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Post by aubrey on Jul 25, 2016 16:26:28 GMT
I do like to feel that I would like an writer whose work I enjoy, but there are one or two who might be a bit dodgy. Kingsley Amis is one of my favourite writers, but his public persona could be deeply unpleasant: however, I really think a lot of that was put on, as a way of deflecting the need for thought - there is a telling section in Martin Amis's memoir, where he dismisses a piece by Primo Levi that Martin is about to read by asking if it's something by some Jew - then Martin reads it and Kingsley starts weeping: that kind of thing really upset him, and it was easier for him - a lot less painful - to sneer at than engage with it. His novels are a lot more humane and good natured than the things he liked to say in public as well. He would have been very difficult to get to know though. Gene Wolfe seems to be a pretty extreme Roman Catholic right winger, but none of this comes across in his writing. Patricia Highsmith seems to have become more unpleasant as she got older - paranoid, anti-semitic, etc - but she always wrote beautifully. Simon Raven - someone I know who knew him told me he was deeply unpleasant: but I don't think a book like Shadows on the Grass would have been anything like as good or as funny without that. Mark E Smith (of The Fall) seems to fall out with everyone (I've known one myself), but he has done and is still doing some amazing work. James Patterson seems like an unpleasant talentless hack (a right-winger thinking he's a liberal) from his books, or he does in the one I've managed to get through anyway - and guess what?
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Post by aubrey on Jul 25, 2016 16:37:03 GMT
Whether Green took money out of the pension fund or not, he and others certainly did take money out of BHS, so that amounts to the same thing.
He was known for having legal but extremely dodgy tax affairs when the Tories employed him to do a report of cutting Govt waste (yes - get people to pay their taxes) - but then Cameron also employed Andrew Coulson - he can spot them, can't he?
Oh, he gave a lot of money to charity - of course he did, the self-aggrandising knob: all these buggers do - you find charities that make you look good, that you can control - it's a lot cheaper and a lot more fun than paying your taxes.
At least Robert Maxwell had enough of a conscience to fall off his yacht.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2016 17:41:20 GMT
Whether Green took money out of the pension fund or not, he and others certainly did take money out of BHS, so that amounts to the same thing. He was known for having legal but extremely dodgy tax affairs when the Tories employed him to do a report of cutting Govt waste (yes - get people to pay their taxes) - but then Cameron also employed Andrew Coulson - he can spot them, can't he? Oh, he gave a lot of money to charity - of course he did, the self-aggrandising knob: all these buggers do - you find charities that make you look good, that you can control - it's a lot cheaper and a lot more fun than paying your taxes. At least Robert Maxwell had enough of a conscience to fall off his yacht. Green now has three yachts, the latest cost him 150 million dollars which he is currently sailing around the Greek islands
www.superyachtfan.com/superyacht/superyacht_lionheart.html
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Post by aubrey on Jul 25, 2016 18:19:08 GMT
Triple the chance of falling off (maybe)
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Post by norty on Jul 25, 2016 18:41:15 GMT
Did Camilla Parker Bowles deserve the Duchess of Cornwall title That was through marriage though, a little different. Duke of Cornwall is a title in the Peerage of England, traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning British monarch, previously the English monarch. The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created in England and was established by royal charter in 1337. I assume Diana was too?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2016 19:58:39 GMT
Did Camilla Parker Bowles deserve the Duchess of Cornwall title That was through marriage though, a little different. Duke of Cornwall is a title in the Peerage of England, traditionally held by the eldest son of the reigning British monarch, previously the English monarch. The Duchy of Cornwall was the first duchy created in England and was established by royal charter in 1337. I assume Diana was too? The eldest son of the monarch becomes the Prince of Wales which Charles is, and Diana was Princess of Wales
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Post by norty on Jul 26, 2016 7:43:21 GMT
Yes of course she was, I'd forgotten. Senior moment.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2016 9:07:43 GMT
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Post by ARENA on Aug 18, 2016 9:34:46 GMT
Handcuff him to Jeffrey Archer.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2016 10:27:53 GMT
Handcuff him to Jeffrey Archer. One of the best comments I ever saw on Jeffrey Archer was in one of the first copies of the Independent Newspaper. Archer had been caught by some sleeze rag in a sting where he paid a woman a couple of grand, the money I think was handed over on a railway station. The Independent sais they thought it was divine retribution for his prose style!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 18, 2016 11:05:41 GMT
Handcuff him to Jeffrey Archer. Better still if it was Robert Maxwell
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Post by lana on Sept 9, 2016 11:33:54 GMT
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Post by goldelox on Sept 9, 2016 12:14:16 GMT
He's doing most of the work,poolside on his yacht.............
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Post by HILD on Sept 12, 2016 11:43:39 GMT
Can't be that hard to ask your wife to write a cheque out surely? A bit late with the apologies when all those loyal workers got the merest pittance of a redundancy pay out (some got less than a weeks wages - which by the way was paid by us the taxpayers) and those that worked the longest for your company are now going to qualify for Pensioners Credit because their pensions have gone. Can't we send the bill for the extra cost of the benefits these people will require to Mr & Mrs Green. I see above he is still happily calling himself Sir (I know it's a legit title) for shame you would think he would drop the use.
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Post by lana on Oct 13, 2016 16:32:44 GMT
MPs to vote on stripping Sir Philip Green's knighthood.
MPs are set to vote on whether Sir Philip Green should be stripped of his knighthood, BBC Newsnight has learned.
The collapse of retailer BHS will be discussed in a week's time, following a highly critical report by the Business and Pension Committees.
An amendment has now been added to that debate, calling for Sir Philip's honour to be cancelled.
It is believed to be the first time that MPs have ever debated a motion on whether to annul an honour.www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37647721
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