Reply to: Mohamed Al Fayed

[bogeyman]

Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was the Illumanti over Europe, saying, "They must die"

'Hitler' surely old boy

[AlfredJPruffock]

Went to a committee; they offered me a chair;
Asked me politely to return next year:
But where shall we go to-day, my dear, but where shall we go to-day?

Came to a public meeting; the speaker got up and said;
"If we let them in, they will steal our daily bread":
He was talking of you and me, my dear, he was talking of you and me.

Thought I heard the thunder rumbling in the sky;
It was the Illumanti over Europe, saying, "They must die":
O we were in their mind, my dear

O we were in their mind.

[bogeyman]

Not in upper or upper middle class circles. Normally, it's Will or Wills or some silly nickname. Bill or Billy is reserved for ordinary folk.

Yes, like Lord Bill Deedes. Born and raised in a castle and educated at Harrow! Just a good honest working-class lad, our Bill.

Know a lot about upper and upper-middle class 'circles' do you Denny?

[Churchill]

Not in upper or upper middle class circles. Normally, it's Will or Wills or some silly nickname. Bill or Billy is reserved for ordinary folk.

Oi what about "King Billy"?

SB, educate the bint!

[Mailman]

oops, looks like you learn something new every day... I had always assumed is was a diminutive of Harold (as in one in the eye Harold in 1066).

That'll learn me to make assumptions hey....

As opposed to "break your legs in half Harald", also of 1066 fame?

Mailman

[shaunbhoy]

The "Royal Family" and "English". They quintessentially go together like.......oh let's see.......I've got it!
Like "Saxe-Coburg" and "Goethe"!!

[snaw]

OK I'll get me coat. They're 100% English born and bred, like Yorkshire pud and fish and chips, plus they single handedly invented the language.

Actually I'm sure I read somewhere that Diana was the first English woman to marry into the throne for several hundred years but that's getting pedantic cause I definitely don't think of the queen mum as a jock.

[TheFaQQer]

Was not Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon technically Scottish though, despite being born in London?

She was born into a family of Scottish nobility (although her father was 14th and 1st Earl indicating both Scottish and English nobility), but was born and baptised in England, so I'd say she was English.

Her father was English and so was her mother.

[shaunbhoy]

Indeed - since Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and HRH Prince Albert (Later King George VI) married in 1923.

Was not Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon technically Scottish though, despite being born in London?

[TheFaQQer]

OK, you got me - his dad wasn't though. I should have been more specific, Diana is the first spouse of an English monarch to be English for quite a while, and one of a very small percentage generally. My overall point still stands, they're not a very English institution when you get even a little granular.

Indeed - since Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon and HRH Prince Albert (Later King George VI) married in 1923.

[shaunbhoy]

they're not a very English institution when you get even a little granular.

Heads are too square for one thing.

HTH

[snaw]

Diana was the first English mother of an English prince since HRH Queen Elizabeth II gave birth to Prince Edward in 1964, so a gap of 18 years.

OK, you got me - his dad wasn't though. I should have been more specific, Diana is the first spouse of an English monarch to be English for quite a while, and one of a very small percentage generally. My overall point still stands, they're not a very English institution when you get even a little granular.

[TheFaQQer]

Can't find any specific references but from memory from the Norman conquest on French was the language of the nobility, until we replaced them with some Germans (Queen Victoria and her family spoke German at home).

I think (Could be wrong) that Diana is the fist English mother of an English prince for quite some time.

Guess my point is that what we consider the most English of things, the royalty (Scotland was more or less the same), is in fact probably one of the least English institutions.

Diana was the first English mother of an English prince since HRH Queen Elizabeth II gave birth to Prince Edward in 1964, so a gap of 18 years.

[snaw]

Henry IV spoke English, although the Wikipedia article doesn't say whether it was his first language.

Can't find any specific references but from memory from the Norman conquest on French was the language of the nobility, until we replaced them with some Germans (Queen Victoria and her family spoke German at home).

I think (Could be wrong) that Diana is the fist English mother of an English prince for quite some time.

Guess my point is that what we consider the most English of things, the royalty (Scotland was more or less the same), is in fact probably one of the least English institutions.

[IR35 Avoider]

If it has got four legs and it is not a chair, if it has got two wings and it flies but is not an aeroplane, and if it swims and it is not a submarine, the Cantonese will eat it" - at a 1986 World Wildlife Fund meeting.

My wife is chinese, and she would agree with that. Anything the human body is capable of digesting, the chinese will have a recipe for.

To be serious for a moment, given how many millions starved to death under Mao, it's hardly surprising is it?