tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45197539406482391992024-03-13T19:28:37.422-07:00Francis Fulford's BlogFrancis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.comBlogger211125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-74631621699577817932022-04-14T06:02:00.002-07:002022-04-14T06:02:54.632-07:00Media bias shown up by Rwanda concept<p> I looked at the <i>Daily Mail</i> on line this morning. The banner headline first word read "Fury" what were we all supposed to be 'furious about' -the government plan to send illegal 'boat people at Boris plan to send illegal immigrants claiming asylum to be processed in Rwanda.</p><p>Actually of course far from being furious a large number of people -probably a majority- were rejoicing that at last some sort of plan had finally come about to sort out the scandal of bogus asylum seekers. so why didn't the Daily Mail headline read "Rejoicing" rather than "Furious" - media bias of course -although in this case I was surprised at the Daily Mail printing a headline more in keeping with the <i>Guardian. </i></p>Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-55134522059524111672022-04-06T01:57:00.001-07:002022-04-06T01:57:33.158-07:00Mariupol -a medieval siege<p>The siege of Mariupol is developing into a medieval siege -with the Russian army reluctant to fight its way into the centre knowing it would suffer high casualties in vicious close contact Urban warfare. So instead it is resorting to trying to shut down all entries and exits and starve the inhabitants and garrison into submission. That of course is the reason why the Russians are refusing to allow civilians to leave the city -the more people trapped in Mariupol the faster the food will run out -it is that simple. </p><p>Mariupol is a key strategic city. As long as Ukraine holds it the Russian 'war aim' of linking the Crimea with Mother Russia by land can not be achieved. It would be a tremendous blow to Ukraine if it fell which leads me to wonder whether Ukraine will not make a major effort to break through the Russian siege lines sometime in the near future. </p><p> </p>Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-83475013786486418112022-03-22T02:09:00.003-07:002022-03-22T02:09:53.281-07:00Nazanin Zaghri -Ratliffe<p> Every landowner learns one lesson -or certainly should learn one lesson -that you will never ever be thanked. Do someone a good turn by all means but don't expect thanks on this earth for it . </p><p>Judging by Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliffe's petulant outburst this holds good for Foreign Secretaries too. She complains that it has taken six years for her release on trumped up charges to be arranged and thinks it ought to have been done almost at once. She doesn't of course explain how her release could have been secured so speedily without paying out the blackmail money demanded. Nor does she seem to consider that if the Foreign Office coughed up every time a British citizen was imprisoned then no British Citizen would ever be safe visiting dodgy countries. Nor does she think that she has any responsibility for her own stupidity in visiting her parents in a country hardly renowned for its respect for the Rule of Law.</p>Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-60518741013101532162022-03-17T14:05:00.001-07:002022-03-17T14:05:11.730-07:00Is Putin a War Criminal?<p> President Biden says Putin is a War Criminal, well if he is so were Presidents Nixon and Johnstone and let's not leave out Presidents Roosevelt and Truman while we are at it. All four authorised bombing of civilian targets in either World War II or the Vietnam War, while Truman of course ordered the dropping of nuclear bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki neither of which were remotely military targets. </p><p>Of course civilian targets have been hit in the Ukraine and casualties incurred but it stretches belief that Putin ordered these attacks. Viewing footage of the war I am more and more puzzled. A missile or a couple of shells land on an apartment block. Why? What possible strategic benefit has been gained by doing this? None. It almost seems as if some bored junior officer in the Russian army said 'Oh Fuck it -I am bored -lets lob a couple of shells at the bastards' </p><p>Is this a too far fetched explanation? I don't think so. The war -as we are viewing it -seems to be being conducted in a chaotic manner. I watch bemused as a single Russian tank wanders down a road only to be blown to smithereens. What on earth was it doing? Why was it there? </p><p>So is Putin a war criminal? No not yet. If he orders chemical or nuclear weapons then that is another matter but to call him a War Criminal is to stretch the meaning of that phrase too far.</p>Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-66801692381419832602022-03-13T11:55:00.000-07:002022-03-13T11:55:12.777-07:00Ukraine -Offensive versus Defensive <p> Through out the history of war there are times when the 'offensive' weapons have the advantage and other times when 'defensive' weapons are superior. You only have to think back to the First World War when the machine gun and barbed wire ruled the battlefield until the tank appeared which, together with improved communications, resulted in Hague's Hundred days of victory in 1918. Is the tank now as obsolete as battleships where in the Second World War? The UK/Swedish New Light Anti Tank Weapon (NLAW) would suggest it might just do for the tank what the torpedo did for the battleship. </p><p>This is after all a weapon which any idiot can be taught to use in half an hour and only cost £30,000. Aimed in the general direction of a modern tank costing some £4.0 million it is curtains for the tank and the highly trained crew. Frankly having seen what the NLAW and the US Javelin anti tank weapon does to a tank I am not surprised that the Russian attack has stalled. Russian tactics have, ever since 1943, revolved round the tank being the Queen of the Battlefield -just as in medieval times the heavily mounted and armoured knight was until they came up against the Long bow. </p><p>So if tanks and armoured personnel carriers (APC) no longer give troops protection but instead are little more than mobile steel coffins how on earth are you going to move in and capture a city like Kiev? The short answer would be use PBI (Poor Bloody Infantry) to clear the buildings - well yes but the casualties are likely to be heavy so I am putting my money on a prolonged siege of the cities. The Russian army sitting back encircling them and hoping to starve them into submission. </p><p>Again I have my doubts about this tactic. I don't think time is on Putin's side. He needs a quick victory. </p><p> </p>Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-82479553967323341902022-03-08T09:58:00.000-08:002022-03-08T09:58:20.411-08:00<p>The refugees pouring out of the Ukraine are a very different kettle of fish from those who flooded into Europe from Syria and Iraq and more recently Afghanistan - they are nearly all women and children! so unlike those hoards of strapping young men who emanated from the Middle East and Afghan. Yup Ukrainian men seem ready and willing to fight and not just run away -so three cheers for them. </p><p>Now the government is coming under pressure to open the UK to the Ukrainian refugees but before we do I hope Pritti Patel, the Home Secretary, makes it clear that no male between the age of 17 and 70 will be allowed in. Their brothers, and in some cases, sisters. are fighting so we don't want cowards coming into this country pretending to be refugees. </p><p>So what of the women and children? Well I suspect most of them will prefer to be close to the Ukraine hoping that the war will soon stop and they will be able to be united with their men folk again.</p>Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-28880127537076953942020-03-14T03:20:00.000-07:002020-03-14T03:28:59.323-07:00Coronavirus compared with Foot & Mouth<br />
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This time some nineteen years ago in 2001 we, in the south west of England, were in the grip of a deadly virus. We, anyway in much of rural Devon, where in 'lock down.' The virus was of course Foot & Mouth and the plumes of smoke from piles of burning livestock could be seen everywhere.<br />
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Experts predicting 'gloom & doom' dominated the press and airwaves as they confidently predicted that the disease would take many months to be bought under control and may, quite likely, still be with us when next winter came around. Fortunately they were, of course, all wrong.<br />
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So I reckon that this Coronavirus will, as soon as the sun begins to shine, wither away just as Foot & Mouth did. I also confidently predict that the death toll will be relatively insignificant by that I mean that whilst some, even many perhaps, may die of it many more won't die because of it. So, for instance, as people travel less so fewer will die in travel accidents ( the second most common cause of death for teenagers).<br />
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Meanwhile for those who are brave opportunities abound. Got lots of spare cash? the stock market, or at least certain shares, looks a steal. Fancy a cheap holiday? Well- always providing the authorities have not lost their nerve and placed your chosen destination in 'Lock Down' there are amazing deals to be had. We had been planning to take advantage of the total absence of Chinese/Japanese/American tourist to go to Florence and lap up Renaissance culture in almost deserted galleries and stay in a five star hotel and eat at great restaurants at bargain basement prices but the Italian government has, un-sportingly, put the kibosh on that. Still if this goes on it is probable that the said trash tourists will stay away from the UK as well this spring and summer so we might just treat ourselves to a few nights in London, Bath or perhaps York to which I have never been. Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-25917237091357793762020-03-03T10:58:00.001-08:002020-03-03T10:58:27.150-08:00Priti Patel & Bullying <br />
So that Big Girls blouse Sir Philip Rutnam - the now totally unlamented ex Permanent Secretary of the Home Office thinks Priti Patel is a bully. How pathetic. I doubt the dripping wet Sir Philip even knows what bullying is. Well I do. I was taught by an expert, one Trained Soldier Evans, he was in charge of some twenty of us who were so unfortunate as to end up in a barrack room under his total control. <br />
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We were the lowest of low. Potential Officer recruit guardsmen. Fair game for every NCO and Warrant Officer at the depot for the eight weeks of the course called The Brigade Squad. Trained Soldier Evans was responsible for us when we were in the barrack room. He was a psycho and enjoyed picking on the weakest member of the squad and by using the cunning arts of bullying get them to chuck it and leave.<br />
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Many had already succumbed by the time he got round to concentrating on me. Most of his techniques were hardly subtle but he did have one nasty trick which was to try to turn the whole squad against me by punishing them for my supposed inadequacies. For example, the one treat we were allowed was a half hour sprint down to the NAAFI (canteen) for a quick pint of beer at around nine o'clock. I can hear Evans now saying in his Welsh lilt -'No NAAFI break tonight as Fulford's boots are in bad order."<br />
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As I said Evans was a master of the art of bullying. Years later I asked a fellow member of the squad if he could let me have a copy of the squad photo as I had lost mine. He not only had it copied but framed as well and sent it to me. 'How much do |I owe you?' I asked. 'Nothing' he replied 'Every night I would say a silent prayer that you wouldn't give in and chuck it because I knew if you did I would be next' Somehow I don't think Sir Philip would have lasted 24 hours in that barrack room.<br />
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<br />Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-13001639078359398022019-11-19T01:53:00.001-08:002019-11-19T01:53:40.115-08:00Prince Andrew and that photograph<br />
Now I am not Prince Andrew's number one fan but I do hate seeing someone accused of something on the basis of very tenuous evidence-and then given a good kicking. So far the only hard evidence against Prince Andrew is that photograph of him with his arm round a smiling ,happy looking young girl.<br />
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But if being photographed with your arm round the waist of a young girl means you have just enjoyed a night of passion with her then I have been having a hell of a sex life over the last fifteen odd years. Yup even a Z list celeb like me gets asked to pose with wives and daughters by fans I meet in the street (fewer and fewer these days I admit as I get older and memories of my brief five minutes of TV fame fade) and, silly man that I am, I normally agree and end up on someones telephone with my arm round their wife/daughter/granddaughters waist. Not only on the street either, even more damning, in the eyes of the scum press, would be the number of such photographs which have been taken outside my house after giving them a tour of my house.<br />
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What I am saying is I can quite imagine someone saying to Prince Andrew, perhaps the girl herself or a friend/relation even, could we have a picture of you and Virginia together and he, innocently, moves close to the girl and puts his arm round her waist just as I have done time and again and she smiles at the camera and then the shutter clicks. That photograph, in short means absolutely nothing. It is not evidence of anything other than that Prince Andrew once had his photograph taken with her. Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-72850582435668034552019-10-08T09:45:00.001-07:002019-10-08T09:45:43.927-07:00Extinction Protests<br />
God Londoners are wet. Why are they putting up with the ridiculous Extinction protesters blocking their roads and making their life a misery. Ok -fair enough - you pay a police force to enforce the law - and therefor you might expect them to do so - no such luck though with the Metropolitan Police these days.- though in fairness they would probably be acting a bit different if it was a protest against the actions of Parliament by Brexit supporters -then no doubt the truncheons would have been drawn. But if the police wont enforce the law the private citizen can lawfully take it into his/her own hands to enforce the law. If someone is blocking the road and therefor stopping you carrying out your lawful occupation you have every right to remove them using reasonable force - what is reasonable force? the force required to remove the nuisance. So come on Londoners wake up and sort these prima donna idiots out.Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-87942337782575849262019-06-22T11:29:00.003-07:002019-06-22T11:29:51.646-07:00The Mansion House Martyr -Mark Field So there is at least one MP with balls and courage, Step forward Mark Field the Foreign Office Minister who tackled a climate change protester at the Mansion House dinner. As everyone else sat paralysed in their chairs he alone stepped forward and got a grip as a 'protester' moved rapidly towards the top of the table where the big brass sat. He acted totally correctly. The protester could easily have been a terrorist with a knife- he was not to know it was just yet another potty woman intent on disrupting the dinner and, actually, even if he did think this,he was still right to stop her and forcibly remover her from the room.<br />
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The reaction from our pathetic Prime |Minister was perhaps predictable- she found the incident 'very concerning'. As well she might here was a high profile event at which some of the most important people in government and business were present and the security was so pathetic that a group of women climate change protesters could walk in off the street, go up the stairs and into the dining room with no one making any attempt to stop them. So here is a tip to anyone thinking about carrying out a terrorist attack in the near future- dress up as a climate change protester and police will open the door for you! Whoever was in charge of the 'joke' security for the banquet should be sacked as should whatever apology for a policeman was supposedly looking after VIP security. But actually -amazingly - Mrs May wasn't 'Very concerned at the lamentable security - no it was that a Member of|Parliament had acted promptly to tackle the situation and -astonishingly - she has asked him to step down while a full enquiry takes place.<br />
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You really can't make these people up. The incident was on TV - anyone can see that Mr Filed acted properly what one earth is an 'enquiry' going to show? But the equally pathetic Conservative Party Chairman - an nonentity called Brandon Lewis also has called for a full internal enquiry saying -"it is very hard not be astonished by what you've seen" To cap it all Jeremy Hunt refused to say whether he thought MrField should be sacked -yes sacked - for doing the right thing !<br />
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<br />Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-87958126718160206762019-06-11T10:48:00.000-07:002019-06-11T10:48:28.156-07:00Michael Gove and cocaine<br />
Should the fact that Michael Gove snorted cocaine twenty odd years ago disbar him from being Prime Minister or holding any office in government at all? Well if it does we are going to find it mighty difficult to find a suitable Prime Minister in years to come because I suspect virtually all the current crop of 'yuff' have had a snort at some time or other.<br />
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I admit my knowledge of cocaine is very limited. I was though at a dinner party years ago when it was passed round but, before it came to me, a friend who was also a novice at this peculiar Urban habit, made a complete hash of his attempt to snort it and sneezed violently instead -scattering a hundred quids worth of powder to the four winds.<br />
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The question though surely is not just should Michael Gove be disbarred - but should high office only be open to 'Goody Goodies? Frankly having just had as Prime Minister an arch 'Goody Goody' who proved her self to be probably the most useless and incompetent holder of that office in recent history, and that against stiff opposition, I am not in favour of 'Goodness' being a primary qualification.<br />
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<br />Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-77362014147088094362019-06-01T06:25:00.002-07:002019-06-01T06:25:20.938-07:00Baked Beans & Green house gasses<br />
I wonder if there is someone out there who could help me. Looking at pictures of vegan demonstrators outside a butchers shop, purporting to be protesting about the amount of greenhouse gases produced by the UK cattle herd I did wonder how much greenhouse gas is produced in the UK by those who eat baked beans? I mean we eat 540 million cans of the stuff a year and we all know what the result of eating baked beans is don't we?<br />
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Apart though from the gas we emit through farting after eating them there must also be considerable 'green house' gas caused by growing them, processing them and transporting them. If there is someone with a scientific bent of mind who reads this could they please come up with a figure -I -and the entire rural and meat eating community would be eternally grateful. Because the time has come to stop sitting down and allowing the Vegans and other so called 'activists' to dictate the news with their extreme agendas - we need to fight back.<br />
Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-72628222444614825922019-05-30T01:43:00.000-07:002019-06-01T02:32:08.350-07:00tie or tie less -Jeremy Hunt <br />
I watched Jeremy Hunt being interviewed by Robert Peston last night - he wasn't wearing a tie-why? Had he forgotten to put one on or was he making a 'statement' -saying to the viewer -look I am not a stuffy Conservative politician who want's to be Prime Minister but a 'right on' sort of person who can appeal to the 'yuff' vote?<br />
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Well -sorry -it's pathetic - he is Foreign Secretary for goodness sake - so dress like one. I have written about this arrogance of politicians before who seem to think that by taking off their coat and rolling up their sleeves (David Cameron) the voters are conned into believing they are working hard. Sorry it doesn't work - all you do is come across as a phoney - which is exactly what Jeremy Hunt achieved last night.Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-86947571466491019972019-05-27T08:43:00.002-07:002019-05-27T08:43:35.333-07:00<br />
A great night and a great victory for the Brexit Party. Now every thinking member of the Conservative party must know that unless they deliver Brexit they are doomed at the next General Election as the Brexit Party will wipe the floor with them.<br />
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The next Conservative leader needs to understand that Brexit is this countries 'War of Independence.' If you are in a war the first thing you must do is write your 'War AIM' and stick with it. That was what was so disappointing about Mrs May -she wrote good 'War Aims' -'Brexit means Brexit' -'No deal is better than a bad deal' and then allowed herself to be talked out of them by snakes like Phillip Hammond. She 'talked the talk' but couldn't 'walk the walk.'<br />
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There is another point about wars which the next Prime Minister must be prepared to accept- casualties. You cannot win a war if you are afraid of taking casualties not - of course-in this one human dead and wounded -but there will -in all probability -be some economic casualties in the short term. If we go out though without a deal though we will have a 'war chest ' of the £39 billion we won't be paying out in the so called 'Divorce Settlement' which should go some way to alleviating such short term economic problems.<br />
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As I tell my children - you are living through history now so make a note of it because - in fifty or so years time - one of your grandchildren is going to say to you: "G'pa we are doing Brexit in history -what was it like to live through the Great Debate and what side were you on? " Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-34692771890095799822018-12-20T02:12:00.002-08:002018-12-20T02:13:10.243-08:00Mrs May and Marshal Petain - a comparisonListening to Teresa May trying to justify her Brexit deal to the House of Commons I had a thought. Marshal Petain, the Hero of Verdun in the First War and the man who France called to in its hour of need in the Second could have made an identical speech justifying his deal with the Germans in 1940.<br />
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Yes it is all there. The need to be realistic - this is the only deal on the table - the need to protect jobs/business/ the way of life etc.- Petain would have said it all and the same people who are urging either acceptance of May's 'deal' or a second 'peoples' referendum - you know what - they would all have been collaborators in 1940 France and enthusiastic supporters of the Vichy regime.<br />
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It is I think worth a thought. You see there are no statues to Marshall Petain in France but there are many 'Place de Resistance' scattered among the towns and villages of France. The Frenchman who emerged as the hero of the last War was -of course - de Gaulle - the villain -who died in prison -Marshal Petain. No statue will ever be erected to Mrs May but one day Nigel Farage will take his rightful place on top of a plinth in Parliament Square.<br />
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<br />Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-26230080360027323622018-11-09T11:26:00.003-08:002018-11-09T11:26:29.496-08:00End of The Great WarMy father was born in 1898 and went out to France as a nineteen year old second Lieutenant in September 1917 He was on his way back from England to rejoin his battalion when the Armistice was declared. This is his letter home:<br />
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Dear Daddy<br />
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Yesterday was a wild day. We got the news of the signing of the armistice at 9.15 and great was the jubilation. A draft of Australians going off to the line threw their tin hats and respirators on the ground saying they wouldn't be needing them now and left them there.<br />
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I went into Havre in pm. It was amazing the civilians were marching about with Belgian, French, USA,English,Australians arm in arm singing the Marseilles and waving flags. All work stopped including the trams. Hundreds of bands marched about playing , followed by huge crowds cheering and singing and dancing. The number of soldiers drunk by tea time was amazing, by evening they were lying all over the streets, the civilians were as bad . We had tea & dinner & came back at about 9.30.<br />
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At Tortonis, which is the biggest rest camp by dinner time everyone was tight, pouring champagne stuff all over everyone 7 the floor, hurling bottles and glasses about.<br />
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All the ships blew their hooters continuously for hours, some of them were illuminated. We are still waiting here for our orders which I trust will come soon. Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-57224390134215998932018-11-06T02:09:00.000-08:002018-11-06T02:09:21.152-08:00I think therefor I am The French philosopher Rene Descartes coined this phrase in his book Discourse of Method published in 1637. That shows how advanced in thinking this Rene was because now what he propounded as a mere philosophical thought has become law! So, according to modern lunacies, if I think I am a woman I am a woman and I have to be treated as a woman even if I have all the genitals etc. of a man.<br />
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This patent absurdity was highlighted over the weekend when a white theatre producer got funding from the Arts Council England to go on a full years residential course which was restricted to applicants of 'colour.' He thinks he is black so he is black -apparently.<br />
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Well HURRAY for that I say. I am a member of one of the only two groups of people who you are aloud to mock and be rude about. Yes you've got it. I am white, male and privately educated oh, and to top it all I voted for Brexit. If you are wondering who the other group is it is also white, working class,patriotic, male and voted Brexit. But hope is now at at hand for us persecuted minorities. We can all <i>think</i>. Just now I am pondering what I <i>think </i>I<i> </i>might be. I am quite tempted by being a female Muslim human rights campaigner from Somalia. That seems to tick a lot of boxes and should be worth a fortune in government grants. After all there can't be many female Muslim human rights campaigners from Somalia who happen to own a socking great house in the country in need of repairs.<br />
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Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-58406320927801561002018-07-12T04:46:00.002-07:002018-07-12T04:46:38.375-07:00Nigel Farage - wherefore art thou in our hour of need? Nigel Farage is that rarity among politician - a man who retired form the stage at the pinnacle of his career. Watching the events unfolding as Mrs May tries her best to emasculate Brexit turning the UK, into in Boris Johnstone's choice turn of phrase, a 'colony of Europe' one wonders where he is and why he is not bestriding the airwaves denouncing Mrs May as a modern day Quisling.<br />
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Nigel though I suspect knows his history. He is waiting in the wings. he knows timing is everything in revolutions and a pure Brexit would indeed be a revolution. Like Lenin he will await his time in a self imposed political exile and, when he judges the time is ripe, he will reemerge - we all hope - to lead us into freedom. Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-39919123163826817702018-06-23T02:46:00.002-07:002018-06-23T02:46:54.442-07:00The Francis Hotel Bath -The World we Live in<br />
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We spent a weekend in Bath recently, staying at the Francis Hotel, which is an MGallery Hotel. The blurb says that: "MGallery by Sofitel is a collection of boutique hotels dedicated to lovers of life, literature and culture." Well that's as maybe but it also seems to be dedicated to total stupidity in it's staff.<br />
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The story. My wife booked the room, I paid for it with my credit card. When we checked out I asked for a receipt, a perfectly normal request you would think, for some reason though this was clearly a problem but the girl behind the desk offered to email me one to which I agreed. Two days went past and no receipt. I emailed them. No response. Two days later, by now getting pissed off I emailed them again now -Wow -they deigned to reply. We will they said send you a receipt if you give us the last four digits of your credit card and tell us who booked the room. I did this and got back a reply thanking me for my email and telling me they would now happily send me a receipt providing I got my wife to email them. Then I exploded<br />
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What sort of pathetic little mindset is it that inhabits people who can find reasons not to send a receipt to someone who has paid a bill with his own credit card. Who writes these rules and who is so incredibly stupid that they then obey them. Has everyone forgotten that the excuse: " I was/am only following orders/obeying rules" was totally discredited at the Nuremberg Trials after the last war.<br />
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Rules, as we used to say in the army, are for the obedience of fools and the guidance of wise men. Sadly the modern generation seems to consist totally of fools. And the real joke is that most of the idiots slavishly following ridiculous rules and guidelines (they are so stupid they don't even know that a rule and a guideline are different) went to university where you are supposed to learn to think for yourself. Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-67636405200839083242018-05-14T02:02:00.000-07:002018-05-14T02:02:04.300-07:00Mrs Justice Lang - moronic judgement on homeless East Europeans <br />
If I was homeless and sleeping rough in a foreign country and one night someone touched me on the shoulder and said -I've got good news for you - we will pay for you to go back home to the bosom of your family -well I would be bloody grateful. Not apparently though if you hail from Eastern Europe. They complained that us paying for them to go home to a nice warm bed breached- 'you've guessed it - both their human rights and their rights under 'free movement of people' within the EU.<br />
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Something called the 'Public Interest Law Unit (PILU) of the Lambeth Law Centre - which says on it's web site that "it is particularly interested in using law as part of the process to effect social change through test cases" and is - yes -you've guessed it again -funded by us - the poor bloody tax payer - through Legal Aid -decided to take up their case and went to court.<br />
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Luckily for them they found themselves in front of a particularly moronic judge -of which there are -alas - all too many - called Mrs Justice Lang who decided -yes the poor rough sleepers had had their human rights and their rights of free movement abused and yes - they should all receive large dollops of Tax payers money - for their supposed pain and suffering -£10,000 for one Lithuanian so far!<br />
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You can't make it up. But Mrs Justice Lang said in her judgement that "rough sleeping even accompanied by low level offending such as begging and drinking in a public space should not be grounds for removal." Sadly I don't have her address to give out nor that of Paul Heron a socialist and founder of the PILU. Because wouldn't it be fun to recruit a gang of homeless and bribe them to set up camp on the doorsteps of both these people and let them really enjoy the results of their stupidity.<br />
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<br />Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-80182787940648508712018-05-11T02:47:00.003-07:002018-05-11T06:23:32.018-07:00the House of Lords and Brexit- A solution<br />
The House of Lord's attempt to wreck Brexit through a series of amendments is causing Mrs May all sorts of grief. There is though an easy solution at hand which has a blue ribbon Constitutional pedigree - just create more peers to vote through the Brexit Bill.<br />
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Back in 1911 Asquith - the then Prime Minister - went to the King - George V - and requested him to do just that if the House of Lords rejected his Parliament Bill - which was designed to curtail their powers. The King reluctantly agreed and- when the peers where informed of it - they backed down and passed the Bill.<br />
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So what was good for a Liberal government (without co -incidentally, like Mrs May, a working majority. It ruled in coalition with the Labour Party and the Irish Nationalists; <i>plus ca change, plus c'est meme chose </i>) must surely be good for today's Conservative Government.<br />
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So come on Mrs May -get your act together - inform the Lords that either they pass the necessary Brexit legislation without amendment or you will create enough Lords to do it anyway. As an added bonus may I put my hat in the ring and offer to be one of the new Lords. Many people assume - because I live in a big house surrounded by acres of land and because we have lived here for some 800 years - that I am a Lord anyway and are very disappointed when I tell them that I am not. So making me a peer would cheer a lot of people up as well as helping you to achieve the aim of passing all the necessary legislation through the Lords hassle free. Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-74310085734151252932018-05-03T06:03:00.001-07:002019-06-01T02:35:18.839-07:00The National Trust - & Mrs McGrady the DGTwo of my least favourite phrases are 'reaching out' and the 'the need to be relevant.' So it was dispiriting to hear the new Director General of the National Trust trot out both of them in a BBC interview.<br />
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Here is Mrs McGrady in full flow:<br />
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"I want to reach more people, and more people live in urban areas. The days of walking into one of our beautiful houses and saying that a family lived here, that's not going to do it<br />
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We need to think of what's relevant -why would someone in the middle of Birmingham say that's interesting. What is it in Birmingham that they would get more interest from? "<br />
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Well actually that's an easy question to answer. Just at the moment the good citizens of Birmingham -or a least a sizeable majority of them -are praying that Aston Villa wins promotion to the Premier League and that their other team, Birmingham City, avoids relegation to League One. So perhaps, if she is serious about 'reaching out' and being 'relevant to urban people' she ought to -seriously -consider spending some of the National Trust's £600 million annual income on sponsoring a football team -like Birmingham City -who -judging by their performance this year -are urgently in need of a cash injection.<br />
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But actually why does she want to 'reach out' and why 'be relevant?' Surely the whole point about the National Trust is that it's success was built on NOT BEING RELEVANT. So, when big houses were being pulled down and no one thought they had any future in the 'relevant' modern post war world the National Trust stepped in and saved them and their contents for future generations. Equally when the coastline was being raped and pillaged with caravan parks and bungalow developers (for -I am afraid to say -urban people) the National Trust stepped into the breach and bought and saved many miles of coastline.<br />
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So-learning from the past -if I was Mrs McGrady I might just ask myself the opposite question to the one she has posed. What is irrelevant -or thought to be so -in modern society? Well here is a thought for her -Pride in British History. In it's ownership are many houses which are intrinsically linked to many of the great names of British history. So let's celebrate their contribution to our and the world's culture and stop making grovelling apologises for their occasional lapses into behaviour which today would be unacceptable.Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-54115811151068822132018-01-13T09:38:00.002-08:002018-01-13T09:38:16.065-08:00BBC -Salaries & 'Gender in balance'I am bored by the whinging females at the BBC going on about 'gender inbalance' in their salary levels compared to their male colleagues. Get a Life or -perhaps more pertinently -Get a Better Agent.<br />
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Whenever I have done any TV work the first thing I say when I am contacted is - 'That's very interesting - do you mind talking to my agent?" Why? Because I haven't a clue about what the 'going rate' is for a job but my agent has. Also - though I have many qualities I also have many weaknesses and one of them is - I am a lousy negotiator for myself.<br />
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So I leave the sordid subject of monetary remuneration to my agent and naturally she takes- and fully deserves - her fee. But I always feel that actually she cost me nothing as I am quite convinced that the extra payment she extracts more than covers her cost.<br />
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On the same issue though I am also a license fee payers as is everyone else in this country. Frankly that means I want the BBC to pay as little as possible for the 'talent' as us TV performers are called. If they can get away with paying someone less than someone else doing an equivalent job - well good for them. Personally though I am boggled by what some of the 'Talent' are pulling in. Is that old wind bag John Humphries really worth £600,000 + a year - I think not as for Jonathan Ross -pass the sick bag Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4519753940648239199.post-5679554940101412132018-01-01T06:08:00.003-08:002018-01-03T04:23:09.478-08:00Winter Flu epidemic "Winter Flu Plunges Hospitals into Chaos" reads the banner headline. But why does "Winter Flu" cause the Health Service to collapse? If I have flu I go to bed. It is that simple. I make myself a 'hot toddy' - recipe as follows:<br />
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Pour a generous measure of whisky (probably equivalent to a quadruple measure) into a glass - add water -then pour mixture into saucepan - then add generous quantity of lemon juice - a spoonful of honey and sprinkle in some cloves. Put on the stove - stir it and -when it boils pour into a big mug and retire to bed.<br />
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Drink that and you fall instantly asleep and wake up on the mend. It is that simple.<br />
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Instead the modern 'snowflakes' rush up to the doctor's surgery or - even more brain numbingly stupid to hospital where they will sit shivering - and getting sicker - for some hours - whilst generously spreading their germs amongst a large section of the population -how selfish and stupid can you be?<br />
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The resulting headlines will squeal about lack of NHS funding etc. No - I don't think there is any 'lack of NHS funding' what there is unfortunately is a 'snowflake' population which can't even do simple things like put a plaster on a finger or go to bed with a hot drink without clogging up the arteries of the NHS with their pathetic little medical complaints. Francis Fulfordhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15082145549822339781noreply@blogger.com0