I’m not clear why somebody should be executed for trying to escape an awful situation in their own country, or to simply better themselves. I certainly wouldn’t want to be associated with such a scheme.

(But then, neither would you in reality Jim) 🙂

Moggy

I don’t think anyone seriously advocates executions, but the way I look at it there’s a world of difference between genuine refugees who we ought to help, and so-called economic migrants who seem to think “That’s a rich country; I’ll help myself to a bit of it, and XXXX whether they actually want me there or not”

Regardless of whether he thought it was legal or not (though he does seem to have form for bending the rules) I simply can not understand the mentality of someone who would travel halfway round the world to kill such a beautiful creature purely for fun. Hasn’t even got any of the old hunters’ excuses like doing it for food, eliminating a dangerous animal, or culling an unhealthily growing animal population. Is it some kind of jealousy that drives these twisted individuals; was he saying in effect ” You may be wild, free, and beautiful, but F-that, I’m better than you because I’ve got a crossbow”?

I guess the cake will be getting pretty big to accommodate all those candles now. Can we all have a bit?

I’m still waiting for our own Alertken to write the definitive warts and all book on British post-war aviation policy. Loads of books on the subject of course, but nearly every author seemed to paint the same simplistic picture where we were way ahead of the rest of the world in 1945, the sun was shining & the flags were flying at Farnborough, and everything in the garden was lovely, only for it all to be scuppered by treacherous Uncle Sam undermining anything seen as a rival or Left wingers secretly backed by Moscow. All too often we bungled things without help from anyone else, and if a book must go into politics I’d like it acknowledge both main parties made mistakes; always bugs me that TSR-2, P1154, HS681 etc are invariably blamed on the fact it was a Labour Govt in power, but no one seems to want to admit that the Sandys fiasco happened under a Conservative Govt.

Avro One; Autobiography of a Chief Test Pilot by “Robby” Robinson. Describes amongst other things sales tours for the HS748, for which I have a bit of a soft spot. Lots of anecdotes and often humorous, eg when the DC-10 was grounded an Irish airline found they didn’t have any, so they grounded a DC-4 and two DC-3s instead. Only a short read, but a very enjoyable one.

“Singapore Grip” by J.G.Farrell, an author I’ve only recently discovered through “A Girl In The Head” and “Troubles.” Took a long time to get going, but enjoying it now.

puddingto

All the difficulties attendant upon writing, are as nothing compared with the difficulties of getting published.

Absolutely right, John. The vast majority of publishers refuse to even look at unsolicited manuscripts now, and it seems you have to jump through hoops to find an agent to represent you. Have you see this?-

https://www.authonomy.com/

+1

Very comprehensive and interesting post. Just because people don’t have anything to add, it doesn’t mean the thread is not being read. Thanks for posting.