So...does this mean we have to be nice to and about Belgians for a bit?

[Berni]

Fair enough, I guess, but for how long?

[Pokster]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

well, not affection, really, but, hmm, respect, is it? No, not really respect, I wouldn't go that far, but, you know, spending time amongst them taught me a degree of tolerance.

That's the word. The Belgians showed me the best they have to offer and it inspired me to tolerate them.

:-(

[Steve Williams - gay for Mark Knopfler]

Nobody really gave a **** about 9/11 after all.

[Herbette Chapman - aged 15]

observed that the belgies all around me were the most *******s ugly collection of troglodytes I had seen since visiting the desolate ****holes of northern England.

And once on the train, some inbred looking sprout, quaffing beer from a can at 10.00AM tried to actually stare me down! Now one thing I've learned over the years C is that even a middle class fop like you is probably harder than the average sprout so imagine my chagrin that this moustache thought he could intimidate me! I gave him such a perfect pit-bull look back he damn near shat his pants.

[Berni]

can't even all speak the same language, ffs!

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

I'm surprised anyone could be bothered to carry on with it, to be honest.

[Berni]

The only way out of being the monarch should be feet first.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

I told you I met her in Singapore, didn't I? Checking into Raffles.

"I should like some tea". she told a waitress, in pure cut glass RP :hehe:

[Luis Anaconda]

It will be Arsenal managers next - Tom Whitaker and Herbert Chapman will be turning in their graves

[Berni]

You did tell me that, yes.

Imagine being the sort of slightly low-rent Queen who has to check into a hotel. :-(

You either do these things properly or not at all if you ask me. That's what these 'Citizen monarch' Eurotrash types have never grasped.

[Berni]

the first place.

I don't care if you're gaga, mate. It's God's will. Now get back in that f**king throne!

[Dorset Gooner]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

There was a whole red carpet, guard of honour and Singaporean president reception thing going on.

I seem to recall that the English were sufficiently impressed with the Dutch monarchy to import one :shrug:

By the way, I found a wonderful bit about Ireland's role in the war in Monsarrat's The Cruel Sea last night.

"But it was difficult to withhold one’s contempt from a country such as Ireland, whose battle this was and whose chances of freedom and independence in the event of a German victory were nil. The fact that Ireland was standing aside from the conflict at this moment posed, from the naval angle, special problems which affected, sometimes mortally, all sailors engaged in the Atlantic, and earned their particular loathing. Irish neutrality, on which she placed a generous interpretation, permitted the Germans to maintain in Dublin an espionage centre, a window into Britain, which operated throughout the war and did incalculable harm to the Allied cause. But from the naval point of view there was an even more deadly factor: this was the loss of the naval bases in southern and western Ireland, which had been available to the Royal Navy during the First World War but were now forbidden them. To compute how many men and how many ships this denial was costing, month after month, was hardly possible; but the total was substantial and tragic... the cost, in men and ships, added months to the struggle, and ran up a score which Irish eyes a-smiling on the day of Allied victory were not going to cancel." :clap: :clap:

[Pat Vegas]

[Berni]

And, yes, we had one, but immediately took away all his powers and didn't let him breed.

That Monserrat bit was quoted in a book I read recently about the War in the Atlantic. It's fair enough on the surface, but as ever with English judgments of these things it tends to ignore the 800-odd years of history that preceded the Second World War, during which England's attitude to Ireland had veered from cruelly and lethally neglectful to occasional bouts of outright murderousness. It also ignores the fact that the Irish Special Branch actually provided significant help to British Intelligence during the war and none whatsoever to the Abwehr. Plus Ireland returned British sailors and Airmen to the North, while interning any Luftwaffe or Kriegsmarine personnel for the duration.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Cowards. Savages.

[Berni]

Perhaps the Potato Famine? the Ulster plantations? Cromwell? Pitch caps? The Black and Tans?

The English have a marked tendency to short memories and extremely selective outrage when it comes to Ireland, I'm afraid.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

Perhaps you are suggesting that Ireland was self-sufficient between 1939 and 1945? And don't throw the potato famine at me, dumb Mick. You're the silly ******* who managed to starve whilst surrounded by f**king fish.

[Berni]

course that got the fewest Irish people killed - something you have to admit it succeeded in rather admirably.

And Ireland was self-sufficient in terms of food during the war (small population, loads of agricultural produce). My great-uncle Jack was on minesweepers and occasionally used to dock with his sister (my grandma) in Dublin. He would then proceed to eat his own body weight in bacon, eggs and other such unattainable luxuries.

Which reminds me. My uncle will be on Newsnight tomorrow banging on about the Rising.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

When I'm rich I'm going to buy it and sink it.

[Berni]