Halo Stickman

Ok, fair enough, I haven’t read that book so can’t comment on it. Let me clarify my position on this. I have no doubt that there are paedophiles within the Establishment, and that they have used their position and status to 1) pursue their perverted activities and 2) avoid detection. I also have little doubt that they have formed networks, and I wouldn’t be surprised if these networks were extensive. Somehow these paedophiles must be exposed and brought to justice. On the subject of Mountbatten: I’m not here to defend the bloke In fact, imo, his roles in the St Nazaire and Dieppe raids and his role in the Partition of India leave a lot to be desired. I also have a friend who alleges he witnessed Mountbatten demand the instant dismissal of some poor chap who had inadvertently hung the union flag upside down. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Mountbatten was a complete sh!t. But none of this makes him a paedophile, and, thus far, I haven’t seen credible evidence to suggest that he was. This leads me on to a more general point. There are too many online sites glibly stating that so-and-so is a paedophile without giving references to source material or even stating why they think so-and-so is a paedophile. Most of these sites seem to adopt a scatter-gun approach - he is a member of the Establishment, therefore he is a paedo; he is a Royal, therefore he is a paedo; he is bisexual, therefore he is a paedo; he met Saville, therefore he is a paedo; his nickname was ‘Dickie’; therefore he is a paedo – which, imo, just muddies the water and obscures the real paedophiles lurking in the cesspool. This approach also leaves them open to the charge that they are acting like this bloke:

Pap, I have copied your post above onto this thread because it’s more relevant here. Mountbatten is a person in whom I’ve had a passing interest for a long while, mainly because he figures in various historical events that have fascinated me over the years, i.e. the St Nazaire Raid, Dieppe, the Battle of the Atlantic, Partition of India, Northern Ireland terrorism etc. He was also the Governor of the Isle of Wight whilst I was growing up on the Island. It’s well documented in the mainstream media, historical books, biographies etc that he and his wife had an ‘open’ marriage, i.e. both of them had many partners. It’s also been stated in one or two biographies that Mountbatten had a preference for men. None of this is particularly unusual, especially for marriages within that social sphere during that era. The mainstream media have also documented his links to Saville. But, you will know better than I do, pap, that many of the, let’s say for want of a better expression, less mainstream online sites, refer to Mountbatten as a paedophile and link him to, amongst other things, child abuse at the Kincora children’s home. What I would like to know is this: what is the original source of this information? Has Mountbatten been directly accused by a victim? Is there hard evidence that he was a paedophile or is this just hearsay? I realise that these may be difficult questions to answer; and I’m not trying to trip anyone up here or make some kind of point; I’m genuinely interested to learn the answers.

I’m 56, so, I guess, this puts me into your category of ‘older guys’. Anyone who is half decent at maths will be able to work out that I went from the age of 12 to 22 during the seventies. I can assure you that, far from ‘letting that sh!t fly’, I never even knew that the PIE existed; and I’m almost certain this was the case for the vast majority of my contemporaries. It goes without saying that – like any right-minded person – I abhor the objectives of organisations such as the PIE. I do, however, think it is important to acknowledge the fact that attitudes towards a whole range of things were different back in the seventies. For example, a relative of mine was a girl-guide leader who on overhearing a conversation between some brownies discovered that the headmaster of the local primary school was palpably a paedophile. She reported the matter to the authorities; discreet investigations were carried out; the headmaster was allowed to quietly resign his position; no charges were brought. In the same village, at the same time, the local scoutmaster ran a ‘club’ for his favourite boys; the initiation ceremony involved lots of naked bodies and shaving foam; no-one appeared to bat an eyelid. Let's not forget this was also the era when the relationship between Bill Wyman (47) and Mandy Smith (13) made headlines not because people thought he was a paedophile, but simply due to the age difference. All of the above seems outrageous to us today. Times change; attitudes change. These days, each of those cases would almost certainly lead to criminal convictions – rightly so, most of us will say. Today, it seems incredible that the age of consent in the UK was just 12 up until 1875. Perhaps even more incredible is the fact that UK common and canon law allowed girls of 12 and boys of 14 to be legally married as recently as 1929. Maybe it’s worth conjecturing whether people a hundred years from now will think that the present age of consent is too low? I realise I’ve gone off on a bit of a tangent with this post, but I do think the subject of changing attitudes is relevant to this discussion – hopefully, changing attitudes will play a huge role in finally bringing the resolve to properly investigate these historic cases and bring these paedophiles to long overdue justice. Anyway, back to the subject of the PIE in the seventies, here is one man’s take on the subject: http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/what-pie-and-the-nspcc-have-in-common/14763#.VHWLHmcYvPg

Go on with you, Bletch – Portsea Lil tells me you’ve handed out bunny ears to half of Gosport. That notwithstanding, rest assured, I shall treasure those ears for the rest of my days and promise to wear them at our next forum gathering. Talking of which, Mrs Stickman and I would like to invite Lord Duckhunter, egg and you to a select soiree at the week-end. Mrs Stickman has suggested we have duck egg tart.

Disappointed with the performance, satisfied with the point at the end, lots of players below par, missed Davis, Clyne my motm.

That sums up my position on this as well.

I know what you mean, Whitey. Perish the day Mrs Stickman ever stumbles upon this place.

There have been times when the promise of the Boxing Day match has been the only thing to get me through bloody Christmas Day, to be honest.

Agreed, that is very funny – it took me a while before I even realised it was a p!ss-take!

I’m part way through reading England’s Lost Eden: Adventures in a Victorian Utopia by Philip Hoare; it focuses largely on a weird religious sect called the Girlingites (aka New Forest Shakers) that descended on Hordle, near Lymington in the 1870s, and also on the construction, about the same time, of Sway Tower, which can be glimpsed on that footage. The book also provides some interesting insights into the New Forest during those times. NB. This is the second time in less than a month that I’ve mentioned one of this author’s books on here – the other one was Spike Island, which was mainly about Netley Military Hospital. I promise I’m not his agent or one of his relations; indeed, I’ve never even met the bloke! Notwithstanding, his books are very interesting and well written, imo.

†1.

Christmas Day 1957 – Aldershot 1-5 Southampton. Boxing Day 1957 – Southampton 2-2 Aldershot. December 27th 1957 – I had to get up at ten o'clock at night, half an hour before I went to bed, drink a cup of sulphuric acid, work twenty-nine hours down mill – pay mill owner for permission to come to work, mind – and when we got home, our Dad and our mother would kill us and dance about on our graves singing Hallelujah. You try telling that to the young people of today – they just won't believe you.

Why does the beeb need women's football when it's got this?

When my youngest nipper played junior football for his local league team one of his team-mates was a girl; but when she got to a certain age – IIRC about 9 or 10 – the league decreed that she was no longer allowed to play for the team. I believe the main reason for this was due to a lack of separate changing facilities. Entirely understandable, I suppose, but still a shame – not least because she was one of the team’s best players!

We stayed at the Shinagawa Prince Hotel – nice hotel in a decent location, but not exactly cheap. One thing I would advise when visiting Toyko is to be prepared for quite a lot of subway travelling: the interesting places to visit are spread out across the city – it’s definitely not like London etc, where most of the sites are within easy walking distance of one another. Another thing we discovered was that the vast majority of Japanese do not speak English – why should they? – and this did lead to one or two difficulties before we met up with our Japanese-speaking son. Agree with FloridaMarlin that the old part of Kyoto is well worth a visit. My family had our own room in a youth hostel when we stayed there – not as bad as it might sound, actually. If you are going to do a lot of travelling on the bullet train then it might be worth buying Japan Rail Passes before you go. Have a good trip, VFTT.

Come on Bletch, we both know that the above photo comes from our own personal stash – I shall never forget the way you demanded me to keep yanking your chain: Bletch: Give me a hard yank, Halo. Halo: Clint Eastwood. Bletch: Would he? Halo: Bletch: This is fun, isn’t it, Halo? Halo: Yes Bletch, it’s hilarious

You're not wrong. If only I could show you the helmet that came with it. Not a pretty sight!

Bloody hell, Tim - you could have waited until after the watershed.

I once had an NSU Quickly

You may be in luck, Guan – I’m pretty sure I saw Cary Grant in there only yesterday … or maybe it was Steve Grant

Have you tried the Motoring Forum?

Are those two members of the clique Marsdino was referring to?

I can sense an endless debate coming on. Only got myself to blame, I suppose.

Sadly, that seems to be the way of it with most subjects/events these days, but, seemingly, especially so with the McCann case. The authors of this book appear to be more ‘independent’ than any other book or website dedicated to this sad incident; that’s the reason why I read it. Of course, there are people who will argue that they aren’t as ‘neutral’ as they claim, but I think that will always be the case. I agree with you that without the discovery of Madeleine, or of her body, it’s highly unlikely this case will ever be resolved. Whatever our differing views as to why or how this happened, it’s a tragic case.