Spy corner

[Godot 149]

Have been doing some research tonight, including a trawl through previous threads and can't find anything on spies.

 

Some more research is needed on people like George Blake, Michael Bettaney and Lord Cuckney who are all getting on. Cuckney would prefer people didn't know it but he was in British intelligence according to Peter Wright in Spycatcher.

 

Wickipedia has bugger all on Bettaney and Blake but both must be good ages by now. Must be some good old American spies out there? Does anyone know anything about spies beyond The Man From UNCLE?

[Ringo 0]

I thought George Blake died ages ago but a brief trawl through the net suggests not. I must have got him confused with one of Cambridge spies. Fair play to him. He got bounced out of the nick before Ronnie Biggs so must be one of the UK's longest serving fugitives from justice. Then again, if he has snuffed it, who would know. He maybe in a maggot factory somewhere in Moscow for all we know.

[Godot 149]

Come to think of it, he looks a bit pasty. I wonder what happened to Ilya?

 

http://www.robertvaughn.com/

[Ringo 0]

Michael Bettaney's entry on Wikipedia is a bit brief. From memory, yes I am that old, he was relatively young when he was prosecuted. Late thirties/early forties at most. So he may not even be collecting his pension yet. There are bigger fishes to fry I think than him on the death list. If you are interested in British Espionage,

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Andrew

 

This guys work is a good starting point.

[Godot 149]

Yes I have his Secret Service book in my little collection. Mentions of Cuckney, however, who is a genuinely big fish, are rare. Wright described him as a "tough, no nonsense" training officer in MI5. he also had big role in the Westland affair. Bettaney was not a big fish, but he will be remembered. No idea of his age though. Blake is in his 80s now.

[Cowboy Ronnie 78]

Profumo made this year's list, and he's spy-related. We should consider James Bond for 2007, because the next film will surely suck, and hopefully then they'll kill off the series. Hasn't been a decent Bond flick since The Spy Who Loved Me.

[Godot 149]

Profumo was a war minister in danger of being compromised but never a spy or, to use the old fashioned word, a traitor. He has done many good things in his life since the ruination of his political career.

 

James Bond is a fictional character. How can that be killed off?

 

But what happened to Illya Kuryakin (David McCullum)? Haven't seen him since he was locked up in Colditz.

[Godot 149]

Haven't seen any comments on the rock? Was it one of our's, or was it really a plant?

[Dr Hackenslash 25]

Haven't seen any comments on the rock? Was it one of our's, or was it really a plant?

The view among my "contacts" is that the rock story was a British plant to cover-up another, more shocking espionage programme that we are working on in Russia.

 

As for spies - David Shayler for a living one.

 

Christopher Marlowe was thought to be a spy, too.

[Tempus Fugit 214]

As for spies - David Shayler for a living one.

Spies! David Shayler

 

More like a fat whingeing bastard who blew the whistle when he was passed over for promotion.

[Geronimo 3]

George Blake was not so bad a bloke for a spy. I can understand why he did it and why other prisoners helped him escape. I'm beginning to worry about the US myself after hearing an item about Bob Woodward on the Today programme this morning suggesting that the US was beginning to treat the UK as a Halibut threat. Will they come and bomb us?

[Tempus Fugit 214]

George Blake was not so bad a bloke for a spy. I can understand why he did it and why other prisoners helped him escape. I'm beginning to worry about the US myself after hearing an item about Bob Woodward on the Today programme this morning suggesting that the US was beginning to treat the UK as a Halibut threat. Will they come and bomb us?

Well if they start on Slough, me and Betjeman are all for it.

[Banshees Scream 110]

Tempus Fugit, I demand you to reveal who this Benjamin character is? Lately I feel as if this person or object is a threat.

[Tempus Fugit 214]

Tempus Fugit, I demand you to reveal who this Benjamin character is? Lately I feel as if this person or object is a threat.

He is the patron saint of suburbia.

[Geronimo 3]

George Blake was not so bad a bloke for a spy. I can understand why he did it and why other prisoners helped him escape. I'm beginning to worry about the US myself after hearing an item about Bob Woodward on the Today programme this morning suggesting that the US was beginning to treat the UK as a Halibut threat. Will they come and bomb us?

Well if they start on Slough, me and Betjeman are all for it.

"And talk of sports and makes of cars

In various bogus Tudor bars

And daren't look up and see the stars

But belch instead"

 

A bit like the Deathlist

[Octopus of Odstock 2,197]

Tempus Fugit, I demand you to reveal who this Benjamin character is? Lately I feel as if this person or object is a threat.

 

Sir John Betjeman

 

Not that BS will take a blind bit of notice...

[Banshees Scream 110]

He is the patron saint of suburbia.

 

I don't trust Benjamin. I think he is somewhat of a bald dwarf with a red robe. Black shiny shoes, and though he acts very kind, it just might explain why you are questioning the behavier of your objects. I wouldn't be so sure that he is who he says that he is. His reflection must appear ageless, a soft spoken entity that looks around 70 but is 135 years old. Put a cross around your neck friend, lead him outside and lock all your windows and doors. Take my word wisely.

[Geronimo 3]

I wonder if Miss Joan Hunter Dunn is still alive?

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

I wonder if Banshees is?

[Banshees Scream 110]

I wonder if Banshees is?

 

I wonder what people are like in upper Egypt? What is your life story Anubis The Jackal?

[Anubis the Jackal 77]

Oh, Banshees. Do you really want to know?

 

 

 

John Betjeman

 

Death In Leamington

 

She died in the upstairs bedroom

By the light of the ev'ning star

That shone through the plate glass window

From over Leamington Spa

 

Beside her the lonely crochet

Lay patiently and unstirred,

But the fingers that would have work'd it

Were dead as the spoken word.

 

And Nurse came in with the tea-things

Breast high 'mid the stands and chairs-

But Nurse was alone with her own little soul,

And the things were alone with theirs.

 

She bolted the big round window,

She let the blinds unroll,

She set a match to the mantle,

She covered the fire with coal.

 

And "Tea!" she said in a tiny voice

"Wake up! It's nearly five"

Oh! Chintzy, chintzy cheeriness,

Half dead and half alive.

 

Do you know that the stucco is peeling?

Do you know that the heart will stop?

From those yellow Italianate arches

Do you hear the plaster drop?

 

Nurse looked at the silent bedstead,

At the gray, decaying face,

As the calm of a Leamington ev'ning

Drifted into the place.

 

She moved the table of bottles

Away from the bed to the wall;

And tiptoeing gently over the stairs

Turned down the gas in the hall.

 

[TLC 9]

Tempus Fugit, I demand you to reveal who this Benjamin character is? Lately I feel as if this person or object is a threat.

 

Sir John Betjeman

 

Not that BS will take a blind bit of notice...

I don't trust Benjamin. I think he is somewhat of a bald dwarf with a red robe. Black shiny shoes, and though he acts very kind, it just might explain why you are questioning the behavier of your objects. I wouldn't be so sure that he is who he says that he is. His reflection must appear ageless, a soft spoken entity that looks around 70 but is 135 years old. Put a cross around your neck friend, lead him outside and lock all your windows and doors. Take my word wisely.

What made you say that OoO?

[Tempus Fugit 214]

Slough in context, to hell with Ricky Gervais.

Tempus Fugit, I demand you to reveal who this Benjamin character is? Lately I feel as if this person or object is a threat.

Come friendly bombs and fall on Slough!

It isn't fit for humans now,

There isn't grass to graze a cow.

Swarm over, Death!

 

Come, bombs and blow to smithereens

Those air -conditioned, bright canteens,

Tinned fruit, tinned meat, tinned milk, tinned beans,

Tinned minds, tinned breath.

 

Mess up the mess they call a town—

A house for ninety-seven down

And once a week a half a crown

For twenty years.

 

And get that man with double chin

Who'll always cheat and always win,

Who washes his repulsive skin

In women's tears:

 

And smash his desk of polished oak

And smash his hands so used to stroke

And stop his boring dirty joke

And make him yell.

 

But spare the bald young clerks who add

The profits of the stinking cad;

It's not their fault that they are mad,

They've tasted Hell.

 

It's not their fault they do not know

The birdsong from the radio,

It's not their fault they often go

To Maidenhead

 

And talk of sport and makes of cars

In various bogus-Tudor bars

And daren't look up and see the stars

But belch instead.

 

In labour-saving homes, with care

Their wives frizz out peroxide hair

And dry it in synthetic air

And paint their nails.

 

Come, friendly bombs and fall on Slough

To get it ready for the plough.

The cabbages are coming now;

The earth exhales

[Godot 149]

Maybe this should be renamed poetry corner. My favourite Betjeman starts like this:

 

In the licorice fields of Pontefract

My love and I did meet

And many a burdoned licorice bush

Was blooming round our feet;

Red hair she had and golden skin,

Her sulky lips were shaped for sin,

Her sturdy legs were flannel-slack'd,

The strongest legs in Pontefract.

[Tempus Fugit 214]

Maybe this should be renamed poetry corner. My favourite Betjamin starts like this:

 

In the licorice fields of Pontefract

My love and I did meet

And many a burdoned licorice bush

Was blooming round our feet;

Red hair she had and golden skin,

Her sulky lips were shaped for sin,

her sturdy legs were flannel-slack'd,

The strongest legs in Pontefract.

Oh god I'm an alcoholic.

 

Half a bottle of scotch gone in a few hours, lordy, lordy.

 

It all started so well, bugger, bugger, bugger.