Yes, I’m busy and I hope regular readers will be patient with me. As Norm pointed out to me earlier today, the fourth third hit on Google for the word “Euston” is the Euston Manifesto.
Not Euston Station
[click image to enlarge]
Worryingly, this blog, which has thrived on stories of my loserhood, is being disrupted by an improbable success. According to many nervous commentators, normal service will be resumed soon.
Success? You mean the chattering classes are… er… chattering about it a bit? I thought it sought a “fresh alignment” or some such nonsense? Judge it on whether it gets anywhere near its declared aims and objectives and not what ranking it gets in Google, son.
I might disagree about your manifesto, but I honestly wish you the best of luck. Hopefully things turn up for the best.
So far, all we’ve done is had our Web launch. Given that most online operators would be prepared to pay tens of thousands of dollars to attract the kind of attention online that we have, and that we’ve spent about three hundred quid on hosting to get it, I’d say we’ve had a reasonable return on our investment to date, son.
But why Euston? Paddington is so much more stylish. Even Victoria has more panache especially with its hint of illicit weekends by the sea (although I concede that it has lost some of its mystery now that the continental boat trains are no more)……..
Because it was where Norm was adopted by his host family when he arrived in Britain from (what was then) Rhodesia. He was found wandering around the platform with a luggage label tied to his coat. The label said: “Please look after this Marxist. Thank you.”
[…] Thank you to Pete in the comments and to everyone else who’s been sending kind wishes. It’s good to be alive on days like these. I hope eventually everyone will be just as free to say in public how they think we should live in the world we share. It’s a precious gift and one I’m not ashamed to say is worth fighting for. […]
Does he like marmalade sandwiches?
Didn’t they lob half of Euston station in the Thames in the1960s? And now they regret it too?
Of course I may have this all wrong as it is dark now and I’m used to commenting in the day, so I’m experiencing disorientation.
And I always get Euston muddled with Houston, which is a damned nuisance if I’m trying to get to either Blackpool or a low Earth orbit.
There’s a Houston station in Dublin 🙂 Should I sign or not, makes me anxious.
When did Norm first meet that nice old antique dealer? My memory isn’t what it was (at least I think it isn’t but I can’t really remember how good it used to be – tish)…..
Bloke -Isn’t it Heuston in Dublin? Think so. There hasn’t been a Heuston Manifesto yet.
Gray – I see the Guardian is writing more about the Euston one today. For something that is being dismissed by its opponents as meaningless it seems to be getting a lot of interpretation. But then I’m a signer.
Pooter Geek,
I am surprise that someone of your credentials, ohh, err missus, could give any sort of support to this shite:
“The violation of basic human rights standards at Abu Ghraib, at Guantanamo, and by the practice of “rendition”, must be roundly condemned for what it is: a departure from universal principles, for the establishment of which the democratic countries themselves, and in particular the United States of America, bear the greater part of the historical credit. But we reject the double standards by which too many on the Left today treat as the worst violations of human rights those perpetrated by the democracies, while being either silent or more muted about infractions that outstrip these by far. This tendency has reached the point that officials speaking for Amnesty International, an organization which commands enormous, worldwide respect because of its invaluable work over several decades, can now make grotesque public comparison of Guantanamo with the Gulag, can assert that the legislative measures taken by the US and other liberal democracies in the War on Terror constitute a greater attack on human rights principles and values than anything we have seen in the last 50 years, and be defended for doing so by certain left and liberal voices.”
This is convoluted, to say the least. I bet these bad boys got you squiffy before you signed up to that!