Plenty to look forward to for the keen amateur military historian.

[Sir C]

Anthropoid will soon be available on DVD, and next year we will have Dunkirk, hHhhhHHHHh, and Journey's End.

Terrific stuff.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Anthropoid will soon be available on DVD, and next year we will have Dunkirk, hHhhhHHHHh, and Journey's End.

Terrific stuff.

Fück that.

It was the centenary of the first use of tanks 5 days back. Much more fun.

[Sir C]

Fück that.

It was the centenary of the first use of tanks 5 days back. Much more fun.

Oh it was, it was indeed.

I once spent a quite memorable afternoon at the tank museum at Bovingdon. A wonderful collection.

[Mo Britain less Europe]

Journey's End? You mean the old RC Sheriff chestnut?

[Sir C]

Journey's End? You mean the old RC Sheriff chestnut?

Yes, that one.

I've seen the play a couple of times but never a film... there's not much action, I suppose.

[Mo Britain less Europe]

Dunno. Wasn't there an old film of it with Gary Cooper?

[Sir C]

Dunno. Wasn't there an old film of it with Gary Cooper?

Gary Cooper? Was it set in Dodge City? You can't have bloody Americans playing English officers, for God's sake!

[World's End Stella]

When you and V did SE Asia, did you do Vietnam? And was there much to see on the military history front?

[Sir C]

When you and V did SE Asia, did you do Vietnam? And was there much to see on the military history front?

One can never be said to have 'done' SE Asia; one's exploration of the area is an ongoing, endless pleasure.

Yes, we have been to the 'Nam a couple of times, actually. There is lots and lots to see of a military nature, although the presentation is, shall we say, less than balanced. Indeed the mendaciousness of the propaganda is so apparent as to have one's guides roll their eyes as they churn out the approved script.

I hired a car and driver for a few days once and the guy turned out to have been an interpreter embedded with US forces. At the end of the war he spent 20 years in a re-education camp...

[World's End Stella]

One can never be said to have 'done' SE Asia; one's exploration of the area is an ongoing, endless pleasure.

Yes, we have been to the 'Nam a couple of times, actually. There is lots and lots to see of a military nature, although the presentation is, shall we say, less than balanced. Indeed the mendaciousness of the propaganda is so apparent as to have one's guides roll their eyes as they churn out the approved script.

I hired a car and driver for a few days once and the guy turned out to have been an interpreter embedded with US forces. At the end of the war he spent 20 years in a re-education camp...

Ah very good, it is right at the top of my list.

And the banh mi in Vietnam? It is only a question of how superb, I'm sure.

[Sir C]

Ah very good, it is right at the top of my list.

And the banh mi in Vietnam? It is only a question of how superb, I'm sure.

I would very much recommend Saigon and, if you fancy a beach bit, Phu Quoc. The beaches of the north and central belt are a bit touristy. People love Hanoi but I found it a bit grim.

The banh mi are beyond description. I've never had less than wonderful experience of banh mi whilst in country.

One, I recall, assembled by an old lady pushing a cart who stank like a Vietnamese open sewer, was a thing of such beauty I was tempted to tear out my tongue so that it could never be subsequently sullied by mere mortal flavours.

[Burney]

Anthropoid will soon be available on DVD, and next year we will have Dunkirk, hHhhhHHHHh, and Journey's End.

Terrific stuff.

I'm off Journey's End for life, I'm afraid. Endless school productions of it involving boys with false moustaches and prominent Adam's Apples drinking cold tea masquerading as whisky killed it for me. :-(

[Sir C]

I'm off Journey's End for life, I'm afraid. Endless school productions of it involving boys with false moustaches and prominent Adam's Apples drinking cold tea masquerading as whisky killed it for me. :-(

Why have you seen endless productions of school plays, old chap?

[World's End Stella]

One, I recall, assembled by an old lady pushing a cart who stank like a Vietnamese open sewer, was a thing of such beauty I was tempted to tear out my tongue so that it could never be subsequently sullied by mere mortal flavours.

:clap: so you liked it then :-)

[Sir C]

:clap: so you liked it then :-)

Yes. Don't, for God's sake, ask what happened when Berni and I attempted to repliacte banh mi :-(

[Burney]

Why have you seen endless productions of school plays, old chap?

My place used to produce it pretty much every year. I was even in one of them. :-(

[Burney]

Yes. Don't, for God's sake, ask what happened when Berni and I attempted to repliacte banh mi :-(

My filling was delicious. You failed badly when it came to the baguettes, though, I fear :-(

[Sir C]

My filling was delicious. You failed badly when it came to the baguettes, though, I fear :-(

I've forgotten the name of our sexy little instructress.

[World's End Stella]

Yes. Don't, for God's sake, ask what happened when Berni and I attempted to repliacte banh mi :-(

I last had one at a pretty non-descript place near Tottenham Court Road. Both the chap at the counter and the woman cooking looked Vietnamese.

I had the pork belly. It was quite stunning. I could only imagine what they're like in the Nam.

[Sir C]

My filling was delicious. You failed badly when it came to the baguettes, though, I fear :-(

Here she is.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz9r3vNRxPA

[Burney]

Here she is.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dz9r3vNRxPA

Yes. I fear that your taste for a nice bit of sideways blinded you to the fact that her recipe was shíte. :-(

[World's End Stella]

Yes. I fear that your taste for a nice bit of sideways blinded you to the fact that her recipe was shíte. :-(

Has Charles got yellow fever? I must confess that with Hong Kong currently on my business trip agenda twice a year, I have come down with a serious case of it myself. The talent in that city is insane.

Casual walks in LKF can become dangerous :-(

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Oh it was, it was indeed.

I once spent a quite memorable afternoon at the tank museum at Bovingdon. A wonderful collection.

Oooh, a fellow WW1 junkie. How you have a Times log in? They've had an article every day from exactly 100 years ago. I can C&P you this week's two tank reports if you want.

Tops. Have that you baby-raping Hun. Fück site more important weapons that their Zepplins.

[Sir C]

Oooh, a fellow WW1 junkie. How you have a Times log in? They've had an article every day from exactly 100 years ago. I can C&P you this week's two tank reports if you want.

Tops. Have that you baby-raping Hun. Fück site more important weapons that their Zepplins.

I've been reading them avidly thank you, g :thumbup:

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

I've been reading them avidly thank you, g :thumbup:

This is where my left wing credentials break down a bit. I'm a card-carrying Lab party member but buy the Murdoch-owned Times not the Graun cos the former has daily WW1 reports and a bridge column.

[Sir C]

This is where my left wing credentials break down a bit. I'm a card-carrying Lab party member but buy the Murdoch-owned Times not the Graun cos the former has daily WW1 reports and a bridge column.

:hehe: To be fair, The Times is far more balanced than The Telegraph or The Guardian; probably more to the right of centre, but not rabid like the other two.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

:hehe: To be fair, The Times is far more balanced than The Telegraph or The Guardian; probably more to the right of centre, but not rabid like the other two.

Yes, overall it is right of centre. Socially liberal but economically conservative.

But I prefer Philip Collins, David Aaronovitch and Hugo Rifkind (all centre left) to Owen Jones and Seamus Milne* for example. And Matthew Parris if one of only about 3 Tories I'd have a drink with. So even though they have Tim Montgomerie and that awful Menalie Phillips woman, the paper is much more centrist than its readers.

*In 2014, one of Jones or Milne wrote a Graun article for the centenary of WW1. They said that GB had started the war to steal more colonies. {No mention of the Fischer Thesis or the September Programme 1914 or the 1912 War Council.} No mention that these extra colonies were tier 3 mandates (too backward to run themselves} demanded Aus and SA as their rewards.

Because GB ended up with a couple of ex-Kraut colonies, it means that GB started WW1 just to get more colonies from the innocent Hun. Disgusting.

So if they could get that wrong, how can I trust them when they write about things I have little knowledge of such as Working Tax Credits or Union laws?

btw - did you know I've had 6 or 7 letters published? I backed up Field Marshall Lord Brammel on Haig's good generalship, had a reply from a Lord Mayor and totally caned the Italian Ambassador. Good paper.

[Sir C]

Yes, overall it is right of centre. Socially liberal but economically conservative.

But I prefer Philip Collins, David Aaronovitch and Hugo Rifkind (all centre left) to Owen Jones and Seamus Milne* for example. And Matthew Parris if one of only about 3 Tories I'd have a drink with. So even though they have Tim Montgomerie and that awful Menalie Phillips woman, the paper is much more centrist than its readers.

*In 2014, one of Jones or Milne wrote a Graun article for the centenary of WW1. They said that GB had started the war to steal more colonies. {No mention of the Fischer Thesis or the September Programme 1914 or the 1912 War Council.} No mention that these extra colonies were tier 3 mandates (too backward to run themselves} demanded Aus and SA as their rewards.

Because GB ended up with a couple of ex-Kraut colonies, it means that GB started WW1 just to get more colonies from the innocent Hun. Disgusting.

So if they could get that wrong, how can I trust them when they write about things I have little knowledge of such as Working Tax Credits or Union laws?

btw - did you know I've had 6 or 7 letters published? I backed up Field Marshall Lord Brammel on Haig's good generalship, had a reply from a Lord Mayor and totally caned the Italian Ambassador. Good paper.

Jones and Milne are very much of the self-hating left which, I think does your cause so much harm. The West, the US, Israel and the UK are automatically in the wrong, whatever the scenario. The majority of people are getting tired of this attitude, I think.

Well done on having letters published! I rarely check the letters page these days, but will do so now.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Jones and Milne are very much of the self-hating left which, I think does your cause so much harm. The West, the US, Israel and the UK are automatically in the wrong, whatever the scenario. The majority of people are getting tired of this attitude, I think.

Well done on having letters published! I rarely check the letters page these days, but will do so now.

I couldn't agree more, mate. This PC, identity politics, virtue-signalling self-loathing holds our cause back no end.

And if the last few years, even the Graun readers are starting to change. Posts about Islam {which say that they are not always right and us always wrong} used to get lots of replies saying "racist". Now they get 3-4 figure recommends.

People have realised that the emperor has got no clothes.

They are just getting their heads around the fact that shouting "racist" at everyone who mentioned immigration hasn't made the problem go away. It's led to Brexit and much of the continent getting all jackbooty.

As is happening with Ukip, Afd, FN, Geert Wilders, Aust Freedom Party, Sw Democrats, Poland and Hungary etc, it's clear that people aren't taking it any more.

And worse, we've now made this form of overt racism far more acceptable than it was.

So ignoring people's genuine concerns has led to the rise in the far right and made it far more acceptable. Completely counter productive, imo.

Well-intentioned. {Well, mostly. A lot of simple virtue signalling, too.} But they've made things far worse for those they claim to care about.

[Sir C]

I couldn't agree more, mate. This PC, identity politics, virtue-signalling self-loathing holds our cause back no end.

And if the last few years, even the Graun readers are starting to change. Posts about Islam {which say that they are not always right and us always wrong} used to get lots of replies saying "racist". Now they get 3-4 figure recommends.

People have realised that the emperor has got no clothes.

They are just getting their heads around the fact that shouting "racist" at everyone who mentioned immigration hasn't made the problem go away. It's led to Brexit and much of the continent getting all jackbooty.

As is happening with Ukip, Afd, FN, Geert Wilders, Aust Freedom Party, Sw Democrats, Poland and Hungary etc, it's clear that people aren't taking it any more.

And worse, we've now made this form of overt racism far more acceptable than it was.

So ignoring people's genuine concerns has led to the rise in the far right and made it far more acceptable. Completely counter productive, imo.

Well-intentioned. {Well, mostly. A lot of simple virtue signalling, too.} But they've made things far worse for those they claim to care about.

Well, there we are. We agree absolutely.

Quite where it will all end, is hard to say. I suppose that the prevailing centrist instincts of the British people will out.

[Ganpati's Goonerz--AFC's Aboriginal Fertility Cult]

Well, there we are. We agree absolutely.

Quite where it will all end, is hard to say. I suppose that the prevailing centrist instincts of the British people will out.

I do hope so. While I'm a lefty, I'm not so deluded to think that the public think like I do. {And how momentum can't get their heads around this given the polls all show he can never win, God alone knows.}

They asked people to define themselves a left, centre-left, C, C-R, R, and it was 45% centre, 15% C-L, 10% Left.

So the only hope for people like me is a centrist or at best centre-left position. People will vote Tory otherwise.

Our best shot is socially liberal and economically competent (with an emphasis on helping the most disadvantaged and increasing social mobility while not damaging economic growth.} Which is pretty similar to the Times' position.

But on Islam and migration, I fear that the situation in Europe shows that all of us well-meaning anti-racists (and I include centre-right parties in this too) failed to understand that while many people moaning about Muzzies are racists, others had genuine concerns the political elite should have been addressing.

They didn't, so they are now voting far right.

As you say, where it ends we don't yet know.

We have the French banning Burkinis. (And I hate Burkas as much as the next man - all that time in India where you see how badly the women are treated in Kashmir compared to the Buddhists next door in ledakh, where the women wear the trousers, has made me quite opposed to it.}

But we now have the French state telling women what they can wear on a beach. And this is just the public trying to get revenge on Muslims cos they can't do what they'd really want to.

I don't know if you follow Indian politics, but Modi's BJP is encouraging these cow vigilantes. They attack Muslims and Dalits {untouchables} when they accuse them of skinning dead cows or eating beef. Normally then they are innocent.

This is pure tribalism. Just stopping the other tribe doing their ting {when it's no real problem for you} just out of spite.

And the Fr Burkini ban in the thin end of this wedge. And I don't want my country or continent to copy this part of Indian culture.

It's scary. Though if you and I are in complete agreement, despite our political differences, then there should be hope, if you see what I mean.