Many thanks for all the very kind messages. I appear to be back on full fighting form again and will resume blogging shortly.
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I think someone feels a pinch to the ‘Eminences’ of it’s own choice.
@ Anon
“Life is grand!”
_______
I don’t remember giving you a franchise on my “La vita è bella, life is good!” but it of course goes without saying that you’re very welcome!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Loved the “enjoy the serf” as well 🙂
@ Suhayl
“You know what Kig Farouk said, don’t you?”
_____________
No, but let me guess (since he was very sexually active despite his girth) : “Give me 9560 nurses”?
Flaming June:
“That was 1.86 billion dollar bills not 1.86 billion £1 coins. Can you picture the stacks?”
No i can’t but, simply, because my brain won’t go there towards a futile visualisation. Sounds, though, that you would like to picture them sitting under your mattress. Do i sense some envy here? What kind of mind is drawn to picture someone else’s ‘stacks’ ?
——
” Not many members of the committee there. Have they already jetted off for the hols?”
Envy again or the new MP police?
“The estimated total annual cost of the monarchy to taxpayers is £202.4m”
I very much doubt the veracity of this estimation, but supposing for a moment it is correct, it would represent approximately half the annual aid sent to Pakistan. A healthy scepticism is in order whenever one sees “x amount would pay for y amount of nurses”. Always nurses, because that really tugs at the Murrayista heart-strings.
202 mil seems about right for just keeping the gardens up. It’s a pittance that would only pay for a few thousand nurses, so not even worth mentioning.
“The whole world is in revolt. Soon there will be only five Kings left — the King of England, the King of Spades, the King of Clubs, the King of Hearts, and the King of Diamonds.” King Farouk of Egypt.
But who knows, he may well have said, “Give me 9,560 nurses”!
Numbers of nurses are always quoted by the media in relation to almost anything. I don’t know what it is, specifically, about the numbers of nurses. It’s almost like a currency in the world of soap opera news.
Having said all that, I agree with Sophia Kibo Noh.
!!Send 9,560 murses to take over all the palaces!! Al together now: Inhale, exhale… !! Blow away the house of cards!! But Comrade Kibo, don’t let those nurses near the champagne…
@ Anon
And, do you know, I read something recently to the effect that nowadays it costs about £4 million to build one mile of motorway.
So that would be about 50 miles of motorway a year we’re not building because of the Monarchy.
Thing is, though, no mile of motorway would last 60-odd years as well as Her Majesty has.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
La vita è bella – Long live Her Gracious Majesty!
Nurses are the true caregivers. Physicians, not so much.
I think this may be where Sophia Kibo Noh got the figures from? But of course, at root, it’s not about figures.
http://www.republic.org.uk/What%20we%20want/In%20depth/Royal%20finances/index.php
Good stuff, Habbabkuk. I always thought Cornwall could do with a motorway.
Am so sorry for the above transgression. As many of the eagle-eyed investigators here think I am you, I thought I would play along for a while and give them all the evidence they needed. You see, poor Dreoilin has had a run of bad luck lately, and so I thought she could do with a breakthrough!
“Thing is, though, no mile of motorway would last 60-odd years as well as Her Majesty has.” Habbabkuk.
Eek, you sound like Norman St John Stevas. I need a parenteral anti-emetic. Let me call a care-giver! Let me call a nurse!
10,000 nurses needed to pave a mile in Lancashire. Pretty good pay for the week.
Musical interlude on topic.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmOe27SJ3Yc
We’re seeing a lot of this ‘republic’ web link, Suhayl, but I doubt it takesinto account the economic benefits of the Monarchy in terms of tourism and Diana mugs. But you’re right, it’s not about money, but principle. So thank Her Maj for 60 years of unimpeachable public service.
“Saoirse, comhionannas, bráithreachas!”
Sofia, you’re a tonic. 🙂
Habbabkuk, fwiw, I think you’re in the United States. My comment about “so far afield” was addressed to nobody in particular.
Mention of rhinestone boots reminds me, I used to listen to a lot of this great singer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prJyb7W605c
and for Suhayl, who mentioned the bobbies two ba two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWB1Sqsx1jo
@ Anon
£200 millions (if correct, of course) is equivalent to about £3,50 per head of the UK population, illegals included. And that is equivalent to about 1p a day.
I believe it now costs at least 10p to have a pee in one of those public paying lavatories.
Absolutely scandalous! (both, I hasten to add)
Peep peep!
Jack Nicholson as the NHS. They like nurses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYDP3nBh_E4
@ Suhayl
“Eek, you sound like Norman St John Stevas.”
Ouch! A bit below the belt, that, don’t you think?
_________
@ Anon
No transgression at all! The more people who think and write “Life is grand!” the better! Because it is.
” do you know, I read something recently to the effect that nowadays it costs about £4 million to build one mile of motorway. ”
Must’ve been along time ago, latest figures from the Highway agency that I can find put the cost of a mile of three lane motorway at £30 million but that skyrockets if it has to be put in a tunnel or on an elevated section. The five mile elevated extension to the M74 in Glasgow cost £692 million.
Habbabkuk (La Vita È Bella!)
Unblock? NO
Anon (Habbys bumchum)
Block? YES
Villager (Habbys new bumchum)
Block? YES
@Anon. 9 42pm
“Always nurses, because that really tugs at the Murrayista heart-strings.”
Can you supply links to back up other times when dastardly Murrayistas have used nurses for that purpose?
I was just thinking in terms of value to society.
Value of 9,560 nurses = Value of 1 monarch?
How difficult is that to work out?
Of the various forms of government which have prevailed in the world, an hereditary monarchy seems to present the fairest scope for ridicule
Edward Gibbon
Seditious mutterings here from the Flaming chicken run. NSA megafolder: FJwe7fh87
Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Does Craig’s use of the Royal “we” in the blog title have any significance? Given the support of some of his acolytes for the Syrian and North Korean monarchies perhaps he is planning to offer himself as a replacement for Liz Windsor who clearly doesn’t meet the exacting standards they set for monarchs.
What you need to be on ‘full fighting form’ (craig) is (‘surely’?!) a good ‘support crew’ (?!) …
Yes Exexpat – but who is on your list for stringing up come the revolution. All good revolutionaries have a list or seven dont they?
Resident Dissident
Unblock?
Knopfler/ Donegan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p-UulzYhHM
And no ‘we’ aren’t fucking stooge($) asif 4 asad bunch of bastards such as the dprk regimeß or suck as ..
@ Kempe
My God, that much?
Was I at least right in my estimation of the price of taking a leak? I hope you’re not going to tell me it costs 50p.
At £30 million minimum per mile, that means that every year 6,5 miles of motorway don’t get built because of Her Majesty.
Appalling!
Kibo
“Apologies for the disgraceful ad hominem (7 23pm). I really have no idea how many of you there are.”
That doesn’t sound like a very sincere apology when in the same breath you accuse Habbabkuk of sock-puppeting. And, Kibo, dear friend coming from you of all people? I’m disappointed that the daughter struggles to follow “Dad’s” standards.
Note how Herbie had to be cautioned and put on the mat (quite rightly) by Habby, for infringing Craig’s direct advice.
Ironic though how you and Herbie are the first one’s to go with your-thinly-veiled-sucking-up appearance to Jon to show Jon support, and the next second, this is what you resort to.
Herbie, starts addressing Habby as Sir Humphreys or whatever. Next, someone might be tempted to call him Herbie**ore — how helpful would that be?
Please decide whether you really support moderation here or not. As for Sophia it was ok while it lasted, but she’s way past her sell-by date, i would suggest. As Obama said ‘you never step into the same river twice’. Its a great pity that his deeper side has been a-wasted. Just a sign of the times. And because of those signs i’m interested in the primacy of how the mind impacts politics/society and less so of how politics impacts the mind which is secondary. So at the secondary level we see all this frustration and bitterness. And acting from that frustration only arises more frustration. That is why the world is confused, lost.
If you want to see change, please change.
As for Herbie, he seems to be here only in a vain attempt to score points. I have read with interest his exchange with Habby who is chasing him all over the board — he’s on the ropes with no specifics. Note seriously how Habby brings rigour to the debate.
——
Btw some good points made by Habby and Suhayl, inspired by Dreoilin, earlier re potential education dollars being lost in military machines of so-called developing countries.