15 Comments
User's avatar
Mark D.'s avatar

Good morning! I was thinking, when there’s an 80th anniversary commemoration event, it’s probably a good idea to not have a president WHO WAS ALIVE DURING THE EVENT BEING COMMEMORATED

Expand full comment
Michelle Styles's avatar

That is a v good observation.

I am really against gerontocracy as a point of principle but particularly for the leader of the free world.

Expand full comment
jt's avatar

Hello Northumberland! SO good to "see" You this morning.

Another wonderful roundup of articles. I must agree that Sunak is an idiot.

I'm overjoyed to think that You'll get Secret Princess for the Warrior back soon.

And I'm glad to hear about Paddy and the cats. Have a great Friday and weekend, Michelle. TY as always.

Expand full comment
Michelle Styles's avatar

It was such an unenforced error.

The one thing you don't do as a British political leader is denigrate any commemoration of WW2, particularly during an election.

It is a shame as the Tories put reforming the Eq Act so that sex means biological sex and that they would enact Lord Walney's reforms re political violence in their manifesto.

Expand full comment
Alison Bull's avatar

Biden looked horrendous at the D-Day ceremony. Macron and Prince William came off better than anyone.

Expand full comment
Michelle Styles's avatar

Prince William did well. He is an usher today at the Duke of Westminster's wedding btw.

Biden looked v frail. Didn't he mess up about how long he'd known Putin was a threat? Said 40 years which is amazing considering no one in the West paid a lowly KGB officer any mind 34 years ago let alone 40.

Expand full comment
Chana Goanna's avatar

Biden is constantly bragging about something he never did.

Expand full comment
Mark D.'s avatar

I’m just shocked he didn’t say his son Beau was killed on the beaches of Normandy in 1944.

Expand full comment
Michelle Styles's avatar

Give it time...

Expand full comment
Michelle Styles's avatar

And this is brilliantly witty from Howard Jacobson re the BG fiasco. https://archive.ph/lPrtE#selection-34181.26-34181.303

You should enjoy it.

Expand full comment
jt's avatar

Nice catch!

"A burning world and dying children are a trouble to all our consciences. Our consciences, however, are private property. It’s not the job of anyone else to tell us how and where we must employ them. Of all bullies in the intellectual world, the most odious are those who claim that they alone feel humanity’s pain."

"The best art doesn’t have an agenda, the activist has nothing else. . . . Is this why the no-fossil-fuellers have chosen the terrain of art to begin their campaign of toytown terror? If there is one thing they fear it’s the creative imagination that goes its own way."

Yeah, I enjoyed it a lot. TYTY, Michelle, as always.

Expand full comment
Michelle Styles's avatar

I thought you would! So pleased I guessed right.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Jun 8, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Michelle Styles's avatar

Thank you for the smiles.

I do agree 20/20 does not count as cricket. The first place I ever saw a cricket match was at Old Trafford -- one day international England v Australia. 1985. Much more interesting than baseball as there were runs and wickets falling imho.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Jun 9, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Michelle Styles's avatar

Ian Botham was good. And of course, he was still v much in the saviour of England mode at that point.

I remember the chants about the Australian cricketer David C. Boone -- he's fat, he's round and bounces on the ground -- he turned out to be a v good bowler and the bane of the collapsing middle order English batsmen in the 1989 summer series (truly a series to wipe from one's memory if one is an England supporter).

And we will just agree to keep football taunts reasonable -- a Man U supporter here because my husband has been one since the 1960s. He agreed to support the SF Forty Niners and I agreed to support Man U. And the less said about the latest Man U season, the better... LOL

My latest comes out in October, thank you for asking.

Expand full comment
User's avatar
Comment deleted
Jun 10, 2024
Comment deleted
Expand full comment
Michelle Styles's avatar

If it had been a sausage roll, he'd have caught it -- one of the taunts at Gatting.

And at least you can admit that Man U exist -- a friend (now sadly deceased) refused to admit that Sheffield Wednesday even existed (he was a Sheffield United fan).

This year's FA Cup win was special particularly as I was prepared for it to be really ugly. City on current form are normally unplayable.

And yes, the US experience of WW2 was a bit different. Although the first ship my grandfather served on fresh out of Annapolis was the Arizona. Many years later he stood at the memorial and cried. He was on Atlantic Convoy duty when Pearl Harbour happened. Everyone thought all the action was going to be in the Atlantic and those in the Pacific had the cushy jobs... One of his good friends did go down on the Reuben James. Thankfully my grandfather's ship was guarding the convoy behind that one but it still sounded awful, particularly as the weather conditions were terrible.

Expand full comment