Events, Dear Boy, Events
I referred yesterday to mutual help on the internet. If you ever look at the event log to see what's troubling your computer, here's a useful site that explains what those error codes mean: http://eventid.net.The content is user-generated and it doesn't yet cover every single error code. And a problem can have any one of several causes. But I found many useful suggestions for one error that I was getting.
Of course, you can also look on the Microsoft site but I have never found that very helpful. Now there's a surprise.
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I am indebted to Mrs Cello (as the late Cyril Fletcher would have said) for this picture of the lizard she found in her garden - this year's must-have shoulder accessory.You may recall that she referred to it in the Comments Box. I found a frog in my garden but this woman had to go and top it, didn't she?
Cello has sometimes hinted that she has some connection with the advertising industry so some of you may have thought it was just a newt or a twig that looked like a lizard, so here is the evidence.
His name is Wally (though I doubt that he knows that) because he is a Common Wall Lizard (Podarcus muralis). A slight misnomer because in Britain it's quite uncommon to find them in your garden.
Found anything unusual in your garden? Send me a pic. User-generated content again. Every lazy blogger's dream.
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Prince Harry is 21 today. Happy Birthday Your Royal Gingerness.The Today programme on Radio 4 devotes one of its prime slots after the 8 o'clock news to a long interview with the third in line to the throne.
Well, to be fair, it was a quiet day for news. 120 dead in Iraq as that country comes ever closer to civil war. The petrol price problems. The future of the United Nations.
Much of the interview was about Harry having now 'grown up'.
Britain will only have grown up as a country when our leading morning news programme stops giving that kind of prominence to a member of the Royal Family.
While we're on the subject, Harry's father was supposed to have said that if fox hunting was made illegal he would leave the country. Well, the law was passed and he's still here. What's keeping you, Charles? The Duchy of Cornwall revenues could easily be channelled into a Swiss bank account. There'd be more than enough to keep you and Camilla in Toblerones well into your dotage. Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
posted by Willie Lupin @ 11:27 AM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Oh! For goodness sake change the record and stop whinging on about the Royal family.
Arf! A bad heckler!
I read recently a quotation (from whom, I know not) that said "The purpose of the second son of the monarch is to enrich the gaiety of the nation".
I have to say that young "Hazza" does an awfully good job at that, being (like his ex-Aunty, Fergie) a silly, ginger person with a heart of gold. He (like his Dad and Brother) receive no public money, yet are treated by childish republicans (I'm not talking about you!) as if they are systematically plundering the wealth of the nation. Yes, he's a bit of a nob, but I like him. Leave him be, Willie.
PS The Today programme is 3 hours long - I happened to listen to a lot of it this morning while stuck in traffic - the Harry interview must have taken all of 10 minutes (from 0810 to 0820). Hardly the sycophantic wall-to-wall coverage you're implying.
anonymous: I have written about the Royal Family only a handful of times in the year I've been doing this blog. Not exactly constant whingeing.
With respect, this is a personal journal. If I wished I could air my republican views seven days a week. But reading my opinions is entirely optional.
merkin: you rather misrepresent what I said. I didn't attack Harry. I have no strong views about him as a person. I criticised Today because by convention the slots after the hourly news are reserved for major news stories and interviews relating to them. I didn't accuse them of wall-to-wall coverage. I've just switched off the ITV news because it led on Prince Harry. I don't mind them covering it. perhaps as a lighter item to end the bulletin. It's the warped news priorities that annoys me.
Although the Wales gang don't get Civil List salaries, it's not true that they get no public money. To give just one example, Clarence House was recently refurbished at huge public expense when Charles moved there after the Queen Mother's death.
In any case, from my standpoint it's not acceptable for one man to own great chunks of Cornwall. If property is theft, then Charles makes the Great Train Robbers look like shoplifters.
I would probably note that you don't realise what kind of tourist revenue the royal family brings to Britain. And also, without the Royal Family, a significant amount of trading routes to India and other ex-colonies would collapse, leave a massive hole in the import/export market.
As for Fox Hunting being illegalised, that is not quite the case yet. It can still be done under some regulations and on private land. The ban was for fox hunting on public land. Which, funnily enough is where most of it occurs, but hey, it's not quite illegal yet. And also, Prince Charles most probably said that to voice his concern for the subject, and as a bit of a threat in the hope that it'd stop this mess. Sadly the Royal Family doesn't seem to have the influence it used to, due to left wing idiots. Communism is not cool.
Willie - sorry! I wasn't intending to misrepresent you, I was just pointing out that 10 minutes in a 3 hour programme on a subject that (rightly or wrongly) is of huge interest to a lot of people isn't (IMO) exactly a massive intrusion. Although the Duchy of Cornwall is a private trust, just like any other large landowner (and subject to the same taxes, laws etc), the obvious riposte to the first part to your final syllogism ("If property is theft"),is "it isn't, it's property"!
Anonymous - you could always use a pseudonym if you didn't want to be identified (like most people do). Anonymous (unless you wrote "Primary Colors") is hardly a crusading shield behind which to make such absurd generalisations as:
And also, without the Royal Family, a significant amount of trading routes to India and other ex-colonies would collapse, leave a massive hole in the import/export market. What? Really? What utter rot. I am a fervent monarchist, but the moment people justify an entire system of constitutional governance on tourism (and the notion that in today's globalised world a trade route would collapse if we became a Republic), I reach for my guillotine.
And fox hunting with hounds is now illegal in England & Wales, whatever land you do it on. There is hardly any "public land" anyway - what on earth are you talking about - municipal parks? The law applies to Farmer Bloggs' land as much as National Parks.
I suspect that you're a bored 6th former who stumbled across blogging quite recently. Welcome to the fun, but don't make up facts. People get annoyed. Pip pip.
anon: as someone who worked for many years in the tourist industry, I believe the value of the monarchy to tourism is greatly exaggerated. It does not depend on having a functioning monarchy whom few tourists ever see.
I don't recall ever mentioning communism.
merkin: to be fair, I do allow anonymous comments, unlike many other blogs.
The media have an exaggerated idea of the public's interest in the monarchy. And the monarchy work closely with the media to try and sustain public interest because when people become totally indifferent the monarchy is doomed.
It was the particular 10 minutes on the Today programme I was objecting to - the slot reserved for major news stories. Harry saying he likes Camilla is no more news than Dog Bites Man. If he'd said 'I can't stand the rancid old bitch', that would have had more news value.
The 'If' in that quote from Proudhon was not accidental. But enormous concentrations of property/wealth in the hands of a few people is something I find unjustifiable.
Yes, the collapse of trading routes with ex-colonies was tosh but it was also very funny.
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