Jim
Not everywhere in the world is like the UK…different people, different cultures, different politics. Get over it. 🙂

And very few places in the world have gun laws like the US, or the same appalling gun death figures. Coincidence? There are simply too many guns around,which inevitably means they will keep falling into the wrong hands with terrible consequences. And as for that old “anti-American” argument, that’s simply not the case; sometimes it takes a good friend (and the US has never had a better ally) to tell us some unpalatable home truths.

Fair play to him, he was popular in his time and no doubt gave a lot of pleasure to some people, but I have to say I hated Orville with a passion.

Great photos; thanks for sharing. Due in Thailand later in the year, so the spotting info is very much appreciated too. 😀

Why, despite practically everybody in the country having a high-definition, low-light capable, camera on them, almost every minute of the day and night, and the ability to self-publish images on YouTube, is the world not simply flooded with footage of ‘ghosts’?

Exactly. And why is it that with ghosts, UFO’s, nearly all “paranormal” activity, even the dear old Loch Ness Monster, there’s always just enough anecdotal evidence to make it interesting or exciting, but somehow never quite enough to prove it?

Cameron wont take part in a debate, but issued a statement backing Clarkson.

Good point, Alan. But by the same token, I wonder how many of those who felt compelled to sign the petition to re-instate Clarkson will bother to vote on May 7th?

“His Finest Hour; a Biography of Winston Churchill” by Christopher Catherwood. Some stuff I didn’t know, such as that it was Churchill’s opposition to independence for India that kept him in the “wilderness” as much as his anti-appeasement stance, but some serious worries about the book otherwise. Can’t quote directly as I’ve left the book at work, but one part says something like; Churchill was instrumental in creating the RAF, because at the Admiralty he invented (?) the RNAS, which in turn prompted the Army to invent (?) the RFC, which when Churchill became Minister for Air in 1919 became the RAF. Also news to me that Munich was the capital of Germany in 1938.

I’m seriously considering voting for UKIP, not because I’d want them to win (and they haven’t a cat in hell’s chance of that anyway) but purely as a protest against the refusal of the big three parties to even seriously discuss the immigration issue. I know some people here find it uncomfortable, but whether they like it or not, immigration is a major concern to a lot of people in the UK and our elected representatives are not only failing in their duty by turning their backs on it, but also playing into the hands of extremists by making them seem like the only people who are listening.