jmh8300

2008 - a Giap year?

f*****g half pint, Gazza, get some drugs in yer system! Be a man! Cheers, BHB Thanks. I recounted my tale to a couple of Newcastle fans, and despite shouts of "Buy him a drink," they were disappointed to hear he was once again on the sauce. I note from the link to The Sun, (strangely reporting a story accurately) that Gazza hadn't changed his clothes from when I saw him on the train. Ugh. Like MaryPortFunCity, I agree he has a few years left in him yet, but unless he can stop drinking, not too many. I wonder if the liver transplant people will offer him one, following George Best's example?

I was on the 2PM train from London to Aberdeen last Friday, and Gazza was at the next table with Jimmy "Five bellies" and some slapper. He was clearly the worse for wear even before the buffet car opened. Highlights of the journey included: Gazza and Jimmy discussing which was their favourite, Stella or Strongbow. Jimmy asking the trolley dolly if they could use her ice bucket for their white wine and being amazed when they were told "No, I need it." The ticket inspector telling Gazza to stop smoking in the guard's van. Twice. The frequency and loudness of the swearing increasing in direct proportion to the amount of alcohol consumed. Gazza being so pissed by arrival at Newcastle that on being woken, he didn't know who he was. It was sad to see him in such a state. He spoke in the slow, slurred drawl of someone who is not just pissed but someone who has had the speech centres of their brain permanently affected. Yes, I can tell the difference between an alcoholic and a Geordie accent. What awaits him now? Years of alcoholism and an inevitable decline, no doubt. He's bound to be a good bet for future years, given his dependency on the booze and friends like Jimmy, it's just a matter of time before disease or gross stupidity takes him off. Shame.

Langham is running a modified Townshend defence, namely "I was conducting research." The difference being that old big nose, despite having 15 (!) computers seized and searched, was not found to have downloaded a single image of child abuse. He was tracked through his credit card and admitted to viewing sites, however his subsequent caution must surely have been made possible since he had made previous anti-porn statements and conducted work on behalf of child care charities. The police did not have that option in Langham's case. Anyone who has seen his work, will know that he's not a stupid man but he was reckless in the extreme to think he could visit porn sites, download images of child abuse and not be tracked down. There have been numerous cases where downloading such files leads to arrest, humiliation and ruin - he did not learn that lesson and will no doubt pay heavily and rightly. "Burn the nonce at the stake," is in my book a little harsh, you never know when you might set fire to some passing paediatrician, but if he is found guilty he should serve his time and seek treatment. It appears as if the circle of abuse continues, if his claims of abuse are true. Very sad for all concerned, especially the child victims.

I have a simple solution to this problem. Abolish the lot of them - bollocks and all.

In my view, Irving is dishonestly inaccurate. Whether this makes him worse than a child molester and paedophile, I'm not sure. I would say that Irving has "fallen" further in terms of reputation than Glitter, who was after all a faded 70's pop star, however most people would judge child abuse a greater crime than the falsification of history. Can I vote that they are as equally despicable?

Utter bollocks! The holocaust was not limited to those murdered in the concentration camps or extermination camps - you do appreciate there was a difference, I take it - countless atrocities - mostly mass shootings, occurred before the camps and ghettos were even established. Google the word "Einsatzgruppen" for an idea of the appalling suffering the Germans and their collaborators inflicted on the Jews primarily, but also of course on the Poles, Czechs, Russians and other nationalities they subjugated. The most respected authority on the Holocaust, Dr. Raul Hilberg, estimates that the total number of Jews exterminated was between 5 and 5.5 million, if you want to play the numbers game. What Irvine did was to allow his own personal prejudices to subvert the historian's duty to tell the truth, thus diminishing himself as a human being and ruining his reputation. He has been proved to be a racist and holocaust denier and inaccurately intoning phrases such as, "there is no historical basis for the 6 million figure" - merely emphasises your lack of understanding.

Speaking as a middle aged cynical and twisted atheist of long standing, I can say that while I don't at all agree with Billy Graham's take on anything I can give him credit for what he has done. He has spearheaded a tremendous amount of work regarding the welfare of children and the oppressed. He is modestly compensated for what he does, especially when compared to other high profile evangelists. While he certainly isn't perfect - for example, his alleged anti-Semitism - I hold him in high regard for his willingness to walk his talk. But he's a deluded fool - like all believers in a rational god. At least Billy is subtle, extracting dollars from his docile and gullible followers over decades. As for his anti-Semiticism – what's the issue? Christianity has peddled that prejudice for millennia - it's just further proof of his and his faith's narrow-mindedness.

He's too sick to stand trial now...

Whilst listening to a very dull episode of “The Brain of Britain” on Radio 4 today, I began to wonder not only how old RR is but whether he would be somewhere on the DeathList, given that he was not exactly young back in the seventies, when presenting “Ask the Family.” I'm pleased to see he's here. A quick trawl on the net did not bring to light any news or more recent photographs of our subject than those apparently taken in 1973, so it's hard to tell how healthy he currently looks. He has just turned 79. To add to the nostalgic feel of this thread, here are a couple of reminders of his best work, "Ask the Family." First, a typical family of contestants. The Dawsons from "Godalming." George is these days a retried accountant, Tristan still collects stamps even after his gender reassignment, Simon works in advertising while Jennifer (yes those do look like NHS specs) does voluntary work at a lesbian collective in Camden. You can be assured that this is from the seventies by the massive preponderance of brown. To really bring it back, here are some obscure teasers from everyone's favourite Christmas present from 1972, The Ask the Family quiz book. Q. If Dover is 2 and Plymouth 3, what is Edinburgh? Q. If 8 follows 1, and 3 is between 17 and 19, which number is dead centre? Q. A boy had 9 coins totalling 46.5p made up of three each of three different coins. What were the coins? Q. On a telephone dial, the finger hole for '0' is at six o'clock at the bottom. Which digit is at the top at twelve o'clock? Q. If an LP lasts 30 minutes, how many times will it revolve while being played? The last two, presumably like RR, are showing their age.

Good riddance to a man who can could count Thatcher, Regan and Pinochet as his disciples.

This from the BBC... He's been admitted to hospital four times this year - atherosclerosis and a stroke could yet be a winning combination for this year's list. Mind you from what I remember of him, he's most likely to die tripping up on the hospital steps.

So PW has gone on his final “voortrek.” History will undoubtedly and deservedly condemn him and his fellow NP members for their brutality and repression under apartheid but will Mandela, Mbeki and their successors be contrastingly favoured? I'm not sure. Mandela's spirit could be detected in the work of the Truth & Reconciliation Commission, and as others have said this no doubt prevented civil war, but Mbeki and other ANC leaders such as Zuma are NOT Mandelas. Corruption, murder, in-fighting, jobs for the boys, poor public services and the mismanagement of the AIDS epidemic are not good signs. The monolithic edifice of a one party state is not beneficial whether it's in Africa or elsewhere. As in Zimbabwe, the key issue is how the SA Government (read the ANC) handle the subject of land reform. Perhaps some sort of balance (as well as an additional deathlist success) could be achieved if Mandela popped his clogs in the final months of this year. By the way, I for one, and I concede I may be the only one, like the South African accent. I much prefer their sonorous tones to the phlegm coated, guttural whinings of say the Scousers or the disinterested, lethargic vowels of our friends in the West Midlands.

The high risk groups being? 1. A scouser. 2. Fat. 3. Golf playing. Of these, surely the most dangerous is the first. I watched approximately five seconds of the show last night, and was delighted to see that Bruce Forsyth is looking distinctly old. Not late middle-aged, but early old age. He's still no doubt marvellously fit for a man of his age, although his hair is about 20 years younger, he's also still marvellously irritating. As Saki's phrase has it, he is "one of those people who would be enormously improved by death."

Hmmm - no need to ask his agent how he is now. On a positive note, thanks to Phantom for reminding me about the then lovely Shirley Cheriton.

It's been a month and a half since the last post and disappointingly there's been no further news on RD's condition. I resolved to do some research and "googled" his name. Although intrinsically pleased that this thread was the top search result (Hi Ross! If you're "googling" your own name), I am peeved it as yet does not help with his present condition. My failure to uncover a reliable report, was in part ameliorated by stumbling across this site dedicated to the whereabouts of Z list celebrities and failed musicians. The 2004 page shows him as then being in Crewe, no doubt a reference to his role in Hollyoaks. He doesn't feature on the pages for 2005 or 2006 for obvious reasons. As an aside, if Does It Matter is still reading this thread, she will no doubt be as pleased as I, to note the legions of former Eastenders "stars" appearing in pantomime in quality locations such as Southsea, Milton Keynes and Dartford - surely the ass end of the biz we call "Show." I suppose someone with more nerve than I, could ring his agent, whose number is readily available via google and ask the question we all want answering.

Thought that they'd found fibres showing the guy had cut the cords himself. Suicide according to the Boys in Blue and the FSS - so it must be true.

Tribune's Michael Foot Fan site - I particularly enjoyed the article which described Foot as "rickety" - when he was a spritly 86 year old.

Tell that to Jane "Whizz wheels" Tomlinson Jane Tomlinson - she, like Michael, displays a determined resilience not to bow to the inevitable. "Jane has advanced metastatic breast cancer, the disease spread is extensive. The disease was diagnosed incurable on the 31st August 2000 the ride will finish on the 6th anniversary of the date. Jane’s prognosis was for her to survive six months. In the last six years Jane has had 4 courses of chemotherapy the last one consisting of Taxol will be completed on the 27th April only 60 days before starting the ride. Jane will continue Herceptin until the week before the ride starts. As a result of the drug regimes Jane has chronic heart disease and has only been able to start training for the ride since mid-April 2006." If she survives her bike ride in the US, perhaps she should be considered as a suitable candidate for the 2007 list? Anyway back to Michael. I met him briefly during the 83 GE campaign and he was charming - far too pleasant to lead the then severely dysfunctional Labour Party. He was also smartly dressed. He wore the famous "donkey jacket" simply to keep warm in his Saville Row suit during November's cenotaph ceremony.

The BBC interviewed her this week, as she was a guest at the Queen's 80th birthday celebrations. Vera Lynn BBC Depressingly, she looked well and was mentally alert enough to reminisce about the good old days of the war. On this showing, she seems healthy enough to survive the 2006 list and possibly even that for 2007. Although fate is fickle...

Might that be Frans Englich, a developer of KDE, the well know Linux desktop? OK probably not. Haughey's death is good for the DL score and for those of us who don't like gun-running crooks to hold executive power.

Why? I don't think she's the most hated person in the whole country, far from it in fact!! Personally I can't stand her. I got really annoyed last Christmas when we kept getting news reports about how she was doing in her quest to go round the world solo. "I haven't slept for days" " It's Christmas and I'm all alone in the South Seas" "I miss my family" blah blah blah. It was almost as if she was not there by choice and had been marched in to her boat at gun point. And she looks bloody odd as well. Agreed on all fronts. I admire her nautical bluffness but she is rather strange looking. The phrase "bulldog chewing a wasp" springs to mind. It's her lower jaw that sets her apart. Additionally she bears an uncanny resemblance to "Maureen from Driving School." Ellen displaying nautical bluffness. "Ellen" in 30 years time, after many pies.

Returning to the original question, I think that Tony Blair and GWB are currently the most hated pair in the world as a whole currently, but they will soon fade. Bush in what - a couple of years? Blair? Weeks hopefully, months possibly, within the year - definitely. That raises the question who has been the most hated of all time - measured by the number of people doing the hating at the time the person was alive? Enduring hatred down through the ages wins extra points. I've plumped immediately for Hitler. He was hated by the entire world apart from the Germans and Austrians (despite what they say) the Italians (reversed 1943), rather too many Ukranians, Lithuanians, Estonians and Latvians, some Hungarians, the Japanese (although they didn't really like him and he didn't really like them) - and not forgetting half of France. Finally of course we shouldn't forget Hitler's good friends, The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and most of the Arab world. I think winter of 41/42 would probably by the nadir of his popularity. American had joined the war, Russia had been invaded and Poland was feeling the full force of Nazi terror. News reels, radio and the press of the time would have spread news of the war to almost the entire planet's population. It would of course be fair to say that Hitler is not popular today. If that idea doesn't appeal. I have two words for you. Noel. Edmonds.

I saw Ron out and about last week, as usual walking his greyhound in the Goldenacre area of Edinburgh. He seems fit enough for someone in his 50s (?) - appearing to have more energy than his forlorn and hunched dog.

Paisley going strong at 80 Bugger! EDIT: Good grief what a complete twat I am. I meant to post my first entry on the site in the Ian Paisley thread and ended up starting a new one. I hang my head in shame. [Threads merged - ff]