R.I.P. Dame Maggie Smith

Here are Maggie Smith and Kenneth Williams reading Death in Leamington to Sir John Betjeman. It's my favourite of his poems, the one that certainly deserves to live. 

They read it well but not nearly as well as I do, in my head.

Quotations

Talmud Enjoyer @jew_AndAhalfMen

If Nasrallah wanted to fight the Zionists, he should’ve just bombed his own headquarters himself

'"We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavour to shine. We labour unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence, and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness, or generosity, or truthfulness, we are eager to make it known, so as to attach these virtues to that imaginary existence." 

'Pascal’s description of this particular misery could be very easily applied to any of the social media platforms. There is a great disconnect from reality when we interact with the internet, and even when we use it as a tool. But it is rarely a tool. Rather, it is a form of manipulation and behaviour modification. The absurd and sorrowful part of it is that it seems inescapable.

Quotations

 'Under the liberal pre-war planning] system, Cambridge’s huge success in life sciences would have allowed it to grow, both up and out, ‘connected by new train lines, trams, tubes, and roads. It would likely have a population of at least a million today, just as Glasgow grew from a population of 70,000 in 1800 to over 700,000 in 1900 to facilitate its world-leading shipbuilding industry.’ Ed West

Talmud Enjoyer @jew_AndAhalfMen

If Nasrallah wanted to fight the Zionists, he should’ve just bombed his own headquarters himself

'"We do not content ourselves with the life we have in ourselves and in our own being; we desire to live an imaginary life in the mind of others, and for this purpose we endeavour to shine. We labour unceasingly to adorn and preserve this imaginary existence, and neglect the real. And if we possess calmness, or generosity, or truthfulness, we are eager to make it known, so as to attach these virtues to that imaginary existence." 

Quotations

'How much more grievous are the consequences of anger than the causes of it.' Marcus Aurelius 

'Love is what makes growing up bearable.' Eve Pollard

'The sense of unhappiness is so much easier to convey than that of happiness. In misery we seem aware of our own existence, even though it may be in the form of a monstrous egotism: this pain of mine is individual, this nerve that winces belongs to me and to no other. But happiness annihilates us: we lose our identity.' Graham Greene

'Punishment should be delivered in a swift and brutal manner, while rewards should be dispersed in small amounts over time.' Machiavelli

'You gotta have a body.' Jayne Mansfield

Quotations

"It is entirely conceivable that life's splendour forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from our view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. This is the essence of magic, which does not create but summons."
Franz Kafka, Diary, 18 October 1921

"Only the educated are free." Epictetus

"What do you want liberation from? What is there to be proud of? I don't believe in rights for homosexuals." Quentin Crisp to Peter Tatchell in 1974

"Man is free at the moment he wishes to be." Voltaire

"Those who travel about England for their pleasure, or, for that matter, about any part of Western Europe, rightly associate with such travel the pleasure of history; for history adds to a man, giving him, as it were, a great memory of things—like a human memory, but stretched over a far longer space than that of one human life. It makes him, I do not say wise and great, but certainly in communion with wisdom and greatness."
Hilaire Belloc, First and Last (1911)

Quotations

"Walking is man's best medicine." Hippocrates

"Nothing can be more obvious than that all animals were created solely and exclusively for the use of man." The Reverend Dr Gaster in Thomas Love Peacock's Headlong Hall

"One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries."  A.A. Milne

Interesting

From Ned Donovan's blog.

Since Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807 a tradition developed, the origin of which is slightly unclear, that any slave who touched the British flag would immediately be free and granted protection from future slavery by the King or Queen of the time. As flags can sometimes be quite high up, this legend evolved to allow someone to instead touch a flagpole and receive the same magic effect.

Netanyahu is "seeking to run out the clock until the American election"

US officials told the New York Times that Prime Benjamin Netanyahu is "seeking to run out the clock until the American election", meaning he will postpone a deal over the captives held in Gaza until the election in order not to help Kamala Harris.

Swedes at Poltava

The Russians want us to believe that they killed many Swedes at Poltava three days ago and this is why the Swedish Foreign Minister has suddenly resigned, but there is no evidence for this.

Poltava means a lot to Russians, Ukrainians, Swedes and anyone who knows some history or knows Dr Johnson's The Vanity of Human Wishes.

On what Foundation stands the Warrior’s Pride?
How just his Hopes let Swedish Charles decide;

Quotations

"To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up."
Ogden Nash's words apply not just to marriage but to life in general. Please never say 'I told you so.'

What the British thought about immigrants ten years ago

The British authorities blame the far right for the recent riots, but 67% of British people think immigration policy in recent years has “a great deal” or “fair amount” of responsibility” for the unrest, according to a new YouGov poll. 

The British Future survey, which had a very large sample, was published in December 2014. It showed that 25% of British adults thought that all immigrants, legal or illegal, should be repatriated. 52% disagreed and 23% didn't answer. 

These figures are here at p.17.  

23% of the population back then were very far right indeed and the silence of another quarter is eloquent.

Quotations

"I am never more serious than when I am joking." Robert Frost

"I’m incredibly proud of my brother. Selfishly I will have him back to enjoy whatever time we have left.” Frank Biden talking to the TV channel CBS, making it sound like Joe Biden is very far gone, but we knew that.

Trump is at war with MI6

“Trump buys the Putin view that big countries get to call the shots in their own back yard.” Former MI6 Chief Sir Alex Younger talking to Robert Peston on Wednesday March 10. 

I immediately thought of the invasion of Panama.

General Noriega of Panama (known as old pineapple face because of his acne scars, adorned his bedroom with posters of Marylin Monroe and Adolf Hitler. To be fair to the USA Noriega, expecting he would be overthrown by the US, declared war on the USA, the first man to do so since Admiral Horthy of Hungary after American troops 


John Helmer, the veteran left-wing Australian-American Moscow correspondent says:

Trump's suspicion bordering on hatred for MI6 is well known. One driver of the minerals agreement was Trump's suspicion that the British had already signed up mineral concession rights in Starmer's "100-year pact" signed on January 16. 

Revolt

“A riot is the language of the unheard.” Martin Luther King

'If there is hope it lies in the proles.' (George Orwell, 1984)

'These riots are a great opportunity for the Government in future to label any person who questions mass immigration (or progressive values in general) as supporters of violence.' Peter Totman

End times

You are dying. I see in you all the characteristic stigma of decay. I can prove to you that your great wealth and your great poverty, your capitalism and your socialism, your wars and your revolutions, your atheism and your ­pessimism and your cynicism, your immorality, your broken-down marriages, your birth-control, that is bleeding you from the bottom and killing you off at the top in your brains—I can prove to you that those were characteristic marks of the dying ages of ancient States—Alexandria and Greece and neurotic Rome.
Oswald Spengler, The Decline of the West

Understanding

John Simpson
@JohnSimpsonNews
These mindless riots are doing untold damage to the UK’s reputation right across the world. And yet the secret sympathisers still say ‘Of course I disapprove of what’s happening, but…’ And then they make the racists’ case for them.

 

John Simpson says in BBC World Service TV ads that the BBC presents the news with absolutely no spin, but makes no secret of his dislike of Brexit and Trump. Today he completely fails to understand what is happening in the riots. I understood why September 11th happened without thinking the killings justified. I understand now - though I didn't straight away - why Putin invaded Ukraine and see stupid US diplomacy provoked him. I say this without justifying the invasion. I completely understand why the Taliban defeated the  corrupt American collaborationist government.

While I was on holday in the Transylvanian Alps a rebellion has broken out in my country

From today's Sunday Telegraph.

Tyrannies prefer foreigners to citizens

"It is also a habit of tyrants to prefer the company of aliens to that of citizens at table and in society; citizens, they feel, are enemies, but aliens will offer no opposition.” Aristotle on Tyranny. I am ashamed that I have not read it and will quickly. Clearly it is highly topical.

Today is the late Queen Mother's birthday

Today is the birthday of the late Queen Mother, who was born in 1900 and died in 2002. Here is a painting of her by Laszlo from 1925 when she was Duchess of York. 

She was a close friend of my beloved Mgr Alfred Gilbey who was born in the same year, 1900, and each year they competed in a race down the stairs of the Travellers' Club which by convention always resulted in a tie. 

The Duke of Windsor, Edward VIII, who by his abdication made her queen, referred to her as Cooky. 

The Queen was a good Queen to the King and his subjects. She was heartily loved, especially for her liking for alcohol and racing. 

She was very slightly a royal edition of Giles' Grandma.

She had very old fashioned views about race and inaugurated the statue to Bomber Harris erected with money raised by the public.

At a country house Friday to Monday, discussing P.G. Wodehouse, she said 'People say he's not true to life, but look around you.'

She said the BBC radio soap opera 'The Archers' was the only way she had to know how the middle classes lived.

The Duchess of Windsor never loved the man who gave up the throne for her and deceived him with the former champagne salesman Ribbentrop, whose views on Jews she largely shared. He remains the only member of the Travellers' Club to have been hanged.

Quotations

“The love of country is a deep and universal instinct... Men who deny their national spiritual heritage in exchange for a vague and watery cosmopolitanism become less than men; they starve and dwarf their personalities; they turn into a sort of political eunuch.” Stanley Baldwin

“Recognize that your struggle and your suffering is the same as everyone else’s, I think that’s the beginning of a responsible life. Otherwise, we are in a continual savage battle with each other with no possible solution, political, social, or spiritual.” Leonard Cohen

"An unbelievable manifestation of the darkness and sin in our world". Cardinal Raymond Burke describing the Olympics Opening Ceremony

'If Venezuela had a “dictator,” there would be no elections, let alone an election where “dictator” Maduro gets only 52% of the vote.' S.L. Kanthan

“Uncontrolled immigration threatens to deconstruct the nation we grew up in and convert it into a conglomeration of peoples with almost nothing in common — not history, heroes, language, culture, faith, or ancestors. Balkanization beckons.” Pat Buchanan