Thing is, one and all – the format is long established.
There’s a rant then there’s the meat and gravy. It’s been that way for the thick end of 20 years and the great majority love it and tell us so because in the first instance it’s all very tongue in cheek and all but those who take the hook I cast time and again know better than to bite.
Then there’s the fact that I only rant about things I feel qualified to rant about so my conscience is clear on that score. I keep chickens and turkeys and therefore wage daily war on foxes and rats. Believe it or not, and the guys will tell you this, I actually like my rats in the garden – smart little things they are, and always spotlessly clean – but I still cull them on a regular basis so as not to be overrun. Foxes I kill on sight because they’re evil things and it annoys me endlessly that the bleaters can only bleat about the ones that have to run away from dogs, universally ignorant of the fact that in order to dispose of a whole generation of the things the gamekeepers will gas vixen and cubs in the den. Know your subject, eh.
Likewise, I was a diver for Greenpeace for many years and risked arrest, strip-searches and imprisonment to do my bit for the planet, not to mention performing some of the most hazardous dives of my career… any other Greenpeace divers out there? I’m sure I’d remember you.

But that’s all by the by – the purpose of the rant is to raise a smile, never to be taken seriously and to wind up those who can’t appreciate the absurdity of the world around them so if you bit – shame on you and try harder next time.
In the meantime we’re all working damned hard to build a boat over here and showing you the whole lot – warts and all, so if you really zoned out before the boat bit – and I don’t believe for one living second that that’s what any of you really did – then get back there and see what you’re missing… silly people!

Cheers,
Bill

Interesting that. The assumption that those who don’t find the blogs opening funny or insightful either have some sort of humour bypass or are wound up. Actually Bill neither is true, it didn’t wind me up, it just made me sigh. Try harder? What utter nonsense, it’s not like your blog is hard to get. And why would you try to use an informative blog about restoring a boat (in which someone was sadly killed) as a mouthpiece for a rant about unrelated things that annoy you. Here’s an idea – Constructive criticism being positive – why don’t you put the rant at the end and then your fans can stick around for it if they wish.

Ps – as for knowing your subject, Foxes are not evil. They are a wild animal. But they are not ‘evil’. Try harder 😉

I have read the article and remain puzzled about the gaps in understanding, seems she has been poorly briefed.How hard is it to have a target list of desired aircraft researched and a regular update made? Even in this thread there are people who are already involved in liasing with the museum and she is not aware. Good luck to her and her team for the future, I will hope that we can be shown a fine gathering of aircraft for the celebrations.

There’s already a fine gathering of aircraft. Maybe they can do something a bit more interesting than just line up more aircraft?

No problem with the family selling these items. The real problem will be the auctioneers. Even if a National museum can collect enough cash to buy the collection the Auctioneers will happily hold out their hand for an extra 20% to 15% commission on top of the sale price, which the family will never see. The family will also be hit by the same Auctioneer deducting a similar % from the sale price. The only winner being the Auction house.

Would be great if the new owner of the log books could have them published.

So were complaining that the auction house is making a profit? That’s the point! That’s how they make a profit, fund catalogues, overheads, wages, etc etc. That’s the price you pay for a decent shop widow.

These items should be bought by the government for the nation. The money? Easy, they can flog off some old painting or sculpture by a foreign artist no one has ever even heard of.

What are you talking about?

Perhaps you’d like to nominate a painting? Then we can discuss which more people will have heard of… Brown or your chosen artist?

Maybe think of a more positive way to find money like a crowd funding campaign etc rather than your comment which hints that a foreign artist has less worth in a national collection (despite the fact it gives context to the home grown works and inspires young artists) and also that art is somehow inferior to medals. You are comparing completely different things. Plus… His medals are identical to other medals of the same type. Lots of them were produced so it’s not quite the same as a one off artwork is it?

So easy to denigrate another area of heritage/arts rather than being proactive and doing something!

So let’s chuck the Manets, Picassos and Warhols from our collections… They have no cultural value do they!

Maybe we should sell off the IWMs art collection::. Oh wait…. They’ve got aeroplanes in them so they’re worthwhile! 🙂

You do get that the Galleries you speak of are independent in the sense that it’s not up to government ministers to decide what to sell to fund medals for the FAAM.

This forum gets dafter everyday!

🙂

John.

You are a bitter bitter man. I’ll say no more because you love the fuel that we give you.

I’d say to anyone else who finds Johns view on this repugnant to simply say ‘shame on you’ and move on because every counter arguement is convoluted and thrown back at you/us.

So, shame on you.

And for the record I also flagged the post.

Not only is it a foul name but even after set censorship it is a sexist horrible swear word which is at odds with your description of what a nice progressive, decent person you are.

Kind of undoes your own argument.

It should be removed mods. The swear word I mean.

To be fair – we were also questioning her abilities to do the job as well ; )
Must be difficult to keep weight down when hammering all the ‘expenses’ eh ; )

Question the job she does, fine. The weight comments are just petty. Expenses criticism? Go for it but everything you say is undermined the moment the weight comments roll in which is a shame.