Scope for a mini Anglo-French bust up?
A tale covered in France but not in these parts concerns Foreign Office notes from '76, newly released, which deal with the Gauls and Giscard in particular:
"His somewhat didactic manner does not seem to irritate the French, nor his habit of declaiming each syllable through pinched lips". Elsewhere it was reckoned that "The more he is seen with the Royal Family looking like a friend, the happier he will be". Given that Giscard is still a Euro grande fromage, perhaps he will be seeking revenge...
Sticking with the North West of the continent, apparently mixed marriages à la Belge involve Flemings and Walloons, and account for just 1% of all Belgian unions. As I have said many, many times before, Belgium is doomed.
"His somewhat didactic manner does not seem to irritate the French, nor his habit of declaiming each syllable through pinched lips". Elsewhere it was reckoned that "The more he is seen with the Royal Family looking like a friend, the happier he will be". Given that Giscard is still a Euro grande fromage, perhaps he will be seeking revenge...
Sticking with the North West of the continent, apparently mixed marriages à la Belge involve Flemings and Walloons, and account for just 1% of all Belgian unions. As I have said many, many times before, Belgium is doomed.
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802.
Yeah, I've got bloggerrhoea and still find time to post chez vous DP.
Marriage is a fine, all-purpose (if radical)cure for bloggerrhoea. As for Giscard, the man shows a tremendous propensity for grandeur and delusion. I fear post-No 10 Bliar may seek to follow in Giscard's footsteps.The cunt.
IT - indeed. A number of bloggers of my acquaintance are either unencumbered by marriage or else have spouses who periodiocally lay down the law on blog hours. Me, I'm a free agent.
account for just 1% of all Belgian unions.
Thats amazing. I wonder what the number is for Northern Ireland. I know the number is much higher than that for ethnic mixing in the UK.
Mixed Marriages are a good indicator of lots of things.
Belgium has no future
and to think I used to lay down the law to the sprogs on hours spent in chat-rooms (blushes with shame)
having lived in Belgium for a year or two in the nineties,I can tell you it's no surprise,despite nearly everyone being bilingual and most being trilingual.
they live in communes as I'm sure most of you know but the level of rivalry between the communites within each commune has to be seen to be believed.If there's a french literature evening class,then a Vlaams one has to be provided even if there's no demand etc etc
they are not helped by the absolute shower of riches poured on them by the EU and the Multinats who HQ there or the amazingly bureaucratic system of govt which allows nepotism and corruption.
while I was there there was a hit song entitled
'potverdekke,it's great to be a belgian'.Their multicultural govt was obviously a big buyer
Serf, the extent of 'mixed marriage' in Northern Ireland is difficult to estimate but was reckoned to be around 4/5% of total marriages in the 1980s and early 1990s. The numbers started to increase a bit in the 2000s and the number of mixed marriages is now around the 8% level.
C- I have taken a lot of flak from Mrs IT over this blogging thing. Oh yes.
Anyone else want to confess to making his or her other half a blog widow(er)?
Maybe the future is to only get involved with other bloggers. Communicating across a house via instant messenging is fairly tragic, but posting 'dinner is on the table' or 'we are supposed to be at John Prescott's for 8' etc on one's other half's blog would grimmer still.
mrs mortice does look at me strangely as I blog whilst preparing a meal for her while she feeds baby mortice in the evening.
she is wonderful but isn't really into politics-which is probably why we do well together.not sure I could live with someone who shared my 'foaming' potential.
spent Christmas day at the in laws.One at the table started saying how wonderful the BBC was...need I say more.An hour later and faced by 5 willing licence fee payers,I still hadn't backed down.
you should have seen her face when the subject was raised.she never swears but you could see her thinking 'oh shit'
but I told them anyway,bias,regressive tax,johnaton ross,reporter in every hot spot---and who's fucking paying for that---- etc.
I think she'd rather I blogged instead of raging against the machine while she's watching TV
Mr Mortice,
I sympathise. You are fortunate though that Mrs Mortice has little interest in matters political. Mrs IT, alas, is a confirmed lefty....
IT you can look at it two ways (mrs mortice last voted LD-she thinks)
1 isn't she sweet and well meaning-a lot of lefty's are.
2 it's all the lefty's in the education system that polluted the young Mrs IT with their bullshit aso it's not her fault .
that's the problem with women and politics.women aren't rational beings in my experience.they see asylum seekers coming through the chunnel and feel sorry for them and chant the mantra 'we can afford it'.I just wonder where the machine gun nests have got to.
there are exceptions of course,mrs T,Verity-who would get my vote in any election.it just seems to me that a lot of the fairer sex think money grows on trees and we can all work for the govt.
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It all fell apart when Jacques Brel died.
Conversations with people who act as a permanent amen corner can be a bit wearisome, but...
there hasnt been a mrs hitchens for 12 months (the last one couldnt be bothered with politics)but ma hitchens is slightly to the right of Verity.
To the right of Verity!?
who's jacques brel?
Ask Croydonian. I'm too emotionally distraught by there having been no stampedes in this year's hadj event to explain.
Give 'em a chance Verity. There's still a couple of days left. I also gather that the usual super aggressive hoarde of Iranian hadjis have yet to show up. And they are always good for a murderous stampede. Guaranteed.
Good news indeed, Stamboul Tory.
Three hundred and forty-five copped it last year.
My mother always voted for 'that nice Mr Grimond'.
Didn't deter her in the least that she lived in Hatfield, she just wrote him in.
I do hope this is not part of a disturbing new trend - a peaceful hadj.
verity
when the good folk doing Haj stone the "devil" they usualy manage to at least badly main a large number of themselves, so take heart (+:
Give me a cathedral or a nice Gothic church with some bells and smells anyday.
Looks like saddam and one of his brothers are for the short walk and long drop this weekend.
I shall miss the old rascal.
I am pro the death penalty, but against unnecessary cruelty. The US military who captured him should have shot him on the spot - preferably in the back as he "tried to escape". These trials and courtroom showboating were rather revolting.
Yes, I can see that throwing stones in mecca might injure some people, but I read that this year, they have put special safety measures in place to avoid stampedes. Maybe they won't be successful - insh 'allah.
Mrs Slicker takes a dim view of blogging too. Worse more the suggestions that we ever meet for a drink.
Luckily she is a floating voter and easily suggestable on subjects political.
Not sure if women blog less than men because much like the TV remote control we monopolise the PC .
Be interesting to see if Al Jazeera broadcast the execution.
I agree with the Arabs , justice should be seen to be done pour encourager les autres
Plus ,in Blairs case it would be very entertaining.
RM - who's Jacques Brel? Short answer, a brilliant song writer. Longer form, the greatest gift Belgium has given popular culture... He has beeen covered by everyone - Bowie, Scott Walker, Almomd, Carter USM etc etc. Amsterdam, My Death, If you go away etc etc. For methadone, try the Walker interpretations in English, to ride on the white horse go for the originals.
CU - when other halves get in the way of socialising, we are into muddy waters. I always tried to encourage the former Mrs C to see her chums too. I think any relationship requires space for all concerned.
PH - Well, MySpace and all that counts too.
I'm with Verity. Should have shot him there and then. All's fair...
Like others part of the reason for blogging was so that my friends wouldn't have to listen to my rants, but like Rigger it just means that faced with a red rag (such as Beeb defender(s))I'm just far better prepared and prepared to take on multiple assailants.
Yes, Prague Tory. Justice should always be swift. A shot to the back of the head would have finalised this awful chapter in Iraq's - and the world's - history. Instead, he has had two years to court sympathy and lawyers have had their chance to strut the stage and develop a name for themselves. Bad move.
BANG! "Oh, he tried to run away Sarge!"
"Good man!"
Croydonian - You didn't even mention Merike? (Maybe spelled wrong; I don't have the CD in front of me.)
Rigger - he composed and sang in French and Flemish. Actually, I love his Flemish songs best. Merike is in Flemish. (No, no, no - of course I don't speak Flemish! But there's a beautiful strength and poetry to the sound of the language.)
Actually, Marieke is in French and Flemish. I just can't believe he's gone. He died of cancer. And he was in love with a lady from Martinique. I wonder whatever happened to her.
The one Brel song I can't stand is Il Neige. OK, it's snowing. We get the bloody point. Snow.
I've perused my Brel collection and I don't have that song.
Meanwhile the Page / Plant 'Gallows Pole' in 'tribute' to Saddam. Sic semper tyrannis as they say in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Croydonian - What song don't you have? It cannot be Mereike! Is it Il Neige? If so, trust me, you are not missing a thing.
Croydonian - What song don't you have? It cannot be Mereike! Is it Il Neige? If so, trust me, you are not missing a thing.ing a thing.
I have severe misgivings about the execution of Saddam - although I most certainly think he should have been executed. But there was just something so ghastly about this. I think death should be a private matter. And I realise that he did not make it a private matter for hundreds of thousands.
But we shouldn't have descended to this level. A lethal injection. It doesn't matter. Hanging him - with a video of a thick rope going around his neck - as a showboat was a terrible idea.
Although, if that was the decision of the Iraqi government, we have no business trying to second guess them.
But I have an eerie feeling that this was not a good idea.
Saddam should have been shot in the head when he was captured in that sceptic tank ... "trying to escape".
Even the Arabs don't seem to have liked this. to my mind, not good.
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