[Andy McDandy]

He did indeed spend part of his childhood living near Exmoor, and at the time it was apparently just his mother and the children. And given who his father is, the idea of abandoning them in a ruin and expecting them to fend for themselves isn't that out there.

[Bones McCoy]

I hear that even the butler was poor.

Or did he miraculously become a self-made millionaire between childhood and Oxford?
Some paper round.

[davidjay]

Has anyone bothered telling him that even if a Christmas tree is real it's likely to be pine, and therefore a chimney fire waiting to happen?

[kreuzberger]

Has anyone bothered telling him that even if a Christmas tree is real it's likely to be pine, and therefore a chimney fire waiting to happen?

Hopefully not ...

[Oboogie]

He did indeed spend part of his childhood living near Exmoor, and at the time it was apparently just his mother and the children. And given who his father is, the idea of abandoning them in a ruin and expecting them to fend for themselves isn't that out there.

I remember watching a doco* about Johnson many years ago and my understanding is that, during his childhood, the family were asset rich but relatively cash poor ie, whilst they lived in a large, remote farmhouse, it was run down and in need of modernisation. It wouldn't be unusual for such a property to be without mains electricity or central heating in the 60s and 70s. The family certainly didn't meet my definition of "poor", but compared to the millionaires' kids at Eton, Johnson was a guttersnipe who was mocked for his relative poverty which probably explains some of his psychoses.

*I think it was the "King Of The World" one.

[Andy McDandy]

There's a certain type of poverty/hardship you have to be quite rich to experience. See also, Gordonstoun, Uncle Monty's Cottage, Laurie Penney's flatshare etc.

[Bones McCoy]

There's a certain type of poverty/hardship you have to be quite rich to experience. See also, Gordonstoun, Uncle Monty's Cottage, Laurie Penney's flatshare etc.

I was talking about this with #3 son, who did some "Costume drama" books for his Higher English.
I reflected on the absurdity to a modern reader of these "poor" families living in mansions, riding about in carriages and attending society events.

The "Poor Johnsons" business still doesn't wash with me.
But then I like stories that show their working, rather than lean on a fairy godmother.
There are a few episodes in his like that are coded "embarassed gentry", but all the siblings attending pre-school and boarding schools, foxhunting, funding the Bullingdon jacket and associated expenses all indicate a large reserve of untapped wealth.

[Andy McDandy]

To call again on Withnail and I, "Free to those who can afford it, very expensive to those who can't".

Well, not quite free, but a favour can always be done for one of the chaps. They know you'll be good for it in a generation's time or so. In short, you have a name. You have cachet. You belong.

It's a bit like when Prince Philip died - lots of bollocks about how he'd come here a penniless immigrant to be born on a kitchen table and so on. Maybe true, but the average new arrival from the Balkans* isn't having tea at Buck House within a few days, or being offeed a commission in the Navy.

*Insert Prince Andrew joke here.

[Watchman]

Am I remembering right, that dePiffle has a gig with GBeebies, has he actually graced the airwaves?

[davidjay]

I'm reminded of the sons of seriously rich men who boast that they built their own business from scratch, with nothing from father. Except, perhaps, the suggestion to potential customers that buying from the son of a seriously rich man might be a good idea for their own sales.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Nothing but some money, a lot of security and help from Daddy's associates. Knowing that if you fuck up you won't go hungry...

[Youngian]

Bozo delivered this attention seeking drivel after being told to up his game.
Orchestrating a coup was just a silly slip up by a fine democrat, environmentalist and pro Ukrainian. He still has no idea what a free trade deal with the US is or what it entails (existing terms with added disaster for UK food and agriculture).

BORIS JOHNSON: The global wokerati are trembling so violently you can hear the ice tinkling in their negronis... but a Trump presidency could be just what the world needs

Nor do I minimise Trump’s egregious error of January 6, 2021, and the riot that followed on Capitol Hill.

As I have said ever since, he should have accepted the ­voters’ decision with good grace.

The American people can see that none of Trump’s bluster, and none of the events — ugly though they were — actually affected the eventual outcome, and that power was transferred peacefully and in accordance with the Constitution from one administration to the next.

Reasonable people can see that Trump is not, actually, a would-be dictator.


But the fundamental problem with the current battle to cut ­carbon is that you need to be a ­little bit richer to afford an electric vehicle or a heat pump — and whatever you say about Trump, he has helped put American families in a better position to buy the new technology that can tackle climate change; and it is partly thanks to the economic policies of Donald Trump that U.S. car companies are making more battery-powered electric vehicles than the whole of the EU combined.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/arti ... needs.html

[Andy McDandy]

"Aaaaah, but who is the REAL [political position], is it [sane person] with their [reasonable ideas], or is it Trump? Well, this might shock you but..."

Utter bollocks from start to finish.

[kreuzberger]

Negronis are woke, are they?

Thank heavens for that. That's my go-to choice in posh places, and I had no idea that I was doing it all correctly.

[Youngian]

Haven’t heard of a negronis before but can see it’s a word that would send Mail reader alarm bells ringing.

[Youngian]

I’ll buy that analysis

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Negronis are woke, are they?

Thank heavens for that. That's my go-to choice in posh places, and I had no idea that I was doing it all correctly.

Well I must be the opposite of woke. I've never had a negroni and I always ask for traditional bitter. Never get it, mind, beer is fucked up in my opinion. Fucking fruit beers! Whose idea was that? Those twats who made Wkd, that's who. Beer for people who don't like beer! An offence against nature!

See what you've done? I'll have to have a drink now.

[Watchman]

Or “Davos, why am I no longer invited ?”

[Youngian]

It’s hard to think of anyone less trustworthy to have your back on a battlefield. Harry Lime, the Penguin, Eli Wallach’s Tuco?

[Bones McCoy]

Get out of that bloody swamp private Johnson.



It's your turn to lick the khazi clean.