Farewell and Goodbye, its been a great ride, sometimes bumpy but now getting tacky.
Where I once had huge respect for the bosses' intellect but recent unbalance posts with bias so strong and convoluted enough to mould it now throws a shadowed light on the true validity all his previous posts.

Hate seeps through and colours opinion. Unable be a party to any form of hatred whatsoever. I must go.

The world is at war with covid. A common enemy and UK for many - and self inflicted reasons was in a serious state which had to be staunched. Vaccines being the main weapon it was necessary to buy in any in bulk and as quickly as possible to try to allay the spread and bring down the death rate.... as in a war situation. That by ordering in advance and paying highly to ensure we got the weapons available to do this is not evil nor corrupt ..... all countries use public funds for its weapons... why Norway should be horrified is an odd observation. And why the PM's High School is dragged in also makes for taunting scorn of any argument. No mention of the EU/Irish stance that was rethought, I notice. Why, I wonder? Where and what is truth, Eh?

Thus it is how I feel... a retort to this post will probably as often happens go into a crude anal spin of vilification as it usually does when opposition to the bosses opinion persists.
So bye Bye Res Hist. Thanks to many for the memories of happy times but I can see why others left and why the membership shrinks, Priscilla

If I was English, and in common with many other English people, I'd be even more vociferous in my condemnation of a corrupt government working so blatantly and lately so lethally against my interests, and even more inclined to repeated utterance of that condemnation if a fellow citizen attempted somehow to defend that same outfit.

As an external witness to this, though with enough people I care about directly caught in that frankly appalling situation and others damaged through accidental proximity to it, I am no less inclined to understate my views purely to spare the feelings of anyone who, for reasons only they can understand and explain, choose to actually defend that corrupt outfit despite the mounting evidence of its corruption, even to the point of interpreting any criticism of its behaviour as a presumably xenophobic assault on their entire nation. A frankly ludicrous interpretation, in my view, surpassed only by interpretation of the same views to be an attack on them personally. Neither could be further from the truth, though truth itself is a concept whose validity, I notice, you conveniently question in advance of my reply, correctly suspicious perhaps that I may appeal to it with better justification than yourself.

Aware that you have also chosen to dismiss this statement in advance as "a crude anal spin of vilification" I am not optimistic therefore that you would ever choose to believe this to be my genuine feeling on the matter. However that, like your willingness to engage in conversation, is completely your prerogative.

nordmann wrote:

If I was English, and in common with many other English people, I'd be even more vociferous in my condemnation of a corrupt government working so blatantly and lately so lethally against my interests, and even more inclined to repeated utterance of that condemnation if a fellow citizen attempted somehow to defend that same outfit.

If I were Irish I'd be furious with the EU. What they did last Friday was an appalling blunder, worthy of any "corrupt" organisation: Ursula von der Leyen's team did not even have the courtesy to inform the Irish Taoiseach personally of the decision that had been made re the vaccine supply. Micheál Martin found out, like the rest of us, from the news. He has just confirmed that on this morning's Andrew Marr Show. A tactful man, he is, as expected, being very careful what he says, but one gets the impression the Irish are none too pleased with Brussels at the moment. Dublin, Belfast - even the WHO - have joined London in their condemnation of the EU's actions. Lord, even Sinn Fein are furious with Ursula - and with reason!

All governments are "corrupt". Didn't Machiavelli teach us that - as if it had not been known for centuries before? It's the way of the princes of this world - and usually the greater success on the world stage, the greater the villainy. Great power blocs are always out for themselves - we all know that. I think it would just be appreciated if occasionally nordmann would acknowledge that other governments and political organisations have - or have had - their flaws too. We know we Brits are a bad lot - pirates to the core - but we have occasionally admitted that. The nostra culpa - nostra maxima culpa - bit does get a bit tedious at times.

The reference to truth in nordmann's post is interesting  - does show how important reader-response is. What Priscilla reads about politics here - and what I occasionally read about all sorts of things - is obviously quite different from what nordmann means when he posts. Who is deceiving whom? Or are we all in our little non-support bubbles happily deceiving ourselves? Or not so happily?

I don't want Priscilla to do a Prexit (typical of the wit of the woman, a wit which we have all appreciated for years): her contributions since 2012 have kept the site a lively and interesting place; and her threads are demonstrably among the most successful - even those she started as a bit of a laugh!

Hard to admit the EU has got it wrong if you are working for them, nordmann, but a bit of typical Irish humour and graciousness would now be appreciated to prevent the departure of an old friend.

Can't you two just kiss - well, no, don't go that far - shake hands, eat a bit of cheese in the bar, and make up? Or is that too much to ask?

PS Hand off our Winston, please - as a Roman soldier in some dreadful Netflix movie I've watched yesterday said of his (famous) Roman general: "He's rash, reckless and a total bastard - and I'd die for him!" Churchill was no Hitler - and no Trump. VF's comment was apt -  Churchill was a typical Brit hero - mad, usually drunk, great sense of drama and humour - but flawed, as all true (tragic) heroes are. Mmm - the Irish and the Brits have a lot in common, when you think about it -  which is probably why we are usually at one another's throats. But that's another story.

Probably shouldn't send this, but what the heck: alea iacta est.


PPS Re the great EU vaccine mess-up - this is from the BBC:


The Brexit deal guarantees an open border between the EU and Northern Ireland, with no controls on exported products.

However, Article 16 of the Northern Ireland Protocol part of the deal allows the EU and UK to choose to suspend any aspects they consider are causing "economic, societal or environmental difficulties".

On Friday evening the EU announced it would trigger the clause and introduce the export controls on its vaccines entering Northern Ireland in a bid to prevent the region becoming a backdoor for jabs to be sent to the UK mainland.

It said the actions were "justified" to avert problems caused by a lack of supply.

But the proposals sparked concern from Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin as well as all five parties in Northern Ireland's devolved government.

Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster described it as "an absolutely incredible act of hostility" that created a hard Irish border, while Ireland's Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said in a tweet: "The [Northern Ireland] Protocol is not something to be tampered with lightly, it's an essential, hard-won compromise, protecting peace and trade for many."

Your point about media sources is absolutely correct, Temp, and indeed lies at the core of many of my misgivings about what is happening in the UK in recent years and which continues apace. If you had used Irish national media outlets as your source then as early as Friday it would have been obvious that this was not the EU "triggering" Article 16 but reminding everyone in a press release that it had the power to do so - just as the UK government in fact did two weeks ago if you recall, and with similar cries of immediate anguish from Irish officials who know all too well how this plays out on the ground, even in hint or threat form. You would also be aware that the Irish Taoiseach, the Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs and the whole Irish contingent in Brussels had immediately jumped on the EU statement and issued, in no uncertain terms, a threat of their own that this would involve use of the Irish veto, if not for this decision then certainly going forward on any other issue the EU might require Irish support for. This threat was taken so seriously that the EU immediately assured Martin that it had all been over-stated, to which Martin responded by insisting that the private admission was not enough and that assurances must be made to the British government and publicly to the UK media, no matter how much of a climb-down it might appear.

The resultant communication with Johnson was reported nevertheless in the UK media as the PM "intervening". Johnson, though grateful for the PR win, would really rather however that this whole issue disappear - there is much about the financial aspects to his own dealings with Astra Zeneca that is crying out for public scrutiny, which is why he so quickly followed AZ's contract publication with the "sorry, national security and all that" refusal to do something similar. Martin and Coveney's involvement is only now being presented to the British public (Gove's mendacious version given wide publicity yesterday still being pushed as the "context" in which they operated), and the Irish delegation in Brussels, who practically wrote both the EU and Irish official statements as they diffused the whole fiasco, has yet to be referred to at all in news for British consumption.

So yes, the Irish were annoyed. It was the old problem we became so used to over centuries with Britain in which the big player somehow "forgets" to even ask the guys on the ground before they embark on a bit of politicking related to some other agenda completely. And the main focus of that anger was not, as is also being reported in British media, the danger of a "hard border" but instead how such a stupid and ill thought out item of petty brinkmanship would feed straight into the hands of at least one presently neutralised group of bigots in NI - and of course the DUP didn't disappoint.

Anyway, such is it with news media, and always was. However what this incident revealed as far as I can see was a worrying willingness for all the UK media to go with the "Gove spin", even the traditional leftist or liberal elements. That would not have been the case only a few years ago, and I am hoping it does not represent an even more accelerated decline into populist demagoguery, up to now something that could be dismissed as wishful thinking among the Johnsons of the UK but all the more realisable if the press, or at least some diligent part of it, does not call it out for what it is.

We're in a pandemic, so I'll willingly go elbow-bumps with Priscilla any time she's up for it. But that's where we must keep it. I'm yet to be vaccinated as my own government here very kindly gave away a whole chunk of its vaccines to poorer nations just before we learnt that the AZ guys had opened their Swiss bank account, soon to be the new home apparently of the British Exchequer!

PS: And a point just as at home in Priscilla's other thread before she prexited as here - for all the fuddy-duddiness and inverted or overted snobbery involved in diplomatic protocols, this has been as clear an example as you could wish for as to exactly why they exist. One pen-pusher in the Commission's Legal PR department, had he or she's boss observed the most basic of these protocols when pronouncing "foreign policy" affecting a "friend" (I mean Ireland and not the UK of course), would have ended up with a slightly fuller waste paper basket and the news media a lot less to report on (mostly badly) over the last few days.

Oh well, don't say I didn't try. But my days as the Res His official cheesemaker are ending. Time for Temp to fugit all this nonsense too.

Here are two no doubt rather pretentious quotations from me - one biblical, one from the other chap. I begin February ruefully reflecting on the folly of my own ill-judged gushiness: attempted appeasement is never wise...


A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
2
The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of the fool gushes folly.
3
The eyes of the LORD are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.
4
The tongue that brings healing is a tree of life, but a deceitful tongue crushes the spirit.

Handy Proverbs Ch. 15

But alas, "Malice receives no gift that placates her..." Mmm, you're right there, Nick.


Shame it's all gone so horribly pear-shaped (got a fruit fool joke in after all), because I did want to discuss "The Dig" - great film just out on Nettyflix all about Sutton Hoo. Hoo was the actual King - the Bretwalda - do they know? Another corrupt and useless Brit, sorry Anglo-Saxon, no doubt. But that's another story.

I watched "The Dig" also and enjoyed it, though of course the departures from fact for the sake of telling a good yarn were annoying. Brown had already spent two seasons excavating Sutton Hoo before 1939, when the film has him turn up in his bicycle clips to start work, including having found and fully excavated one ship, or at least what was left of the ship after the Saxons had cut it in two and thieves had later destroyed one of its halves. His relationship with the British Museum and Cambridge lads was also rather good - they were more than happy to keep him on as principal on the site after they got involved (at Pretty's invitation, also misrepresented as a frosty relationship in the film). The only bone of contention really was that they had to re-write a lot of his notes and go back over measurements and soil distribution data that he had recorded incorrectly, which held them up for a few months in 1938.

However, while Basil's descendants might be a little puzzled at his depiction and the bit at the end which states he has "only recently" got credit for his work, they can certainly reckon they got off lightly compared to those of Stuart and Peggy Piggott. What they might think about "outing" Stuart as gay and having Peggy shag the RAF lad (Stuart and Peggy divorced in 1954, but not for reasons implied in the film) is anyone's guess. In fact Peggy's descendants in particular might see "The Dig" as a real opportunity missed. Portraying her as an archaeological ingenue only selected for the job because she was petite hardly does credit to an archaeologist who had already made a name for herself excavating several sites, including some as site director, and had published several well received books about Iron Age burials and Bronze Age pottery and metalwork in particular. This was an area in which she excelled for several decades more - much of what is known about late Neolithic and Bronze Age Britain is owed largely to her theoretical works as much as to her extensive forensic expertise. Her life outside of the trenches and libraries was also probably fodder for the film industry in itself - her marriage to the Sicilian Guido whose psychosis at one point had him strapped to a bed for six months while Peggy cared for him (and published essays and books as she did so), her excellent travelogue-cum-archaeological treatise she compiled as she hopped around the Western Mediterranean searching for Guido after he'd done a runner, and finally in her autumn years finding herself shacked up with Lawrence of Arabia's younger brother, are all worthy of a Nicole Kidman or Scarlett Johansson stab, I reckon. Or even Lily James, who turned in a fine performance in "The Dig" (all the acting was superb, I thought).

Cheesemaking has become a very complicated business lately, Temp. Especially cross-border. You need a sanitary and proof of origin certificate these days if you want to stay blessed. Blame Nigel (no friend of fromage) Farage.

Temperance wrote:

Oh well, don't say I didn't try. But my days as the Res His official cheesemaker are ending. Time for Temp to fugit all this nonsense too.

Temperance, you said "all this "nonsense"...

Mine was perhaps many times "nonsense", but many times I had nevertheless also in my opinion some serious discussions with you. As in the time about the "mind" and the "soul"...

I thought you would add to the discussion of Priscilla about the veracity of "the history in statu nascendi" and mine about the historicity of documentaries composed by non historians I guess many times not checked by real historians. In my opinion a serious discussion...

Temperance, I was always glad to see your presence and contributions on this board, since we both joined it overhere in 2012...

With empathy from Paul.

Sorry Temp, crossed posts with Nord. I haven't even time to read his post. Have to leave in a hurry for visit. See you this evening.
Regards, Paul.

Temp, after reading nord's message I have nothing to alter at my first message. 
Kind regards from Paul.

Members of the forum must - and obviously will - do what is right for them.

Paul, the "nonsense" in my comment above refers only to the squabbling that periodically breaks out - usually, but certainly not always -  between nord and Priscilla. Huffs of varying sizes, and horses and dudgeons of varying heights - not to mention regular outbreaks of umbrage and pique - have been part of life at Res His and at the BBC History Board for many years. Such nonsense is usually resolved after the customary flounce, sulk and exit, the huffee generally not pursued by the Res His bear. All good, harmless fun.

But it's not so much fun as really distressing these days - too much hate-filled and fear-filled drama in real life going on, and we have all grown so much older, if not wiser, since 2012.

I, of course, am just as nonsensical in my own way. It's actually none of my my business what other people here argue about - or the manner in which they choose to conduct their various disputes: it is a personality defect of mine to interfere and to try to control the uncontrollable - in this instance, the Irish rebel versus the British establishment, or, in these changed and changing times, should that rather be the Irish establishment versus the British rebel?

But I won't fugit completely - do I ever? Want to talk too much about nord's Sutton Hoo comments and Vizzer's mention of Henry Tudor's bed! We have all got rather bogged down in elephant droppings, haven't we, more's the pity?

LadyinRetirement wrote:

Members of the forum must - and obviously will - do what is right for them.

Trouble is - as in real life - knowing what that is.


PS I don't know if the origin of high dudgeon was ever discussed during previous altercations, ding-dongs and bust-ups, but I looked up "high dudgeon"  - all very interesting:

"...feeling of offense, resentment, sullen anger," 1570s, duggin, of unknown origin. One suggestion is Italian aduggiare "to overshadow," giving it the same sense development as umbrage. No clear connection to earlier dudgeon (late 14c.), a kind of wood used for knife handles, which is perhaps from French douve "a stave," which probably is Germanic. The source also has been sought in Celtic, especially Welsh dygen "malice, resentment," but OED reports that this "appears to be historically and phonetically baseless."

But why "high"? You don't take "high" umbrage.

EDIT: Is a weird feeling of déjà vu a symptom of Covid-19?

Temperance, thank you so much for your immediate reply and for your enlightenment about what you meant in your message.
At the same time I learned today two new words in the rich English language (wherever that language originated. 
PS: perhaps also an idea for a thread):
"flounce" and "sulk".
PPS: I am really astonished that I after some fifty years intense contact with the English language in mostly reading and some speaking still learn some new words by native speaking English ones...
PPPS: about Vizzer's "bed". I realized after a while that the Elisabeth of York was not "our" Margaret of York" 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_of_York

Kind regards from Paul.

PaulRyckier wrote:

... I learned today two new words in the rich English language ... "flounce" and "sulk".
I am really astonished that I after some fifty years intense contact with the English language in mostly reading and some speaking still learn some new words by native speaking English ones...

Not as astonished as I am that after a few years amongst us you hadn't heard them before! Pay attention at the back of the class!!!!

Yes, yes nord...already a problem from my youth...there in the class...always thinking at other "things" than be attentive in the class...mostly in the middle of the banks...don't know if it had to do with the average in intelligence or with the attentativiness...



As usual kind regards from Paul.

Before this thread is derailed in further homage to its Czar - not Moderator a Moderator would have sorted himself out long ago - I ought thank Temps for being a Peace-Maker even if I am churlish enough to back away. In truth when someone speaks of the works a philosopher they respect as toilet paper - and that a PM who perhaps is doing better than expected as plucking numbers from his arse and so much more, it is time for me to go. This is the last Hurrah - I am sorry that Paul thought he was somehow blamed and I am even sorier that no other posters ever stand up to be countered in the face of insult and intellectual bullying. I am not the site Aunt Sally... look it up ,Paul and using twinned Viz as spokesman I sometimes get double.
Can you believe I was once an elected Union Leader - and I fought battles - and won a few but resigned when my own membership went too far in their demands. One has to make a stand  and I have done it many times in other places and for a breadth of reasons but all I hope in a quest for moderation in behaviour and respect and fairness. And that includes respect for people who have some sort of religious faith. It is to my discredit and ongoing shame that I did not stand up for Tim when he was finally dished out a post of  breath taking insult by nord and he left for good.
So to the several who have also enriched my knowledge in so many ways... and that includes the side of nord that is so very worthwhile, to those who have amused and shared research, knowledge and experience, contributed and even become friends, this really is my last Res Hist Hurrah whilst I have a shred of self respect left.
As far as I know I have no offended the Irish  by word, thought or deed and  having to take the can back for long gone times by others who did is frankly silly as it is used here.
I know many people  who have reasons for both historical ills and  really unspeakably  dreadful experience in wartime who do not edge all their reasoning in discussion on it. I shall ever be in awe of them.     So in sadness, that is it for me here. I have lost respect.

There is much to cause concern within that post, Priscilla, and I fear that itemising each misapprehension you reveal and addressing them in turn might only prompt you to make even more, whether expressed here or not. I sincerely hope, for your own sake, that simple misapprehension is the extent of what they represent.

You are always welcome here, as well you should know, and not least for your forthright views. When they are expressed without misattribution to imagined cause, and especially when expressed on your own behalf and not misguidedly, in my opinion, on that of such undeserving specimens as charlatans in political office in your country, then they have always been eloquent, intelligent and pertinent. But it is when they are thus misguided and phrased in the tone you have just again displayed that they reveal most cause for concern, certainly from those of us who care.

Keep well - and I mean that too.

I have vowed not to have a single glass of wine in case I suddenly get called for my vaccination (no sign of it yet): apparently the virus loves - and thrives on - even one unit of good French (especially French) plonk. But all this is so sad I need to drown my sorrows. I shall go to the bar and demand a very expensive Chateauneuf-du-Pape in a nice, posh glass. Virus be damned - will take a double dose of Vitamin D afterwards.

Hope you will eventually return to offer once more your "eloquent, intelligent and pertinent" - not to mention witty and genuinely funny - comments, Priscilla.

No more to be said really.

PS

Yes, I was rather upset that, according to nord, Carl Jung's Collected Works - all eighteen volumes - could be used if there is ever another UK panic-buying of Andrex. But Carl Jung doesn't come enriched with Aloe Vera and Vitamin E. I didn't know Vitamin E was good for bottoms.

But what the heck - you have to give as good as you get here. Mmmm.

 

The folks at Andrex are weird. "Skin Kind"? What other "kind" of bog roll is there?

It's all very well pointing out that Jung produced eighteen volumes. But it's only impressive if it's equally absorbent!

nordmann wrote:

The folks at Andrex are weird. "Skin Kind"? What other "kind" of bog roll is there?

It's all very well pointing out that Jung produced eighteen volumes. But it's only impressive if it's equally absorbent!

I have a bog roll in the  loo for display puposes only,  Each sheet bears an image of Boris Johnson.

The customary seven day cooling-off period has now elapsed - and with the return of milder weather due tomorrow (it's been warmer in Siberia than in UK the last couple of days), perhaps there will be a thawing out here? What is the opposite of Brexit, Megxit, Prexit and all the other unfortunate departures - I can't think of anything suitably pithy or even unpithy.

But then it's perhaps too early to lay aside our winter huffs - never cast the clout and all that....

May is an awful long way off though...

In my book, heinous though the omission of an asterisk may be, it remains a simple misdemeanour, the label "felony" is reserved for the insertion (other than by a greengrocer) of an asterisk in a plural because it ends in an "s".

Green George wrote:

In my book, heinous though the omission of an asterisk may be, it remains a simple misdemeanour, the label "felony" is reserved for the insertion (other than by a greengrocer) of an asterisk in a plural because it ends in an "s".

I am confused, but I fear to explain my confusion lest I thereby betray a woeful ignorance.

Is asterisk an alternative name for the apostrophe? Has GG put "asterisk" when he meant "apostrophe"? Have I been using the wrong word for decades? Even worse, is this a cunning Res His grammar trap? I bet it is. Oh, the horror of it all. Pointing out - even in jest - apostrophe errors can ruin friendships: they* certainly cause far more distress than they are worth. Perhaps instead of the Society for the Preservation of the Apostrophe, we should have the damn things banned. But perhaps it would be even wiser to pretend I haven't noticed that GG put asterisk.

But I have.

Re greengrocers - I knew we had moved into a post-punctuation world when a sign, prominently displayed in the Marks and Spencer Food Hall of all places, directed one's attention to the "Banana's". "Is the world going bananas?" I asked myself, and, in not a little distress, I immediately went to the Customer Services desk and pleaded with the very nice (and strangely sympathetic) lady there, "Please remove that apostrophe!"

But were M&S - and I - simply getting utterly confused? Did we mean asterisk?

EDIT: *Apostrophes, I mean, not friendships - though they too, of course, can be sources of distress. Mmm.

Don't you just hate it when you switch "pedant" mode on and make a classic schoolboy howler (assisted all too often by predictive text) and write "asterisk" (or all too often these days, "Asterix") instead of "apostrophe"? Stick to composing messages on the laptop not the phone.

Phew - that's a relief!

Please come back, Priscilla.

I'll try again: please come back, Priscilla - if you do, maybe nord will show up again, and then we can all get back to squabbling happily once more.

Even HRH the Duchess of Sussex intends to reverse her hasty and somewhat huffy Megxit after HM the Queen begged her to return to grace once more the Buckingham Palace balcony, this time at next year's Jubilee..

What will she wear for her dramatic "Je reviens" moment?

The entire nation holds its breath...the saga continues. Let's hope the Res His one does, too. We must be in Res His Season Ten by now.

Temp, Priscilla started the Trinkets, Collections  etc thread on July 6th.




The entire nation holds its breath...the saga continues. Let's hope the Res His one does, too. We must be in Res His Season Ten by now.


December 2011 when Res started; 5 Jan 2012 for the first Dinosaur appearance.

The implication that I might appear here and do something that might stir the Krakan into participation is tempting. Of course the Krakan is Welsh but I bet the Irish have a similar monster ready to arise and make a point. We have one around here called The Traffic Warden - currently we are wondering what he is going to do with the car belonging to someone road parked in the area who is in jail - and for a year or two.
I am not suggesting that nordman is banged up in a choaky somewhere - as if.

Triceratops wrote:

Temp, Priscilla started the Trinkets, Collections  etc thread on July 6th.

The entire nation holds its breath...the saga continues. Let's hope the Res His one does, too. We must be in Res His Season Ten by now.

December 2011 when Res started; 5 Jan 2012 for the first Dinosaur appearance.

So she did - and I posted something there without realising!

Glad you are back too, Trike - the Res His Dinosaur make his "guest appearances" in every season! Are you still shopping in M&S Food Hall? I remember comparing menus with you in the early days of lockdown when M&S seemed the last refuge on earth. Discussion of their pasta ready meals,  trifles etc. not quite the standard of historical debate the management favours, but it was fun - and oddly comforting - in those miserable times. Just been there this morning before the newly infected hordes descend - cheese stock still OK and lots of nice EU fruit and veg. You have to sanitize your own trolley now - but mustn't complain. I quite like cleaning mine - sort of Covid OCD ritual I can't get out of...

Same here, plenty of fruit and veg in M&S. 

However, today is all about ICE CREAM. What a heat!!!!!, its just like the Cretaceous.

Just a brief hello to those on the site who still remember me.

A special thank you to Priscilla for her supporting comment and to Temperance for once again acting as the negotiator and keeping the peace.

I am now in the fifth of six years of a history degree and starting in October a module on 'Empires 1492 to 1975'.  Doing a history degree is so different from being on a history site such as this, in fact it is now very different to either of my two previous degrees (science and technology).  One has to provide fully referenced evidence for just about everything that one writes in an assignment.  It must be said though that it is a discipline that some on this site could perhaps do with.  I certainly found it very difficult to get any evidence from some to back up their posts.

On the subject of empires, my father's letters which I have posted here are an interesting primary source for the impact of parts of the then British Empire (India and Iraq) on a soldier seeing them for the first time.

best wishes to you all and fond memories of Paul

Tim

Deleted in accordance with the Thumper principle that if you can't say something nice, it's best to say nothing at all.