YoungWillz

Dan Goozee, US artist famed for movie posters for The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure and three Bond movies, reportedly dead: https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/dan-goozee-biography?id=05281

One of those DDP picks. But then if anyone knows that, it's time.

Peter Higgs Guardian straight to QO: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/apr/09/peter-higgs-physicist-who-discovered-higgs-boson-dies-aged-94

Sir Paul Fox QO: https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/09/bbc-legend-sir-paul-fox-launched-classic-tv-shows-dies-aged-98-20613496/

Sir Paul Fox reportedly dead: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/sir-paul-fox-former-bbc-100929700.html

I'll take your word for it, as I can't see that page. The possibilities of these guys having gone abroad (sounds like most of them) and then dying off radar just went up! Shame they are relatively forgotten about. I wonder if the Who site meant to say "the surviving drummer"? "The" is, as they say, the definite article, if he meant to say that other band members were alive, I'd expect him to say "a surviving member". Acht.

I think we previously discussed that Hoather had a FB page which may throw some light on the others since we last talked about them. Don't know if you tried to contact him or got anything then, but it's been 4 years.

I became intrigued by The Naturals recently. Interesting. There's this which is a possible obit for Curt Cresswell from 2018: https://www.saffronwaldenreporter.co.uk/memorials/death-notices/death/30384999.curtis-william-cresswell-curt/ There's also this, an article bearing to be from October 2023 which indicates that Roy Hoather is the surviving member of the band: https://www.thewho.info/Other0.htm Don't know if further investigation might throw something up? Difficult one, I know.

Walid Daqqa(h) QO: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-13285715/Amnesty-International-urges-Israel-return-body-ailing-Palestinian-died-custody.html

Clarence Frogman Henry QO: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-13285547/Clarence-Frogman-Henry-New-Orleans-R-B-singer-1956-hit-Aint-Got-No-Home-dies.html

Report that Scott Westgarth's father John Westgarth, a boxer who fought Herbie Hide, Razor Ruddock and Glenn McCrory, has now died:

It's like something has passed in front of the sun and plunged us all into darkness. No, wait, that's in about an hour...

Out and about in a wheelchair: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-13283041/Brian-Wilson-seen-public-dementia-diagnosis-wheelchair-Los-Angeles-Lakers.html

Dickie Rooks a hit for @Gooseberry Crumble: https://www.scunthorpe-united.co.uk/news/2024/april/in-memoriam-dickie-rooks/ Died 6 April.

Dickie Rooks' death announced by a source at Scunthorpe: https://www.scunthorpe-united.co.uk/news/2024/april/in-memoriam-dickie-rooks/ So a definite List of the Missed now.

Ha! I despise most politicians, you haven't been paying attention to my posting history. I'm all for democracy and equal rights. But how is the field levelled by giving a candidate an inbuilt advantage with the electorate simply by luck of birth? I'm hardly authoritarian for wanting a just system, not one dictated by genes. It's unfair You are free to disagree with me without resorting to slurring my character, rather than addressing that point.

And I don't want a Commons filled with the offspring of politicians. There you go. My point about patronage, nepotism and corruption in the Lords clearly espoused, thank you.

Well, that's a matter of dispute which of a Sunday evening I'm not prepared to debate at length. Benn could have held on to his hereditary title and worked from the Lords. You have heard of ministers being appointed from the Lords, I take it? Once again there's a dynasty still crackling along in Parliament. The divine right of kings did for some of the Stuarts, the divine right of power and nepotism is exposed nicely by Tony and his son who currently sits in the Commons.

Way round it obviously is to permit their appointment to the Lords. They would still have a "political" career, and they would be where the true hereditaries are - thus continuing the exposure of the whole stinking corrupt system.

Ah, those good old political dynasties, they always work, don't they? The Kennedys and Bushes in America, the inherited politics of North Korea, etc etc. Will you only listen when all of Boris' kids are in charge?

Understand he's a current DDP pick and straight to QO.

American Pat Hennen, the first US motorcycle racer to win a 500cc World Championship Grand Prix, reportedly dead: Suffered brain damage on the Isle of Man TT races in 1978 which curtailed his career.

I find myself holding up the tower of names on my zero points. I should warn you, my upper body strength isn't good. That tower could come tumbling down at any time! (I feel it likely though that I may be stuck there for some considerable time to come!).

This is true. It's also true that the hoi polloi are influenced by family connections. The great unwashed like stability, continuity and the idea that their old ma or pa will still have influence over them. There's an inbuilt advantage, quite apart from actual policy, ability or promise, over other contenders. We may like to believe that doesn't exist, but it does. Of course, we are in seismic times, when the public are as disaffected as they are now, that goes out the window. But in quieter times, that advantage counts. Imo.

Personally, I have never been in favour of nepotism in any form. I like Hoyle, I think he's generally above reproach (except for that huge mistake recently). But I am all in favour of the children of MPs or former MPs being barred from standing for the Commons. And yes, that includes Stephen Kinnock from Labour and former Tory MP Nick Hurd. Otherwise the place just becomes another hereditary-like aristo system. Skipping a generation, maybe. A couple of generations, better. Ban the kids though. Ban them all.