The researchers had a hunch he was there. ATOS pass Richard III’s skeleton as fit to work.
Joking aside, the discovery of Richard III’s body is fascinating and wonderful. Aside from Shakespeare’s brilliant play (which is evidently not as physically inaccurate as we have been told for years), and the question of who killed the Princes in the Tower, there is a romance about lost dynasties which appeals to a deep human yearning for a golden age when things were somehow better, and for “lost futures”. What might have been, had those evil Stanleys not turned on Richard at Bosworth and put their miserable Welsh accountant on the throne?
Richard is described in today’s newspapers as the last English King. The Plantagenets were of course Angevin. The last English King – indeed the only English King of all England – was Harold Godwinson. Now there’s a lost dynasty for you.
We now know that Richard’s “Claim of Right” was almost certainly true and Edward IV a bastard, as his father was nowhere near his mother for months around the purported conception. But the so-called Royal line is, I am quite sure, sprinkled with bastards and no line at all. Not to mention that George I was 39th in line to the throne when given it 300 years ago, but the first Protestant.
Monarchy is bollocks, and something we should have outgrown a long time ago. Nice to see that today’s Prince Harry retains the tradition of remorseless homicide though.
Leicester University deserve congratulations on a genuine achievement. I hope Richard can now be reburied as soon as possible – as a Catholic, which is what he was. He was a human being. The degradation and display of his fresh corpse were horrible; but there is a danger of repeating it with a po face and feigned serious intent.
Trolls this way>>>>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/feb/05/trolls-prompt-author-charity-donation
Thanks Arbed.
Habbakuk thanks. Of all the people who comment on here, to have pissed you off has really made my day.
lol @ John Goss 2.33pm
Giles
5 Feb, 2013 – 10:23 am
“Killing may at present be as trivial to him [Prince Harry] as a video game, but he will know of the mental anguish that service personal experience first-hand, and may well it experience it himself.”
I’m sorry Giles but this is complete bollocks. How can he know of the mental anguish that service personal experience first-hand? Has he seen any bullet riddled bodies; decapitated women and children; blood soaked streets and buildings? Has he heard the screams of people dying in agony; the wailing of the relatives of the innocent victims bombed by some prat in a helicopter?
Do you not see that it is all part of elite propaganda?
Do you think that Harry is a real helicopter pilot?
When Harry is visiting clubs in Knightsbridge he is surrounded by armed special branch and MI5 bodyguards. Does he not have bodyguards while in Afghanistan?
No, the last English king was George VI, unless you want to start using BNP type definitions for defining nationality. Being permanently resident and committed to a country is enough. Heaven forbid if Craig’s nationalist chums were to start defining who is or isn’t Scottish on such a basis – I wouldn’t rate the chances of a Norfolk boy with Corsican ancestors (this is presumably where the tendency to feuding/omerta comes in) too highly. That said I do tend to agree monarchy is all bollocks just like much nationalism.
“Monarchy is bollocks”
Hear, hear (but it’s also costing everyone a fortune and is acutely embarrassing into the bargain). Not sure what to do about that, just wish that secret rendition to justify the Civil List expenditure would enter into the public domain/discussion someday soon.
Loving the ‘a spade is a spade’ attitude, still consistently wonderful.
Thank you.
Jimmy Giro @9.19
‘We did once get rid of the monarchy but it was replaced by utopian proto-socialists’.
No, unfortunately the monarchy was replaced by Cromwell and his grandees who argued that only land and property owners should rule and have a say in government.
It was the levellers who were the proto-socialists. Thomas Rainsborough, a former colonel in the parliamentarian army and a leveller, asked why they had fought to depose the monarchy only to see the old law restored in which ordinary people had no voice at all.
Things have improved slightly – we ‘ordinary people’ have a voice but still don’t have much power over government decisions for which don’t forget they have no mandate.
(apologies – only just had time to respond to Jimmy Giro’s comment)
I’m thinking of opening a personal “Doug Scorgie” sub-file. The only thing that makes me hesitate is the difficulty I’m likely to have when I try to work out whether to put his posts into the ‘arcane’,’inane’ or ‘insane’ folders.
Anyway for today the following gems.
“Does he {ie, Prince Harry} not have bodyguards while in Afghanistan?” (15h06)
Yes, especially when flying his helicopter on combat missions. Their job is to shoot down any ground-to-air missiles with their pistols.
Quoting with approval from Jonathan Freedland at 08h26 :
“As Peter Wright confirmed in his book Spycatcher, {Harold} Wilson was the victim of a protracted, illegal campaign of destabilisation by a rogue element in the security services.”
Exactly : a rogue element in the security services, not the security services as such.
And : “We now know it did happen”.
Errr, well, no, it didn’t happen, actually. No fighting on the street, no troops on the street, no Royal proclamation, no overthrown government, but a general election as per usual.
@ John Goss : if the thought that you’ve pissed me off makes your day, then it sounds as if your days are sad ones.
Look around you, man, real life is everywhere! La vita e’ bella! Find the song on YouTube and sing along!
I guess Lord Haba Ha will tell us this BBC Documentary “The Plot Against Harold Wilson” doesn’t exist either http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG6FR03BqIQ
Watch it all the way through but troops on the streets at 1:06 mins in which of course didn’t happen according to Haha Ha.
Have surprised even myself by enjoying following the story. Living as I do in Touraine the history of the Plantagenets has always fascinated a bit – even down to their family name; it is said that the founder of the family, Geoffrey, liked to pick bits of broom (genet) and put them in his hat! Whether true or not it’s rather a pretty story.
Given the horrifically violent death that he suffered and his ignomonious treatment post-mortem it would seem to be nothing less than just that he be laid to rest with dignity, according to his beliefs … and left in peace.
And we thought the brutal treatment of Ghaddaffi was all down to those savages, when in reality it was learned from our police trainers, who by some fluke of history, must have read it in some medieval manual on how to subdue bastard murderous kings with a poker up their backside.
Even torture has tradition here, great article John Goss, thanks, that it had such impact on our son of a jester was a bonus.
Its all royal terminal guff. I’m sure Leicester City council will try their utmost to get a car park re-designated into a museum in record time before the summer tourists are due.
As for standing up for Harry, the soldier, son of a serving soldier, good on you Giles for pointing out that Craig’s thread here has made such a pertinent point about Royalty.
http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/archive.cgi?read=36121
@ Anon (16h01) :
Troops man “Green Goddesses” during the firemens strike, but unfortunately no coup d’état.
Troops ring Heathrow during teror plot scare, but still no coup d’état
Troops on the streets also during the 2012 Olympics, dear boy, but STILL no coup d’état, so sorry to have spoiled the plot.
( a “rogue element” in the security services, a “rogue element”. Got it? A “rogue element”.)
Shall I stay with the military and address you in the same way as Captain Mainwaring used to address the young lad…?
Habbabkuk
I post to you on this thread because you seem to be avoiding answering a question I asked you on the previous thread.
Habbabkuk
4 Feb, 2013 – 9:45 pm
@ Clark and Doug Scorgie : of course they do! Where have you been for the last 20 years – hibernating?? Don’t you read political memoirs and diaries???
I replied:
No I don’t, but please direct me to those that refer specifically to the use of behavioural psychologists and I will.
Why have you not directed me (and others) to the political memoirs and diaries you refer to? Is it because you don’t know of any and you just made it up?
I ask again direct me to the books you refer to.
I call your bluff.
Hahha,
You’ve watched the 90 min documentary already (in just a few minutes) and reached a conclusion. Your skills truly astound me. Somehow I doubt you’ve watched it before.
So it’s normal for the British army to take to the streets (and it wasn’t just Heathrow – that was just the headliner) without informing the government? Get real.
HaHah,
Let’s just assume for a moment that all the plotting was by “rogue elements” who somehow had the power to occupy Heathrow Airport with tanks and go unpunished.
Can you explain to me how you have satisfied yourself that “rogue elements” are not in such positions of high power and pulling levers behind the scenes even today?
Do you believe that “rogue elemnts” suddenly went out of fashion? I can’t fathom why you happily accept the existence of “rogues” in the 1970s but not in the 21st century.
There goes your knighthood Craig. I’m a conditional republican myself but if there has to be a monarch, he might as well be an Aussie.
http://newsfeed.time.com/2012/07/16/meet-the-next-rightful-heir-to-the-british-throne/
@ Anon
1/. No, I haven’t watched the documentary. But you know, this so-called “coup” is hardly breaking news – it’s been talked and written about for quite a few years.
2/. If there was a coup attempt, why didn’t the military go to Downing Street, Westminster, Whitehall, the BBC?
@ anyone who’s interested : my reply to Doug Scorgie is on the previous thread to which he refers.
Re monarchy :
There are a few republicans around, I see. Which justifies the following (on-topic) questions:
1/. do you believe that a Head of State (largely ceremonial as in the UK, Scandinavia, Spain, Belgium, Netherlands, etc) is necessary or desirable?
2/. if so, how should he or she be chosen?
An Iraqi child asks Tony Blair and George Bush: Are you happy now?
.
Published on 3 Feb 2013
An Iraqi Child. Written by Heathcote Williams. Narration and montage by Alan Cox. “Who did this to me?” asks an Iraqi child, drawing a picture of bombers, despite his arm and fingers having been amputated. “Why didn’t they think of the people below, when they sent their cruel planes? … Are they happy now?”
Such a brilliant poet and the video and the narration are excellent too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TK4gzxYykKA
cc
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair
George Walker Bush
Alastair John Campbell
answer 1/. No
2/. inconsequential
Its snowing massive flakes
as big as dinner plates
HaHa,
If you read accounts by others around at the time I think you will find the security services did indeed arrive at other places of interest. Tanks weren’t needed at the BBC. John Simpson further claimed that plotters included major media owners etc. Wilson himself believed very senior figures at the BBC were in on the plot.
But seriously if you read Simpson’s books you’d realise exactly why the State does not need tanks to control the BBC. His book’s are a lot more revealing than his broadcasts.
HaHa,
Picture yourself in the BBC Newsrooms as reports of tanks at Heathrow start to pour in. Political correspondents can’t get anything out of the government other than shock. What do they broadcast? What did they broadcast? Protocols dear boy.
@ Anon – OK, forget the BBC for the sake of progressing. A coup d’état normally seeks to take over the organs of government. These “accounts by others around zt the time” – who are these others and which places did they mention? Were Downing Street, Westminster and Whitehall mentioned?
BTW – you talk about the security services – was that a slip for the military? I thought the other posters were talking about a miltary coup?
@ Nevermind : if you believe that a Head of State is neither necessary nor desirable, who do you think should represent the state? Eg (but this list is not exhaustive) : in whose name should legislation be enacted, and by whom? Who represents the British state (not the government) vis-à-vis the outside world? Who interacts with other Heads of State? Who arbitrates or facilitates the political process say in cases when the issue of one of forming a goverment?
Off topic. Sorry. Angry.
Hand wringing by some MPs here on this sad case. What an indictment of the pocket pols we have representing us. Burstow who, after becoming an MP, became a junior minister responsible for care services. He assisted Lansley in the destruction of the NHS as we know it. Blunt voted for their Health and Social Act 2012. Look at the Safeguarding outfit packed with jobsworths who spend their time going from meeting to meeting.
Did nobody think to ask what was going to happen to the clients (as they are referred to) after the Border Agency heavies’ visit which probably involved rounding up some very badly paid illegal immigrants?
Poor old lady. If elderly care still remained in local authority hands and had not the carers in this case been provided by a private agency, ie outsourced to a for-profit private outfit, she would still be alive. She should have been receiving care in a well run nursing home.
Surrey woman left without care dies in hospital
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21340238#
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/pensioner-left-without-care-dies-161004228.html
Mary at 5.28
It is a touching video. I wrote on the same theme when the allied forces started bombing Iraq.
“Tony’s child
(Ali Ismail Abbas)
Tony’s child is 12 years old, like any kid that’s bad,
he used to do mischievous things, he’d taunt his mum and dad.
He does not do that any more and even if he did
he could not hurt his parents, for they’re already dead.
Tony’s child is not quite dead instead he lies all day in bed.
He lies all day in bed and cries, he knows how bad
he was. He just wants to apologise, say sorry mum and dad.
But it’s too late, he had his chance before the two were gone,
and now they’re gone, he lingers on,
he lies all day in bed and cries, and still cries on.
Tony’s child liked volleyball but now he has no arms,
he cannot show the skills he learnt, all those magic charms.
No arms to touch, to love, to feel, he has no arms to kill,
it might be better if he’d died and who knows perhaps he will;
he lies all day in bed and cries for Tony’s child is very ill.
The bomb that killed his family and took his arms away,
scorched his growing torso, and God I only pray
this kind of thing will soon become a feature of the past
when men were seen as savages who used to maim and blast
little children with their bombs – and Tony’s child’s the last.”
Ali Ismail Abbas survived though at the time it was touch and go whether he would. Now an adult his life was changed forever. I have not, and cannot, forgive Tony Blair for what he did to Ali Ismail and all the other innocent children killed and maimed in our conflicts.
Last post before I go out for dinner and take in a movie. And at the risk of making some of you miserable, it’s about good news!
David Cameron and his govt. get a lot of stick on this blog. So I’m sure others here will want to join me in expressing pleasure and admiration for the way in which he pioneered and saw through to a successful conclusion the bill giving the freedom to gays and lesbians to marry. He showed condsiderable courage, determination and humanity and his action (and that of Parliament for voting through the bill)deserves recognition.
I’m sure I speak for all who regularly post here, all of whom are, I’m sure, very much for gay and lesbian rights.
So let’s be hearing you!
@ Doug Scorgie
5 Feb, 2013 – 8:36 am
I know it’s fiction but have you ever seen ” A very British Coup’ with Ray McAnally from the eighties? ….. Says it all….. You can get some of it on youtube from 4on demand http://youtu.be/VjummXMQT7I?t=35m1s