snafu…the fact that these very low-paid jobs are being done by immigrants isn’t necessarily even a benefit to the overall finances of the UK anyway.
It is a benefit to the farmers – they have long moaned that locals will not even consider doing short term picking/packing work, even if there were enough unemployed in the area (another effect of forcing out the working classes from rural accommodation in order to sell property to the wealthy as second homes, holiday cottages, etc) which there usually isn’t. There used to be a tradition of Londoners spending a few weeks in Kent hop picking – now they go to Florida or Ibiza.
The radio programme I listened to last week had people (farmers and employment advisors) who might have been working on Project Fear, as far as some of you are concerned, but they were quite insistent that this year’s harvest could be wiped out with produce being left in the fields simply because there is no enthusiasm from the usual Europeans to return (the projected poor Sterling to Euro exchange rate was frequently mentioned, for example) and no enthusiasm from locals to do the job (lack of transport due to early starts, out in the sticks, unless minibuses were organised – which the farmers were rather against sorting out) even in areas where there are enough unemployed to participate.
“Take away those foreign nationals, what will happen?”
The market would find equilibrium. Either the farmer would stop farming, or they would have to offer greater pay / benefits to entice staff. Saturating the labour market with cheap foreign workers is the epitome of the ‘i’m alright jack’ mindset. If jobs aren’t attractive to UK residents, and they are filled with foreign workers on minimum wage (or less), it shows that our society is happy to exploit people, so long as the consumer gets cheap products. I would rather pay more, get less, and have the satisfaction of knowing that the people through the supply chain were being paid fairly.
Farmers might have difficulty offering making any offers to their staff – what with the farming subsidies disappearing and supermarkets making demands on them for lower prices to entice shoppers. Like retirement homes, farmers have to budget for staff costs as much as for seed, fertiliser, machinery and all the other consumables, etc, and the fact of the matter is there is little spare cash for extra manpower – look at any farm and most of the time the farmer is working from dawn to late in the evening and utilising family members as much as possible (one I met a few years ago hired a combine to harvest wheat and used his kids – 12 and 14 at the time – to drive the accompanying tractors and trailers for their pocket money, and he had one part time guy shared with two other farms as a cowman; that was working to a budget).
Meanwhile my radio is going on about healthy eating for the new year without showing any recognition that healthy equals expensive and that not everybody has the spare cash rattling around in their wallets/purses to be able to afford a diet that would be considered new year healthy. By all means spout that you would happily pay more but please consider that when prices go up some people, those who are already living hand to mouth, what do they cut back on?
What you are suggesting is deeply irresponsible. Say we keep this record inward migration for another 10 years, that’s an extra 3.3 million people (5% population growth in 10 years!), and then the UK faces a deep economic crash, and many millions of these migrants decide to migrate to somewhere more prosperous. We would have spent hundreds of billions on housing and infrastructure to support this population growth, only for it to be unused. We would have caused devastating damage to our greenbelt, for absolutely no reason. This scenario isn’t just possible, but likely to happen somewhere within the EU at some point.
Except…
i/ For your ten year vision our economy would need to remain attractive to migrants (European economic, rather than refugees). What Polish electrician is going to want to work here when, on top of complaints about his accent, about the number of migrants, being ripped off by foreigners, etc, he isn’t actually earning anything near enough to make it worth the effort when he could be working at home. The same with IT programmers, the same with translators, the same with farm workers. To force a hand, either ours or their, old mother May (or whoever is sitting in the hotseat at the time) might put conditions of entry in place, just as el EU presidente could – it is doubtful at this point, but is a possibility – but who would benefit?
ii/ The EU has said all deals must come with the open door policy that all the other member states have adopted. This might change as further events take place but, at the moment, our political stance is not exactly inviting and public opinion demonstrated in the media is even worse: at this point we should assume that there will be no meeting of minds for quite a while. This is assuming that there are no barriers put in place until all the talks have concluded.
iii/ The best man for the job isn’t always an Englishman – look at the number of foreign top level football managers, not to mention the England manager a few years ago (didn’t Scotland do the same not so long ago?). If equilibrium is to be found then surely the number of foreign players and managers playing football for big money would drop as local players decided they wanted a bit of that cake – and is it? I would say opinion has it in the ‘not’ camp.
(Trying to keep up here!)
“No, but we need to look at why people cross borders”
To improve their lot. It’s a shocking state of affairs when a Polish graduate can come and earn more here doing a service role than they can at home as a graduate. This is a major failing of the EU, who have seen fit to interfere in all sorts of irrelevant aspects of our lives, but have done nothing to encourage broad wage equalisation across the bloc. We are of course the first choice destination for many, due to our language and relatively low unemployment. Migrants don’t come for benefits on the whole, but that doesn’t mean they (some) aren’t getting them. We have every right to dissuade people from coming here if they aren’t contributing, and those on lower wages are a net drain on the treasury.
People also cross borders to get away from bad situations and conflict apart from, as you say, to improve their lot.
Have you seen an influx of Greek migrants in the last few years? No? Surely with their economy as bad as it has been there would have been many Greek citizens eager to make a break and find somewhere else more stable to live, don’t you think?
But the majority of the European migrants we have seen have been from the former Eastern Bloc countries: why do you think that is? Maybe it is because they have little faith in their governments, possibly a trait connected with being ruled from Moscow for so long. Maybe it is because their homelands have so little money to spend on the sort of social expansion that helps them. Maybe it is because so much of the important infrastructure combined with an expanding economy is being channelled out of the country, a benefit of the private sector being from a certain section of the old guard – rather like is happening in Russia, with the former KGB boys finding themselves in positions of authority again.
Maybe when people feel that they have something at home that is worth preserving, and expanding, they will be happier to work from ‘home’ and keep their money in their economy. Maybe that day is getting closer.
Unfortunately, the EU are too consumed with furthering their aspiration of Federalism, and so it is in their best interests to have people moving around as much as possible (the environment be damned), and their corporate paymasters love the cheap labour. Because of this, it will never change.
Oooh, you old socialist, you!
Peoples freedom of movement is an irrelevance next to protecting the environment.
Granted, but the environment is not going to prevent the population growing.
People want homes, people want jobs and where are they going to come from? When unemployment has dropped to manageable levels across Europe then the environment will float up the agenda; it is a bit like major items of art that come up for auction, and the highbrow aesthetes whine that the country must spend £90m or more to preserve it for a few thousand to appreciate it in the National Gallery (or where ever) – you know there are going to be letters in the dailies about it.
Don’t get me wrong, the environment is vitally important but there will always be an element on all sides of the political spectrum insisting that this project is more deserving of precious spending money than that one, look at the military, look at nuclear power, look at the railways, look at the NHS, look at education, look at just about anything the government has to spend money on, in spite of privatisation.
The government in Britain cares very little about the environment as can be seen by how little enforcement has taken place to protect it from illegal development, or the prosecution of fly tippers in a manner which made it absolutely plain that if you do it and you get caught then you will pay for it big time. (15-20 years ago I covered a fly tipping story and discovered, amongst the sacks of rubble and bin liners of grass cuttings and garden waste, a few business letters to and from a company that was involved in waste disposal – the idiots had included their office rubbish in their most recent tipping! And their punishment, after all the bad publicity, was a police warning. Not even a fine.)
(Trying and failing to catch up…)
snafuI also miss the survivors list but have a theory why its been dropped. It takes too much time to maintain a database which is considered accurate enough? Sure they could do a copy and paste job from Wiki but those type of sources lag behind.
Not sure what you mean by this – it is not as if new examples of old types are unearthed everyday, or even every month, so adding one when it is revealed is not that difficult, unless maintaining the database is down to one person in addition to their other work. Now starting off the database might be the stumbling block, unless you copy and pasted from somewhere else and not concern yourself with whether their research is accurate.
Out of interest how many Spitfires were rediscovered last year, and other types as well? What types, if any, were resurrected from extinction and what types have are on the verge?
Now maybe there is an annual article for a future Flypast…
snafu1905 Port Arthur, the Russian naval port in China, was captured by the Japanese forces commanded by Admiral Heihachiro Togo, the first of a series of major defeats in the Russo-Japanese War.
1967 Lt.Col Robin Olds led an operation involving USAF F-4C Phantoms that shot down at least five, and possibly as many as seven, North Vietnamese AF Mig21s as they took off from their airfield at Noi Bai.
1969 Rupert Murdoch won control of the News of the World newspaper group, after beating off an offer from Robert Maxwell’s Pergamon Press group and gaining his first rung on the ladder of Fleet Street.
1971 66 football fans are killed in a stampede at Ibrox Park, Glasgow, during a Celtic/Rangers match.
1981 The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, is finally caught by British police, ending one of the largest manhunts in history.
1982 24-year-old Erika Roe stripped to the waist on this day and bounced onto the pitch at London’s Twickenham Stadium during a rugby international between England and Australia.
2009 It was publicly announced that a rare, unrestored, 1937 Bugatti Type 57S Atalante Coupe, with extremely low mileage, had been found after spending 48 years untouched in the garage of a late British doctor. One month later the car sold at a Paris auction for €3.4 million.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bugatti_Type_57S_Atalante_(57502))
snafuAs for the farming labourers my assumption has been that once these hard working people, who “took the jobs” (sic DM) of the British workers, “go home”, then there will be a mighty rush of all those British workers taking themselves off benefits and standing up to take on the hard work leading to a much lower social care budget to all our benefit.
I have a suspicion that you are not being serious…
snafuThe most celebrated politician of the 21st century gets reported in the Press and you and all the other lefties – too few to mention – don’t. Must be a message there somewhere.
And why would anyone here get mentioned in the press? What have you been drinking to believe that anyone but Farage is that desperate for coverage by the press anyway?
Did you get mentioned in the papers? No? Must be a message in there: something about pointing fingers, probably.
Stop mixing your drinks, take a little more ice and a lot more water with it, and put the lid back on the Tippex bottle.
And this ‘celebrated’ politician who has made himself as big a clown as Boris Johnson by slagging off the archbishop of Canterbury, who is happy to nail his colours to the mast of a US president whose team merrily advocates ripping the UK’s carcass apart because we are leaving Europe and therefore are easy pickings – he was leader of a political party whose sole aim was for the UK to leave the EU; the vote was won by the leavers but that does not mean the UKIP was successful, since – as Mycroft points out – there would have been strategic voting taking place in the election and the referendum was a yes/no thing. Farage was a mouth squealing leave, but he wasn’t the only one – it is just John Green’s own political preferences that are allowing him to run his flag up the pole and salute it in that funny taxi heiling way he does. Farage doesn’t even lead UKIP now, but still collects his MEP pay…
And yet he has been voted by the Daily Express as their man of the year; what a surprise that wasn’t – a newspaper owned by a major UKIP contributor (and pornographer) naming the former UKIP leader (or at least, one of them) as most notable in 2016, possibly in the hope that John Green will take out a subscription. Still, we all know that while it takes a lot to knock Princess Diana stories off the front of the Express, a newspaper that is now a sad shadow of its former self, their man of the year competition is going to be fairly much like The Sun’s Page Three Girl of the Year comps – whatever happens, the winner is a pawn for the views of the newspapers proprietor (bet you thought I was going to say t!t).
I am guessing that John is rather embarrassed by the Daily Express and their comical political showboating – he has not exactly shouted this news from the rooftops…
UKIP got 3.9m votes in the last general election under Farage, around the same as the SNP and Lib Dems combined. Of course, it made no difference in our FPTP system, but that is still an impressive feat. To claim that his views are irrelevant just shows that you’re ideologically brainwashed.
Number of votes, as you observe, count for little but I guess we can chuckle about it, one way or another, after the next election – although the bookies are taking the view that UKIP will not be retaining their one seat. Will Farage be leader then – who knows. Will UKIP even exist when the next election is called?
Have you ever considered that many would-be UKIP voters strategically decided to vote Conservative because they promised a referendum and were best placed to deliver on that promise?
Is that supposed to be a threat? The referendum is over, UKIP has no purpose (except as a focus for John Green, incidental to its former leader) and those voters with right wing tendencies will have nowhere else to hang their ‘x’. Of course, those who strategically voted Tory but usually voted somewhere a little more left of John Green might well go back to their usual parties; as I said above, after the next election we shall see how the political scene has settled.
Maybe he has read, on here, the posts by yourself and your fellow whingers. You clearly give a f*ck or you wouldn’t devote your time to posting on this thread.
Same with the DM, always seem to be up to speed with any contentious issues they print, but read it, no not me, never.
You don’t have a clue, do you.
The referendum was (according to those who wanted us to leave) supposed to be voted on by the heart – not party political lines. For many years it was Labour policy to leave Europe, not just that of elderly xenophobes with a right wing agenda as it is now; the Tories were supposed to be the party in favour of Europe(!).
As for whinging, think of how the voting went – would Farage Gump have accepted losing if 52% had been against leaving Europe, and wouldn’t he and his cohorts be moaning about it?
How about parts of the country where the vote was firmly for remaining – Scotland, or Northern Ireland? Their votes count for so little that there are strong nationalistic calls for them to break away from control by London. Whinging is the least of your worries there.
On Friday I listened to a programme on the radio that detailed the fact that the usually whinging farmers were heavily in favour of leaving: now they are heavily not in favour since there is little chance of the EU subsidies being carried over, they will have little opportunity in the European markets however the negotiations go and they will have extreme difficulties in harvesting when the casual workers they employed (traditionally, for low wages) decide not to risk crossing the borders to come to Britain. As it is European workers currently risk coming to Britain to work in the face of frequent personal attacks due to their nationalities, accents or plain old xenophobia – something encouraged by things like the Daily Express’s crusade against EU migrants (from 2013, on the back of the paper’s 2011 crusade for freedom which demanded leaving the EU and closing our borders to East European migrants), although most of the tabloids have had similar campaigns.
Oh, and whinging business leaders say we will need to increase our language skills since a large proportion of our business translators are not local to these islands; once we pull up the drawbridge it will make things a little difficult for all those Europeans currently employed (although I forget how) in Britain and most will choose to return home to Europe, leading to multiple skills shortages (if we are lucky enough to still have businesses after Trumps boys have finished picking the meat from our bones), which would be good for our employment figures but for the fact that our education system – where you would previously have gone to educate yourself with the specialist skills needed – is no longer set up to encourage learning to better yourself, more to encumber the learner with debt.
And if it is the Daily Mail you are moaning about (I’m guessing from the initials, since it is hardly likely to be Doctor Marten boots) then don’t bother.
Just don’t.
snafuHe has a belief in the ego that is Nigel Farage. Why should he care what people think, he has the ideas so it is only right and proper that someone else does the hard work of converting it into something the greater public will accept as long as it garners him recognition in the media. And, anyway, he has sat in for Katie Hopkins on radio and everyone knows that once she has uttered something it is gone to her, trying to give herself an excuse that she doesn’t really remember saying it so why should she apologise?
And what did I tell you about the lack of honour – I can see into the future!!![/tongue very firmly in cheek] Oooooooooooooh spooky!
snafuMaybe that is moutain rescue people, but imagine how their families feel – or would feel if something tragic happened to them.
There was a lot of heartache for those left behind after the Penlee lifeboat disaster (just 35 years and twelve says ago) which is still ongoing, with Mousehole’s Christmas lights all switched off each 19th December, in memory of the eight men from the area who died. So maybe I should have mentioned idiots who take no navigation equipment (sounds familiar?) other than a page ripped from an atlas, no life jackets, flares, radio, or even a mobile phone, have no sailing experience yet still expects to be able to sail west along the English Channel (very busy, the Channel) unimpeded; this particular eccentric was rescued when his boat was dashed to pieces on rocks off the southern coast of the Isle of Wight. Then there was a pair who were rescued several times because their newly purchased vessel was utterly unseaworthy and they were stupid.
We are lucky to have rescue services who will come out immediately, frequently putting themselves in mortal danger in order to help their fellow man, and we are lucky that they do not charge those they assist (although a donation is always gratefully accepted) but surely the emphasis should be on making sure that these people do not place themselves unnecessarily at risk just to satisfy the desires of ‘eccentrics’ – and that should be the watchword the world over, wouldn’t you agree?
snafu1744 English astronomer James Bradley announces discovery of Earth’s nutation motion – meaning he had established that the Earth wobbled, which caused seasonal variations to occur.
1964 Donald Campbell breaks the world water speed record in Australia, becoming the first man to break the world land and water speed records in the same year.
1968 The Soviet Union’s TU-144 supersonic airliner makes its first flight, several months ahead of the Anglo-French Concorde.
1999 The United States, in accordance with the Torrijos-Carter Treaties, officially hands over control of the Panama Canal, putting the strategic waterway into Panamanian hands for the first time since it was constructed.
snafuThe world is a better place and less boring by having a few eccentrics like Maurice.
Maybe, but when those few eccentrics put others in danger by practising their eccentricities when their trick is not suitable for the purpose then doesn’t that verge on the criminal?
Example – idiots ‘climbing’ Scottish mountains (or, as the rest of the world might better understand it, walking up large hills) wearing sandals and a light jacket, carrying a copy of that days newspaper, an open packet of Doritos, and a half charged mobile phone when there is snow on the peak and the upper half of said mountain is obscured by low cloud/freezing fog: who assists those idiots out of danger?
snafu(No Peppa Pig, though!)
Cannot help thinking you are missing out on the opportunities of kiddy pester power there…
snafuAnd it continues, with a former manager…
Allan Williams, best known as the first manager of the Beatles, has died aged 86, it has been announced. It was Williams who took the band to Hamburg, where its members learned much of their craft, before returning to the UK and stardom.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/dec/30/beatles-first-manager-allan-williams-dies-at-86
snafuAh, you need to get hold of a copy of Aeroplane winter 2013, or British Experimental Combat Aircraft of WW2, both by Tony Buttler
In combat service? My informant (a former colleague who shared an interest in aviation with me) believed their reporter had got a Mosquito mixed up with a Canberra and travelled back in time to serve in WWII on the verbal meanderings of some old chap trying his best to explain his war service.
Not even there; all Churchills I believe.
Indeed. Not my strong point (some will ask what is) but I did know there were no Shermans (Shermen?) at Dunkirk, and I can identify one from the other. Usually.
I bought a subscription for my nephew when he was in secondary school and I’ve always called it a “dentist office” magazine….in other words, designed for general audiences who might have a slight interest in aviation history, but hardly one for serious students with a firm background, or those interested in “nuts and bolts” technology.
Something for the coffee table, maybe?
We used to have large format books with large glossy, colour pictures of vintage aeroplanes (sometimes with an ‘N’ registration and ‘Confederate Air Force’ painted on the rear fuselage) with no indication in the tiny caption that the machine was preserved nor that the image was not a period piece. The sort of thing an aunt might buy for her nephew on hearing he was interested in airplanes, chiefly because there were pictures of aeroplanes in it, any old aeroplanes in no real order other than (maybe) chronological, a Boeing Peashooter (or whatever) across one spread, followed by a Dakota (in some colourful civil scheme with unremarked upon scenic windows), followed by a Lancaster (THE Lancaster, the only one flying at that time, and without the upper turret too…), large and in colour, with a title like The Everyman’s Book of Aviation and, probably most importantly, it was cheap.
I used to have several.
snafuNew Year’s Honours are revealed, and nothing from Farage claiming that he turned down an honour because he was an honourable man.
I guess that there was no offer this year, to either Farage Gump or John Green; never mind John, I wasn’t offered one either – maybe next year?
snafuA hard man of Scottish acting…
GLASWEGIAN actor Freddie Boardley, who was famous for his roles in Brookside, Coronation Street and Taggart, has died at the age of 66.
The TV star is reported to have passed away just before Christmas at his home in Glasgow after a battle with cancer.
Well-known for playing a ‘hard-man’, the Scot often featured on hit TV shows like BBC Comedy Bad Boys and Rab C Nesbitt.
He also toured with the prestigious National Theatre in London and took on the leading role in John Byre’s renowned play Slab Boys.
The highest ranking US D-Day survivor…
The highest-ranking survivor of the D-Day invasion during World War II has died.
Retired Gen. Seth McKee was 100. He died Dec. 26 in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to The Arizona Republic, citing McKee’s wife, Sally.
Just two months ago, McKee was awarded the National Order of the Legion of Honor in the rank of Chevalier 5, according to the Air Force. That’s the highest honor France bestows on its citizens and foreign nationals.
McKee, who began his military career in 1935, logged more than 190 hours in 69 combat missions in the P-38 Lightning, and is credited with downing two enemy aircraft. He flew cover for the D-Day invasion and was involved in bombing missions at Saint-Lo, the Falaise Gap and the Battle of the Bulge.
After World War II, McKee held positions of increasing responsibility both at home and overseas.
He retired in 1973 as commander of the North American Air Defense Command.
An old but virile fella…
The world’s oldest male panda died earlier this week, survived by over 130 descendants living in zoos around the world.
Pan Pan, dubbed a “hero father” of pandas, died Wednesday in China’s Sichuan province, according to the China Conservation and Research Center for the Great Panda, where he lived for most of his life. At 31 years of age, Pan Pan lived to be the panda equivalent of over 100 human years old.
Let’s see who got missed out…
The year 2016 has been called that of the big celebrity death. But alongside notable names such as Bowie, Muhammad Ali and Victoria Wood, were others – many of whom had not lived in quite such an intense public glare.
Music
Colonel Abrams*- US musician and singer, best remembered in the UK for his 1980s signature hit Trapped
Ernestine Anderson*- US jazz and blues singer
Pierre Boulez*- French composer and conductor, he also spearheaded the music venue The Paris Philharmonic
Pete Burns*- Dead Or Alive lead singer who had a UK number one hit in 1985 with You Spin Me Round. He later became a reality TV star
John Chilton*- jazz trumpeter who lead the Feetwarmers, the band that accompanied George Melly
Leonard Cohen*- Canadian singer, songwriter, poet and novelist – his work includes the song Hallelujah
Padraig Duggan*- one of the founding members of Irish folk group Clannad
Keith Emerson*- musician and composer – founding member of progressive rock supergroup Emerson, Lake and Palmer
Emile Ford*- musician who had a UK number one with What Do You Want to Make Those Eyes at Me For?
Glenn Frey*- US singer and musician, and founding member of the US rock band the Eagles
Valerie Gell*- guitarist and singer with the 1960s all-female group The Liverbirds
David Gest*- US music producer and reality star on UK television
Craig Gill*- drummer with the Inspiral Carpets at the heart of the “Madchester” scene of the late 1980s and early 90s
Dale Griffin*- drummer and founding member of the 1970s glam rock band Mott the Hoople
Nikolaus Harnoncourt*- celebrated Austrian conductor considered to be the “pope” of the baroque music revival
Merle Haggard*- American country music legend credited with helping to define the “Bakersfield sound” that influenced future country performers
Joan Marie Johnson*- American co-founder of the 1960s pop trio The Dixie Cups, who recorded such classics as Chapel of Love and Iko Iko
Sharon Jones*- American singer who spearheaded a soul revival movement with her band the Dap-Kings
Paul Kantner*- American singer-guitarist, and founding member of the rock band Jefferson Airplane
Greg Lake*- fronted both King Crimson and Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Also known for his solo hit I Believe in Father Christmas
John D Loudermilk*- American singer and songwriter best known for writing the 1960s hit Tobacco Road
Sir Neville Marriner*- conductor and violinist who established the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras
Sir Peter Maxwell Davies*- celebrated for his prolific and often unpredictable compositions, later to become Master of the Queen’s Music
Scotty Moore*- pioneering rock guitarist who was a member of Elvis Presley’s original band and helped Presley shape his musical sound
Andy ‘Thunderclap’ Newman*- founder member of Thunderclap Newman, best known for their 1969 hit Something in the Air
Rick Parfitt*- one of rock’s most recognisable guitarists, he remained, with Francis Rossi, at the core of Status Quo – from their early psychedelic-inspired incarnation in the late 1960s, to their later brand of foot-tapping boogie-rock
Billy Paul*- American soul singer best known for his 1972 US chart-topper Me and Mrs Jones
Harry Rabinowitz*- composer and conductor, who conducted the scores for more than 60 films including Chariots of Fire
Leon Russell*- American rock’n’roll hall of famer. Writer of hit songs including Delta Lady
Frank Sinatra Jr*- American singer who carried on his father’s legacy with his own career in music
Dave Swarbrick*- folk musician, singer and songwriter best known for his work with group Fairport Convention
Rod Temperton*- British songwriter best known for Michael Jackson’s Thriller and Rock With You
Maurice White*- founder of US soul group Earth, Wind & Fire, whose hits include September and Boogie Wonderland
Guy Woolfenden*- long-serving musical director at the Royal Shakespeare Company
Colin Vearncombe*- singer-songwriter who performed under the name Black. His 1987 single Wonderful Life was a top 10 hit around the world
Bobby Vee*- US singer best known for hits including Rubber Ball, Take Good Care of My Baby and The Night Has a Thousand Eyes
Alan Vega*- co-founder and frontman of the 1970s American electronic band Suicide, which used early drum machines and synthesisers and was known for chaotic and violent showsActing
Joe Alaskey*- US voice artist who, after the death of Mel Blanc in 1989, provided vocals for Looney Tunes characters Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck
Jean Alexander*- famous for playing Coronation Street’s Hilda Ogden, one of the best-loved soap characters in British TV history
Sylvia Anderson*- voice of Lady Penelope in the 1960s puppet series Thunderbirds – which she produced with her husband Gerry
Kenny Baker*- starred as the “droid” R2-D2 – alongside C-3PO – in six Star Wars films from 1977
Ken Barrie*- voice of the children’s TV favourite Postman Pat
Charmian Carr*- played the eldest von Trapp daughter Liesl in the 1965 film The Sound of Music
Alan Devereux*- played the role of Sid Perks in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers for nearly 50 years
Hazel Douglas*- best known from her seven-decade career for the film role of Bathilda Bagshot in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Larry Drake*- best known for playing office assistant Benny Stulwicz on the US show LA Law in the 1980s and 90s
Patty Duke*- won an Oscar for playing Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker in 1963
Ronnie Claire Edwards*- best known for playing Corabeth Walton Godsey in the 1970s US show The Waltons
Ann Emery*- veteran actress who played Ethel Meaker in children’s show Rentaghost, and Grandma in the original stage cast of Billy Elliot
Frank Finlay*- stage and screen actor, who earned an Oscar nomination for his role as Iago opposite Laurence Olivier in Othello in 1965
Zsa Zsa Gabor*- Hungarian-born Hollywood actress, she appeared in more than 70 films but was more famous for her celebrity lifestyle and nine marriages
Bernard Gallagher*- enjoyed a six-decade career, known for playing consultant Ewart Plimmer in the first three years of BBC series Casualty
George Gaynes*- played Commandant Lassard in all seven Police Academy films
Vivean Gray*- played the interfering busybody Mrs Mangel in the Australian soap Neighbours
Dan Haggerty*- rose to fame starring as frontier woodsman Grizzly Adams in a film and TV series in the 1970s
Florence Henderson*- from 1969 played matriarch Carol Brady in the US TV series The Brady Bunch
Robert Horton*- played frontier scout Flint McCullough on the US TV western Wagon Train which ran from 1957 to 1965
Barry Howard*- best known for his deadpan role as ballroom dancer Barry Stuart-Hargreaves in the holiday camp comedy Hi-de-Hi!
David Huddleston*- played the title roles in The Big Lebowski and Santa Claus: The Movie
Frank Kelly*- stage and screen actor best known for playing the ranting Father Jack in the Channel 4 comedy Father Ted
George Kennedy*- won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for “Cool Hand Luke” in 1968, and also starred in The Dirty Dozen and The Naked Gun films
Burt Kwouk*- most of his roles were straight ones, but best known as Inspector Clouseau’s karate-kicking manservant Cato, in the Pink Panther films
Madeleine Lebeau*- French actress who was the last surviving cast member of the 1942 classic film Casablanca, in which she played the part of Yvonne
William Lucas*- played Dr Gordon 1970s equine children’s drama The Adventures of Black Beauty
Valerie Lush*- veteran actor who played Auntie Flo in the 1970s sitcoms And Mother Makes Three and And Mother Makes Five
Noel Neill*- the first actress to play reporter Lois Lane in Superman on screen
Bill Nunn*- best known for his role as Radio Raheem in Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing
Hugh O’Brian*- starred as Wyatt Earp in the first US television Western aimed at adults, which began in 1955
Louise Plowright*- played hairdresser Julie Cooper in EastEnders, and co-starred in Mamma Mia! the musical on the West End stage for five years
Debbie Reynolds*- leading lady in a succession of Hollywood musicals and comedies after rising to fame, at the age of 19, in the 1952 musical Singin’ in the Rain opposite Gene Kelly. She died a day after the death of her daughter, Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher
Doris Roberts*- played meddling mother Marie Barone in US sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond
Andrew Sachs*- his long and varied career was defined by his role as Spanish waiter Manuel in the classic BBC TV comedy Fawlty Towers
Sheila Sim*- film and theatre actress, the wife of the actor and director Richard Attenborough
Morag Siller*- actor known for her TV roles in Coronation Street, Emmerdale and Casualty, she also also appeared on stage in Mamma Mia! and Les Miserables
David Swift*- perhaps best known for playing news anchor Henry Davenport in the Channel 4 newsroom comedy Drop the Dead Donkey
Gareth Thomas*- best known for the title role of Roj Blake, in the BBC science fiction series Blake’s 7
Van Williams*- played the masked crime-fighter The Green Hornet in the 1960s American TV series
Peter Vaughan*- an ever-present figure on stage, screen and television, he gained huge audiences with sitcoms such as Porridge and more recently the Game of Thrones series
Robert Vaughn*- an elegant presence in film and television for more than 50 years, best-known for playing Napoleon Solo in the 1960s series The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Abe Vigoda*- played Sal Tessio, an old friend of Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone, in the classic mafia film The Godfather
Anton Yelchin*- played Pavel Chekov in the rebooted Star Trek films released in 2009 and 2013
Alan Young*- actor and comedian who starred alongside a talking horse in the popular sitcom Mr Ed in the 1960sTV, film, and theatre production
Sir Ken Adam*- famous for his work on Dr Strangelove and seven James Bond films, he also designed the car in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Hector Babenco*- Argentine-born Brazilian director best known for Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1985
Robert Banks Stewart*- created the Jersey-based detective Jim Bergerac and radio-DJ-cum-private-detective Eddie Shoestring for the BBC
Michael Cimino*- director of the 1978 Vietnam War film The Deer Hunter
Jim Clark*- British film editor who won an Oscar for his work on the 1984 movie The Killing Fields
Vlasta Dalibor*- Czech-born British creator, with her husband Jan, of the squeaky-voiced puppets Pinky and Perky in 1956
Howard Davies*- Olivier award-winner, known for his work at venues that included the Old Vic and National Theatre
Tony Dyson*- British designer who built the R2-D2 droid model used in the original Star Wars films
Reg Grundy*- television producer behind the Australian soap operas Neighbours, The Young Doctors and Prisoner: Cell Block H
Robin Hardy*- best known for cult British film The Wicker Man, starring Sir Christopher Lee and Edward Woodward
Guy Hamilton*- directed four James Bond films: Live and Let Die, The Man with the Golden Gun, Goldfinger and Diamonds are Forever
Earl Hamner Jr*- created the 1970s television show The Waltons, which was inspired by his own childhood
Arthur Hiller*- Canadian director of Love Story who went on to be president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences
Sir Antony Jay*- co-writer of the BBC TV political comedies Yes Minister and Yes, Prime Minister
Garry Marshall*- writer, director and actor behind Hollywood blockbusters Pretty Woman and Beaches, and sitcoms including Happy Days and Mork and Mindy
Gordon Murray*- creator and puppeteer of the BBC children’s series Trumpton, Camberwick Green and Chigley
Jimmy Perry*- one of the greatest British TV comedy writers best known for BBC series Dad’s Army, It Ain’t Half Hot Mum and Hi-de-Hi!
Douglas Slocombe*- British cinematographer who shot 80 films, from classic Ealing to the Indiana Jones adventures
William Smethurst - editor credited with revitalising BBC Radio 4’s The Archers from 1978 to 1986
Robert Stigwood - Australian impresario who managed Cream and the Bee Gees before producing the rock musicals Saturday Night Fever and Grease
Tony Warren*- created the UK’s longest-running television soap opera Coronation Street, inspired by the strong female figures around him when he was growing up in Salford
Michael White*- British producer behind The Rocky Horror Picture Show film and Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Vilmos Zsigmond*- Hungarian-born cinematographer known for his work on The Deer Hunter, for which he won a Bafta, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, for which he won an OscarComedy and entertainment
Paul Daniels*- brought a new dimension to the art of the stage magician, mixing complex tricks with jokes and non-stop patter on primetime Saturday night television
Garry Shandling*- American stand-up comedian who played the title role in the Emmy award winning Larry Sanders Show from 1992 to 1998
Liz Smith*- won a Bafta in 1984 for her part in the film A Private Function, she is most fondly remembered for her parts in the BBC sitcoms Vicar of Dibley and the Royle Family
Peggy Spencer*- dancing legend known to millions of viewers for her role on BBC TV’s Come DancingBroadcasting and journalism
Sally Brampton*- founding editor of Elle magazine in the UK and newspaper columnist, who had spoken of her struggle with depression
Dave Cash*- veteran broadcaster who started with pirate Radio London, saw the launch of Radio 1 and Capital Radio, and since 1999 worked at BBC Radio Kent
David Duffield*- passionate cycling commentator who worked for Eurosport across two decades
Dave Lanning*- darts and speedway commentator who called the first televised nine-dart finish, by John Lowe in 1984, and covered 50 successive speedway world finals
Ian McCaskill - popular BBC weather forecaster for 20 years, who even had his own Spitting Image puppet
Cliff Michelmore*- anchor of the BBC’s current affairs show Tonight in the 1950s and 60s, who went on to host the Holiday programme
Michael Nicholson*- veteran war correspondent who joined ITN in 1964, and reported on the fall of Saigon in 1975, the Falklands War, the Balkans conflict, the Gulf War and the 2003 invasion of Iraq
Sylvia Peters*- BBC television announcer for the Queen’s 1953 coronation, and also helped Her Majesty prepare for her first Christmas broadcast
Denise Robertson*- resident agony aunt on the ITV show This Morning
Ed “Stewpot” Stewart*- radio and television presenter best known for his radio request show Junior Choice and the children’s TV series Crackerjack
Gerald Williams*- one of the voices of Wimbledon, who commentated on tennis for BBC television and radioWriting and publishing
Richard Adams*- author who turned a story he told to his two daughters on a long car journey into the best-selling novel Watership Down. The book, about a group of rabbits trying to escape from their threatened warren, was turned into an animated children’s film in 1978
Martin Aitchison*- produced technical drawings for the bouncing bomb ahead of the Dam Busters raid in World War Two, then an illustrator for the Eagle comic and Ladybird’s Peter and Jane books in the 1950s and 60s
Edward Albee*- Pulitzer prize-winning US playwright who wrote Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
ER Braithwaite*- Guyanese-born British-American writer who wrote, based on his experiences as a black teacher in a London school, the 1959 novel To Sir, With Love, which was turned into a successful film
Anita Brookner*- art historian turned author who wrote 24 novels and won the Booker prize in 1984 for Hotel du Lac
Pat Conroy*- author whose best-selling novels include Prince of Tides and Water is Wide
Umberto Eco*- Italian writer and philosopher best known for his novel The Name of the Rose
Dario Fo*- Italian playwright and actor known for his cutting political satires and for winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1997
Margaret Forster*- award-wining writer best known for her novels Georgy Girl and Diary of an Ordinary Woman
Barry Hines*- author and screenwriter whose best known book, A Kestrel for a Knave, was turned into Ken Loach’s 1969 film Kes
Jim Harrison*- American writer best known for his 1979 novella Legends of the Fall, which was made into a film starring Brad Pitt and Anthony Hopkins
Robert Nye*- author and poet whose 1976 novel Falstaff won the Guardian fiction prize and the Hawthornden
Sir Peter Shaffer*- playwright Sir Peter Shaffer, who won an Oscar for Amadeus and wrote EquusPolitics and activism, world leaders and faith
King Bhumibol Adulyadej*- seen as a stabilising figure in Thailand, the world’s longest-reigning monarch, he died after 70 years as head of state
Lord Avebury*- Eric Lubbock, later Lord Avebury, was the Liberal MP for Orpington for eight years, but went on to become a staunch human rights campaigner in the Lords
Lord Taylor of Blackburn*- a dominant figure in Lancashire politics, Thomas Taylor led the Taylor report into school governing bodies in 1977, and entered the Lords as a life peer a year later
Rabbi Lionel Blue*- a regular on BBC Radio 4’s Thought for the Day and the first openly gay British rabbi, he was known for his liberal teachings and supporting other gay members of the Jewish faith
Boutros Boutros-Ghali*- Egyptian-born UN Secretary-General between 1992 and 1996 who sharply divided world opinion
Sir Robin Chichester-Clark*- former Ulster Unionist MP for Londonderry, a moderate who served in Edward Heath’s government but, as sectarian violence worsened in Northern Ireland, he left politics in 1974
The Most Rev Edward Daly*- retired Catholic Bishop of Derry, remembered as the priest who helped those under fire on Bloody Sunday in 1972
Harry Harpham*- Labour MP, a former Nottinghamshire miner who was elected member for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough in 2015
Luc Hoffmann*- Swiss conservationist who was a co-founder of the World Wildlife Fund
The Right Rev David Jenkins - former Bishop of Durham dubbed the “unbelieving bishop” after saying he did not believe God would have arranged a virgin birth and the resurrection
Islam Karimov*- long-serving and authoritarian president of former Soviet Central Asian state of Uzbekistan, accused of repressing his opponents
Lord Mayhew - former Conservative cabinet minister Patrick Mayhew served as Northern Ireland secretary and attorney general
Willie McKelvey*- Scottish Labour MP from 1979 to 1997, and a mentor to politician George Galloway
Lord Parkinson*- Conservative politician given much credit for the Tory landslide election victory in 1983, Cecil Parkinson quit the cabinet soon after, when it emerged his ex-secretary Sara Keays was carrying his child
Lord Prior*- former Conservative cabinet minister Jim Prior served as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland during the height of the Troubles in the early 1980s
Ken Purchase*- former Labour MP for Wolverhampton North East, who represented his Black Country constituency for 18 years after being elected at the second attempt in 1992
David Rendel*- Liberal Democrat politician who won the Newbury seat from the Conservatives in a by-election in 1993, and held the town until 2005
Antonin Scalia*- influential and conservative justice of the American supreme court who defended the original text of the US Constitution
Elie Wiesel*- Romanian-born US Nobel peace laureate, political campaigner and author who wrote about his experiences as a teenager in Nazi concentration camps, where he lost his mother, father and younger sisterSociety
Lady Elizabeth Longman*- friend and bridesmaid to the Queen
Margaret Rhodes*- Queen’s first cousin and one of her most trusted confidantes
The Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne*- Queen’s cousin, Michael Fergus Bowes Lyon, who enhanced Glamis Castle
Raine, Countess Spencer*- daughter of the romantic novelist Barbara Cartland and stepmother of Diana, Princess of Wales
The Duke of Westminster*- billionaire landowner and philanthropist Gerald Cavendish Grosvenor was said to be the third richest person in the UKScience, industry and academia
Lord Briggs*- Asa Briggs worked at the Bletchley Park code-breaking station during World War Two, and would become a leading historian and adult education pioneer, helping to set up the Open University and Sussex University
Denton Cooley*- American surgeon who implanted the first totally artificial heart in a patient in 1969
Donald Henderson*- US doctor and epidemiologist who led a successful World Heath Organization campaign to wipe out smallpox worldwide
John Glenn*- the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962, who later became a Democratic senator
Henry Heimlich*- US doctor credited with inventing, in 1974, a lifesaving anti-choking technique, which uses abdominal thrusts to clear a person’s airway
Valerie Hunter Gordon*- mother-of-six who invented the disposable nappy after having her third child, Nigel, in 1947
W Dudley Johnson*- US heart surgeon who developed coronary bypass operations and performed thousands of operations
Vijay Kakkar*- surgeon who moved to London in the mid-1960s and revolutionised treatment of blood clots in patients undergoing operations
Edgar Mitchell*- US astronaut, sixth man to walk on the Moon, who went on to claim in 2008 that aliens had visited Earth and there had been government cover-up
John Murrell*- theoretical chemist who pioneered a colour framework for chemical compounds, with his research into molecules and how they absorb light
Simon Ramo*- US aerospace pioneer and architect of America’s intercontinental ballistic missile system
Vera Rubin*- US astronomer whose work on galaxy rotation rates led to the theory of dark matter
Piers Sellers*- British-born Sellers joined the US space agency Nasa in 1982 as a scientist – but switched to the astronaut corps and made three Space Shuttle flights to the International Space Station
Joe Sutter*- US aeronautical engineer considered the “Father of the Boeing 747”Sport
Carlos Alberto*- Brazilian footballing legend who captained the 1970 World Cup-winning side
Chris Amon - Formula 1 Ferrari driver from 1963 to 1976. Although considered one of the best drivers of the era, he never won a Grand Prix
Jack Bannister - BBC TV cricket commentator and Warwickshire seam bowler who took 1,198 first-class wickets during a 368-match county career from 1950 to 1968
Alastair Biggar*- rugby player capped 12 times for Scotland between 1969 and 1972, and part of the victorious 1971 British and Irish Lions tour to New Zealand
Jack Bodell*- former British and European heavyweight boxing champion who beat Joe Bugner in 1971
John Buckingham*- jockey who became part of horse racing folklore in 1967 by steering the 100-1 shot Foinavon through a mass of fallers at the Grand National’s 23rd fence, which was later named after the horse
Beryl Crockford (previously Mitchell)*- World-champion and Olympic rower who later became an inspirational coach
John Disley*- post-war Olympic steeplechaser and co-founder of the London marathon
Mel Charles*- Swansea, Arsenal, Cardiff City and Port Vale footballer who played 31 times for Wales, including in the team that reached the quarter-final of the 1958 World Cup
Tony Cozier*- West Indian cricket commentator remembered for a career in TV, radio and journalism spanning 58 years
Martin Crowe*- former New Zealand cricket captain widely regarded as one of the team’s best players, scoring 17 centuries and 5,444 runs in 77 Tests
Roddy Evans*- former Cardiff, Wales and British and Irish Lions rugby lock, who won 13 caps for Wales and played 18 times for the Lions on the 1959 tour to Australia and New Zealand
Anthony Foley*- Munster rugby coach, who also captained Ireland three times and made more than 200 appearances in the back row for Munster as a player
Andy Ganteaume*- former West Indies batsman, the only Test cricketer with a better average (112 in one innings) than Sir Donald Bradman (99.94 in 80 innings)
Trevor Goddard*- South African cricketer, an all-rounder of the 1950s and 60s
Sylvia Gore*- pioneering women’s footballer who scored the first official goal for the England women’s team – in 1972 against Scotland
David Green*- 1960s Lancashire and Gloucestershire batsman who also played rugby for Bristol, Sale and Cheshire, and wrote about both sports for the Daily Telegraph
Ken Higgs*- Lancashire and Leicestershire bowler who made his England debut at The Oval against South Africa in 1965
Enzo Maiorca*- Italian spear fisherman who became a record-breaking free diver
Cesare Maldini*- former AC Milan defender who managed Italy’s national side at the 1998 World Cup finals
Hanif Mohammad*- Pakistani cricketer who in 1958 played the longest innings in Test history – 16 hours and 10 minutes. In a first class match a year later, he made 499 – a record that stood for 35 years, until Warwickshire’s Brian Lara made 501 in 1994
Gardnar Mulloy*- US No 1 tennis player who played in his country’s Davis Cup team in the 1950s, and in 1957 at the age of 43, became the oldest player to win a Wimbledon title
Christy O’Connor Jr*- Irish golfer who helped Europe retain the Ryder Cup at the Belfry in 1989 – nephew to Christy O’Connor Sr
Christy O’Connor Sr*- Irish golfer who competed in every Ryder Cup between 1955 and 1973 – uncle of Christy O’Connor Jr
Arnold Palmer*- American golfer, one of the sport’s greatest players, who won 91 professional titles, including the Open twice, the US Open, and the Masters four times
Tom Pugh*- Gloucestershire captain and towards the end of his cricket career was shortlisted to play James Bond – but the role went to Sean Connery
Don Rutherford*- rugby full-back who won 14 caps for England and went on to be the RFU’s first paid national coach
Jackie Sewell*- England, Notts County, Sheffield Wednesday, Aston Villa and Hull City forward – who, when he moved to Sheffield Wednesday in 1951, commanded a record transfer fee of £34,500
Gary Sprake*- Leeds United and Birmingham City goalkeeper in the 1960s and 70s, who won 37 caps playing for Wales
Walter Swinburn*- former jockey, three-time Derby winner and the rider of Shergar
Maria Teresa de Filippis*- Italian racing driver who was the first woman to compete in a Formula 1 grand prixUK Public service
Eric “Winkle” Brown*- the Royal Navy’s most decorated pilot, he witnessed the liberation of Bergen Belsen concentration camp in World War Two, and also held the world record for flying the greatest number of different types of aircraft, 487
Branse Burbridge*- RAF night fighter pilot who shot down 21 German aircraft in World War Two, and brought down three of Hitler’s V1 flying bombs before they hit residential parts of London
Jane Fawcett*- worked at Bletchley Park in World War Two and decoded a message which helped locate and sink the German battleship Bismarck
John “Jock” Moffat*- credited with launching the torpedo that crippled the German battleship Bismarck off the north coast of France in 1941
Molly Rose*- joined the Air Transport Auxiliary in 1942 and became one of World War Two’s “spitfire women”, delivering 486 aircraft, including 273 Spitfires, from factories to the RAF
Denise St Aubyn Hubbard*- worked as a translator at Bletchley Park in World War Two, competed as a high diver in the 1948 London Olympics, and sailed solo across the Atlantic in her 60sOutstanding in their field
Dick Bradsell*- career bartender who helped revive the London cocktail scene with his concoctions, including the espresso martini and the bramble (gin, lemon, sugar, creme de mure and a blackberry garnish)
Jonathan Cainer*- his astrology column appeared in the Daily Mail for 20 years. He remained adamant that astrologers should not look to predict the time of a person’s demise, as there was a danger of creating “a self-fulfilling prophecy”
Peng Chang-kuei*- Taiwanese chef who travelled to New York and created the much-loved sweet-but-spicy Chinese dish General Tso’s Chicken
Michael “Jim” Delligatti*- inventor of the McDonald’s Big Mac burger which was introduced in 1967 with two lots of everything – “all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a sesame seed bun”
Rose Evansky*- London hairdresser who invented the “blow wave” in the 1960s, using a hand-held dryer and brush on wet hair to create a soft natural look
James Galanos*- US fashion designer who dressed America’s social elite, most notably Nancy Reagan
Viktor Korchnoi*- Russian-born chess grandmaster who defected to the West in 1976, and was seen as one of the best players never to be world champion
Leonard of Mayfair*- real name Leonard Lewis, he was hairdresser to stars and celebrities in the 1960s and 70s and his styling helped launch Twiggy’s modelling career
Mark Taimanov*- Russian chess grandmaster, among the world’s top players from the 1940s to the 70s, who was also an international concert pianist
Henry Worsley*- former army officer turned explorer who fell ill while trying to complete the unfinished Antarctic journey of his hero, Sir Ernest Shackleton
Note: the above annual review of the obituaries is not complete, since the BBC also has an interactive look at 34 other lives that ended in this year. Alas I do not know what this involved since it is apparently optimised for modern web browsers but does not work with my Windows 10/Google Chrome combination.
Please feel free to add anyone who you know was missed out, although aviation obits are probably best kept to Historic (but I really don’t mind – you do what you want to do).
snafuUnderside of a wing, a Meteor fuselage or whatever. The dark underside extends both sides of the missing fragment of glass and up to the overlapping reflected ‘B’.
I don’t see it myself, but don’t lose any sleep over it on my behalf – it is all incidental to the Spitfire itself.
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