World Affairs

Robert Maxwell

I neither knew nor had any dealings with Bob Maxwell but I knew well two he did. A recent biography by John Preston called The Fall has received good reviews but I do not really want to spend the time reading it. However the BBC serialised it over 5 episodes and it was read by actor Henry Goodman. [...]

February 24, 2021 // 0 Comments

Sport as it was may be back on the horizon

Amidst the details of the Prime Minister’s cautious, once and for all, “road map” out of Lockdown 3 announced yesterday, UK sports fans, clubs and players/athletes will have taken particular interest in the 17th May and 21st June milestones within it applying to the potential return of crowds [...]

February 23, 2021 // 0 Comments

Another milestone on the road back to where we were?

This is an important day. At some point the Prime Minister is going to formally announce his heavily-leaked “road map” by which the UK will gradually emerge from Covid-19 Lockdown 3 and ascend to the sunny uplands of its post-Brexit prosperity and world domination. Or possible not. Overnight I [...]

February 22, 2021 // 0 Comments

This far in it’s boring to listen to nonsense

Maybe the travails of Lockdown 3 are getting to me, or maybe my senility rate is accelerating, but recently I’ve begun to notice that my ability to tolerate Covid-idiocy in any form – not least rent-a-mouth “so called experts” being invited on the national media programmes to spout lunacy [...]

February 17, 2021 // 0 Comments

Sport comes back to earth and carries on

At the twin risks of ignoring the advice “If you cannot say something positive, say nothing” and straying from subjects I know anything about, today I have chosen to post today upon sporting matters. AMERICAN FOOTBALL (SUPER BOWL 55) I’m afraid that – in keeping with its other major [...]

February 9, 2021 // 0 Comments

The human presumption

All species live life “in the moment” – in basic terms, each morning they awake, seek out food and sustenance, “do their thing” and eventually go back to sleep again, all against the background of what the specific conditions are on any given day. It is one of the crosses to bear of the [...]

February 5, 2021 // 0 Comments

THE WESTERNS

From, time to time we feature “Lists” of people, performers, plays, movies, sports teams … well, just anything you can make a list of and discuss/debate. Here’s one I spotted today, chosen by Graeme Ross, on the website of – THE INDEPENDENT [...]

February 1, 2021 // 0 Comments

Reflections upon an unwelcome milestone

Yesterday the UK had to come to terms with the sobering news that our total number of deaths so far due to the Covid-19 virus has just passed 100,000. From memory I can recall that one of our boffin masters – almost certainly either Professor Chris Witty (chief medical officer) or Sir Patrick [...]

January 27, 2021 // 0 Comments

The Infiltrators /Norman Ohler

I have always been interested in the degree of complicity of the German people – das Volk – in Nazism and its crimes and conversely the resistance domestically to the regime. This readable and well-researched account of two such resistants – Harro Schultze-Boysen and his wife [...]

January 19, 2021 // 0 Comments

Woke frustration

One aspect of contemporary arts which consistently irritates me is the random woke application. A good example of this was a programme I saw recently on Channel Four entitled The 100 Greatest Musicals. I enjoy such programmes for the clips from the musicals and input from film historians and [...]

January 12, 2021 // 0 Comments

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A sporting day in front of the tv

February 28, 2021 // 0 Comments

My sport watch would have started in the morning if it would have been the fourth day of the test. I agree with Duggie Heath that the ramifications for test cricket with [...]
My week in art

February 27, 2021 // 0 Comments

This week we studied on our course English art in the eighteenth century and I watched a Sky Arts programme on Collectors. Our tutor is always proficient in putting art in [...]
Third Test – random thoughts.

February 27, 2021 // 0 Comments

Losing a Test in two days is certain to attract castigation in the media. Michael Vaughan, who seems to have taken over from Geoff Boycott as trenchant critic-in- chief, led [...]
Another fine modern mess

February 27, 2021 // 0 Comments

Recently I had an extraordinary brush with the way the digital world works – so remarkable that it invites the comment “You couldn’t make it up!” It ran as follows [...]
Keeping in touch with modern life (up to a point)

February 27, 2021 // 0 Comments

I suspect in common with many Rusters from time to time as an oldie I find myself engaged in an unequal and often unsuccessful struggle with the inevitable onward march of [...]