So Maggie Smith has died. On yesterday’s news broadcasts masses of actors and actors expressed their dismay. You could hear the tears in their voices. It was as if they queued up to tell the world about their good fortune at have worked with that Dame.
This morning Michael Palin wrote: I rate our work together as some of the happiest times of my life. I shall mourn her passing most sadly, but remember her most gladly.
For me she’ll always be Miss Jean Brodie, in her prime!
Here’s a headline that made us smile:
CHINA MAY BE USING THE SEA TO HIDE ITS SUBMARINES
No comment!
Boris Johnson is about to unleash his book, “Unleashed”, on the world. The Daily Mail has apparently been publishing extracts, which I have not read, I hasten to say. I suppose some people will buy it. According to reports on the extracts, it seems he seriously considered military action agains the Netherlands during the covid crisis.
“Boris Johnson considered an “aquatic raid” on a Dutch warehouse to seize Covid vaccines during the height of the pandemic, he has revealed in his memoirs.
The former prime minister discussed plans with senior military officials in March 2021, according to an extract from his forthcoming book, Unleashed, published in the Daily Mail.
The AstraZeneca vaccine was, at the time, at the heart of a cross-Channel row over exports, and Johnson believed the EU was treating the UK “with malice”.”
It seems he regarded the vaccine as “legally ours” and therefore we had the right to charge in and get it. A bit of derring-do!
However, “The deputy chief of the defence staff, Lt Gen Doug Chalmers, told the prime minister the plan was “certainly feasible” and would involve using rigid inflatable boats to navigate Dutch canals.
“They would then rendezvous at the target; enter; secure the hostage goods, exfiltrate using an articulated lorry, and make their way to the Channel ports,” Johnson wrote.
However, Chalmers told Johnson it would be difficult to carry out the mission undetected, meaning the UK would “have to explain why we are effectively invading a longstanding Nato ally”.
There you go!
Some people, it seems, never grow out of playing games. Maybe he was serious or maybe he was just “codding on”, which is a new-to-me expression for joking or teasing. But somehow it seems typical of a prime minister who enjoyed dressing up and driving buses and fork-lift trucks! I bet he would have led the raid himself, given half a chance!
I have gone on quite frequently about the silliness of teaching small children the names of parts of speech, when the time could better be used reading them stories and encouraging their imagination. Here’s a cartoon from Calvin and Hobbs on that subject:
I read some statistics this morning that suggested that “if American women were denied the vote, Donald Trump would be restored to the White House in a landslide. Similarly, if men were removed from the franchise, Kamal Harris would be swept into the Oval Office in an even bigger earthquake.”
“An NBC poll this week found men favour Trump over Harris by 12 points, 52% to 40%. Among women, Harris leads Trump by 21 points: 58% to 37%.”
I must say I’m surprised that any women might consider voting for Trump but there’s no accounting for taste.
With Taylor Swift endorsing Kamala Harris, maybe Swifties registered to vote will be influenced towards Democrats.
On the subject of singers influencing politics, here’s a link to a song by Stevie Nicks in protest against the restriction of abortion rights in so many states of the USA.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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