Livingstone - parochialist
Compare and contrast the following takes on the Trafalagar Square Christmas Tree which our Norwegian friends supply us with each year:
"The first tree was brought over in 1947 as a token of Norwegian appreciation of British friendship during the Second World War...The tree has become a symbol of the close and warm relationship between the people of Britain and Norway". Norway.org.uk
And
"The tree is a gift to the people of London from Norway...'This is the 60th Christmas tree to be placed in the square as a symbol of the friendship between London and Norway". London.gov.uk
If I were HRH Harald V, I would be tempted to send next year's tree to Manchester.
Mind you, Norwegians move in curious ways, as the Royal press office in Oslo has just had to issue a denial that the Crown Prince and Crown Princess had been using the good offices (?) of the equivalent of Nigel Dempster at a Norwegian newspaper to find them new friends.
"The first tree was brought over in 1947 as a token of Norwegian appreciation of British friendship during the Second World War...The tree has become a symbol of the close and warm relationship between the people of Britain and Norway". Norway.org.uk
And
"The tree is a gift to the people of London from Norway...'This is the 60th Christmas tree to be placed in the square as a symbol of the friendship between London and Norway". London.gov.uk
If I were HRH Harald V, I would be tempted to send next year's tree to Manchester.
Mind you, Norwegians move in curious ways, as the Royal press office in Oslo has just had to issue a denial that the Crown Prince and Crown Princess had been using the good offices (?) of the equivalent of Nigel Dempster at a Norwegian newspaper to find them new friends.
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Will you be my friend william?
My grandfather was in Norway during ww2 he loved the place and the people , the way he used to tel it I think he liberated the place single handedly (and italy)
Apparently the Hun and the Norwegians got on very well he was sent to take over a telephone exchange , when he got there he found that it was run by Germans most of whom had settled down with local girls they werent interested in fighting so that was that they carried on running the exchange for the brits and went on the piss with my grandfather plus introduced him to some nice norwegian girls.
If they stopped doing it we could a different kind of tree - like a palm tree courtesy of the military junta in Fiji- for example!
PH - We already are friends in a virtual sense aren't we? Maybe I should have a go at organising some drinking activities for bloggers and posters who didn't make the guest list....
If I'd been in the Wehrmacht, I would have regarded Norway as just about the best posting imaginable - a tolerable climate, nice scenery and not much resistance until '45.
There's a singular lack of military glory in my bloodline. Pa C did his national service with the RAF pay corps, grandfather C was too old, and my maternal grandfather was exempt because he worked for the Bank of England.
manchester.. lol
I've always rather liked Manchester, and given that Manchester used to (maybe still does) have an inflatable Father Christmas plus sleigh apparently performing an unnatural act with the Town Hall tower, maybe a Norwegian tree would improve matters somewhat.
The "Hitchens" are both lucky and unluck millitary wise ,unlucky to end up in wars but lucky enough to come back , I only exist because my great grandfathers best friend was killed during ww1 (shot himself in Egypt)so my great grandfaher married his fiancee my great grandmother.
My grandfather was unlucky enough to be a regular during ww2 when the Hun tried it on again, although he had a good war and mainly enjoyed it ,the only injury he got happened while riding a motorbike in Italy in baggy shorts. A wasp flew up his leg and stung him on the balls
My own lack of luck came when Going going through the RCB process , all POs have have to spend a couple of weeks with their sponsoring regt , I got sent to Ballykelly with the cheshires , 6 months later I would have got a free trip to Hong Kong.
Shows does it not the selective memory of Livingstone who claims to detest the mail for its support of the (now unmentionable) German party .Could he possible have more personal; reasons ? Surely not. He has forgotten the brave nation that stood alone against the marauding Hun however .
My uncle was a naval fighter pilot
One uncle went down with a ship
My grand father was retrieved from no-mans land minus shoulder in the first world war. ( Blighty wound ?)
My father bravely drove a bus in Egypt and Cyprus
It gets worse as you go along ending with me . I have such a prominent yellow streak that no-one would park on my back .eeek a wasp !!
PHITCH I think the ugly Abba singer was the spawn of a Norwegian hybridisation but why would anyone not want to be your friend ? On second thoughts don`t tell me.
Lord knows what horrors lurk behind the many shifting identities of the man they call “enigma”
Don't get me started on Livingstone. Whoops, it is already too late.
Quite the military record of the families Hitchens and Newmania. I suspect that if we had been called upon in the same way we would have grown into the roles, since the men who went to the colours were in the main very ordinary chaps.
It was the dark haired one with the family history she might have felt a touch awkward about. Still, as an American judge once said in another context, there are no illegitimate children, only illegitmate parents.
At the risk of opening a can of worms, I felt she was easier on the eye than the blonde one, who has a rather odd shaped face. Just to unnerve everyone, the brunette is now 61, and the blonde one 55.
worm 1 - Blonde is best C it denotes the acceptance of a subordinate and decorative role. You will see from my own faultlessly aryan family that I stick to my guns here.
I fear you have been kissing your blow up M Freidamn to long and have lost all discernment.
" Is this a market theory which I see before me , Come, let me clutch thee. I have thee not, and yet I see thee still. .."...a lovers sigh escapes his ruby lip.....
"Money money money " was no doubt your top Abba platter. I prefer the Hymn to drunken shagging "The day before you came"
...bit crude I know . Wheres that snickering hound Mutley when you need him
Harrumph. I'm the blond round here.
As God is my witness, I do not own any Abba records, nor have I ever done so.
yeah,if I been in the wehrmacht,norway would have been good.at least they could get their balls chewed.
better than the russian front.If anyone ever gets the chance read Guy Sajer's 'forgotten soldier' about his life on the eastern front.
on a different note,I would love to see ken in afghan in uniform showing the lads how to fight for his freedom of speech.
Sorry too much of me I know but I couldn`t resist this
,
I only exist because my great grandfathers best friend was killed during ww1.
As mentioned Grandad , who died before I was born, was quite genuinely pulled out of no mans land . He was never the same I`m told but did have six children all of whom have had many many more since as have their children . I sat in a room of about 40 of them last Christmas , a small sample .
My father is the last one (with marbles,) who remembers his father ,and he told the tale of the day . He pointed out that on such chances much may depend.
It was a friend who waited for night and crawled out to get the fount of all newmanias .
Do you really think we could do such things C. I`m far from convinced
I've seen 'Stalingrad', which depicts the hell that was the Eastern Front, but I'll keep an eye out for Rigger's recommendation. I'll happily subscribe to a campaign to send Livingstone to Helmand province...
Let us give thanks to Mr N senior, and more broadly for our good fortune in not having had the opportunity to find out whether we boomer stragglers / Gen Xers would have reached the standards of military prowess etc set by our forefathers. Thank you NATO.
As a Mancunian I can speak with some authority re the inflatable Santa , not been in Manchester at christmas for a few years , however, I recall that every year the fucker would get shot with something at least once a week so he deflated. Thats Northern hospitality for you.
A gallant young man of 23 who won the millitay medal (MC for rankers)in Iraq is having to sell it to raise money for his family , meanwhile that cunt Blair has a £3.6 million house.
Newmania that was a good story , thanks.
Looks like they have 'upgraded' him. He looks like he has been making free with the Boddingtons, or whatever they drink up there these days.
Anyway, 'Manchester - so much to answer for'.
PH - doesn't it just make you want to spit? I can't lay hands on the reference, but a stipend was added to the Victoria Cross after public outrage that a holder had fallen into penury.
Boddingtons really is a good drink C
Manchester does indeed have a lot to be proud of , we were at the heart of the industrial revolution (cliche'phrase)
I miss the place.
Talking of the industrial revolution I went to school with a descendanys of the Greggs of Styal mill , the first enlightened employers (quakers) of the industrial age ,although everything is relative , they probably only beat people once a week rather than daily.
seriously, they provided education and healthcare for the millworkers and their Children
rather like Saltaire only earlier
I've been known to drink the stuff, but the brand equity has been rather debased of late. In a previous life I used to work for Boddingtons, or rather Whitbread, in an indirect fashion.
As noted, I like Manchester.
I must therefore assume you have not been to Manchester......
the old Boddingtons brewery was next to strangeways prison
having spent a few weeks in there(strangeways) I can tell you that the smell of the hops was extra torture
btw has your invite arrived?
...here we go ......Mike TV and Veruka Salt are going to compare golden tickets now
Cos I got a golden ticket lala lala la laaaa .
Wonkas
Well I don`t want to meet any umpalumpas who have not in any case passed the new settlement requirements for English Speaking .( Not even legal if you ask me ) and as for elf an safety , do not ask ...just don`t !
I would have regarded Norway as just about the best posting imaginable - a tolerable climate, nice scenery and not much resistance until '45.
As someone who has visited Norway in February, I question the tolerable climate idea.
Sorry Mr New
You are just not "in"
If you like I could tell you where it is and you can sit in the car and C and I will bring you a bottle of coke and a packet of crisps.
Check out "Jews in Norway" in Wikipedia. C'est pas tout le monde who enjoyed the Okkupasjon.
Sutton AV - Very true, although as a rule the occupation was less brutal in western Europe than in the east.
well not all germans were nazis
they went with the flow as most of us do.
C - the annuity for a VC is £1,495 pa. if the holder is a Uk resident, $3,000 if they are domicilled in Canada. The Ozzies are showing us up again - don't mention the cricket - as they pay A$3,320 and even index link the payment. IMHO a pittance for the 'valour' they are awarded for.
My father served in the Crimea - could we get a radioactive tree from the Chernobyl area of Ukraine? An Uncle fell at Rorkes Drift - saving South Africa for apartheid - do you think they might send us a Ban Yan? Only trying to be helpful - but inadvertently revealed my immense age.
Anon, or rather Mr R - thanks for the detail. A rather feeble sum, isn't it?
M - Yup, you must be of quite a vintage.
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