I wrong? Read the stories and judge.
It illustrates though that if you are high-profile member of a minority, women, Asian, black, Jewish or whatever, you probably have to behave as impeccably as the cleanest of the majority. But then so does everybody else.
Dizaei did not and he paid the ultimate price.
In one quick stroke though Dizaei has hurt all those good officers from minorities, who by hard work have managed to climb up the rather slippery and difficult ladder of promotion.
I hope we have heard the last of Dizaei. But I fear not, as he will probably use all methods to clear his name.
Carmichael, Dankworth and Merrick
It sounds like a typical country firm of solicitors, but actually, these three well-loved people have sadly come together in the obituary pages of The Times.
Ian Carmichael made us all laugh, John Dankworth created some of the best music and Gil Merrick was Birmingham City’s loyal goalkeeper who tried his best to turn the tide of the Mighty Magyars for England.
But perhaps John Dankworth’s wife, Cleo Laine, showed how you celebrate death rather than mourn it. Many would have cancelled the show they were going to give that night at the Stables Theatre. But not Cleo!
The show did go on!
She did the right thing!
Anne Mustoe
I don’t think I ever met Anne Mustoe, but I may have done as I knew one of her three stepsons, Edward, quite well. My late wife and I used to eat in his restaurant in the 1970s and later he had a house near us in Debach. He used to affectionately tell tales of Anne.
Thinking about this a day later, I have a feeling that Anne did come to lunch with Edward. This would have probably been before she started on her adventures and was still the headmistress at St. Felix School in Southwold.
It was sad to hear today that she had died from one of Telegraph obituary writers, Nicholas Comfort.
Long live the British eccentrics.
Welcome to the Comedy Phone-In
It wasn’t supposed to be that, but the breakfast phone in on BBC Radio 5 was that this morning.
It was supposed to be on the Pope’s views on homosexuality and his criticism of equality laws. We had people on both sides quoting the Bible. I bet if you wanted to prove the sky is yellow, you can find the proof in the Bible.
All very funny!
Shouldn’t we get on with solving the world’s problems, rather than creating more, and discriminating against those who don’t fit our views of what the world should be like.
The Anonymous Widower 