Off Topic Politics Thread

That is but one point of view. Another is that Napoleón got his game plan wrong!!! As he did in the Peninsula War!! Brilliant man whose failing was that should have heeded the words of others.

 

But if he needed to listen to other people because their ideas were better than his, doesn’t that make him not-so-brilliant?

 

You do make me chuckle Ides. Shakespeare with his great drama and poetry in the same category as JK Rowling and her bad puns and pseudo latin!
I'll let you have Ben Elton....apart from his novels that is.

 

Napoleon gave his generals a free hand to fight the Peninsula War. He didn't confront the Duke of Wellington on the battlefield until Waterloo in 1815.

He invaded Russia in 1812 because Russia broke his blocade of Britain. So it was the reality of Anglo/Russian trade that provoked him into his own destruction.

Britain was as suspicious of Russia in 1809 as it was in 1940, and is now. My -facetious but not unfounded - point was that Russia and Britain have benefited from reluctant alliances in the past; history (and geography) suggests that John Bull has nothing to fear from The Bear.

Edit; if Vlad The Poisoner would refrain from littering the streets of the UK with his victims, we could all get along so much better.

 

I could not think of another contemporary writer who is female. But you get my sentiments. If we can have an "Armed Forces Day," "D-Day, and other days that celebrate British military achievements, we need one where we can celebrate our engineering, science, our arts in order to take the British mind away from all things militaristic. Even on BBC Today (South) there is often a feature about WW2, the role of the RAF, the Spitfire, the return of a división from the front in Afghanistan was a regular feature a few years ago.

It is really time to move on from this over-bearing celebration of the UK military. The military are great guys, but the UK is so much more.

 

Really?

Let me recommend Julie Myerson. And Helen Dunmore, who actually died last year so may not be entirely contemporary - but as we have been talking about Russia, you won't regret getting hold of a copy of The Siege, an extraordinary novel set during the siege of Leningrad.

You do know the current Poet Laureate is a woman, right? Carol Anne Duffy.

There should definitely be a bank holiday to celebrate Bill Shakespeare

And another for Wiliam Blake

 

And another for that little-known female scribbler from Hampshire, Jane Austen.

 

Ten times the writer pompey-born Charles Dickens ever was imo

 

Forgive my ignorance on not being totally up-to-date with writers of both genders and across the spectrum. But let´s write to our MPs and ask for a Bank Holiday to celebrate our great writers? If we can have a holiday for a guy born in Israel 2000 years ago, one to celebrate a Royal wedding and the Monarch´s jubilees, we should have one to celebrate our great authors, painters, musicians, scientists, inventors and engineers. September 15th being a very special day with regard to transport and engineering.

 

Israel?

 

And you can visit her house in Chawton then pop along to see my Dad. He might even take you to Casandra s Cup for Sunday lunch, just opposite Jane Austen’s house.

 

Think about it and remember it’s ides.

 

Random fact number 6:
The first passenger to be recorded as being killed by a train died in England on September 15th 1830...can we have a bank holiday to celebrate that triumph of engineering over mortality?

 

Oops. Simple mistake to make.

https://www.thecanary.co/trending/2...ferred-to-jeremy-hunt-in-rhyming-slang-again/

 

Should have been called Mike. Has anyone seen him?

 

I have been there and also visited Gilbert White house which is nearby!! I love the drive up the A32 Meon Valley road.

 

I know there was a tragedy!!! You neglected the fact that it was a Tory politician. But it was a triumph for British engineering.

 

wow this thread has gone mad. Bank holidays everyday - vote Corbyn

As for the Napolean references. Empires that push too far end up collapsing under their own weight. From the Roman to Napoleaonic to the British Empire. The EU corporate empire is already creaking at the seams!!!

And then we have the whole "expand the airports" argument being fought by people who have spent the last couple of years using an argument of how we should be able to travel more and more for work, studying, living, holidaying to defend both the EU and globalism.

 

Yes Ides, Gilbert White’s house is only 4-5 Miles up the road in Selborne. Used to go there with the school.

 

Or his brother Warwick ..