Quote Originally Posted by Elwood Blues View Post
Time to reply.

Why that dig? Well you seem to have forgotten your somewhat dismissive reply to one of my posts on this thread the other day as follows

"What a lot time taken up to say nothing really"

Now the post you were responding to was nothing exceptional but it did make a couple of valid points including correcting what I presumed was an accidental misinterpretation of something i said in an earlier post ( we've all done that) so when you just dismissed it out of had I was a bit miffed.

So I responded as follows

"I thought that despite our differences politically there was mutual respect between us. I certainly respect your views which is why i took the trouble to write a well thought out reply in response to you rather than dash out an angry response which was my first instinct

Perhaps I was wrong to dare to say that the great TOBW had misinterpreted something I said. That can't be true can it???"

You didn't respond to this so I would guess you did not see it.

And now you accuse me of being a "forelock tugger", and that thankfully you do not share my opinions.

I've checked back in this thread for my alleged "forelock tuggung". I found that I agreed that the BBC taking up both BB1 and BBC2 was excessive. I also pointed out that I have never been a great fan of Prince Philip.

I will qualify that latter sentence by saying that I have done a lot of reading about him to confirm my previous fairly negative opinion of him and will say that I was surprised how much my opinion of him improved. I agree that he could be rude, a bit arrogant and because of this made some unfortunate gaffes ( although I suspect some were quite deliberate).

But he was also highly intelligent, good to his staff ( I have seen a few sources that say his office had a very low turnover of staff because he treated them so well.)

His work for the award scheme in his name is well known as of course is his work for the WWF ( I Know Sludge sneers at this but David Attenbrough has praised him for his work in the area and I know who I would believe!!). But apart from this I have also seem many reports of the work he did for the countless charities he was patron of

However I am not ( despite what you seem to have picked up from somewhere???) an unconditional monarchist. Even though Philip modernised them, they may still need to take a hard look at themselves when the Queen passes away. Not a republic in my view but certainly a streamlining - do they really need so many houses????

Finally on your point about the audience for the funeral. You did not include Youtube (over 8 million views at the last count] IPlayer and ITV Hub plus the various other showings during the evening ( I was going to watch it on one these but changed my mind and saw it live, mainly because I forgot to turn over!)

That adds another perspective as to how many saw it.
Going back to my post about the miracle of Royals knowing how to cook things on a barbecue and the lunacy of people complaining about a complaints procedure because it was too easy, it was posted as a joke and so I was taken aback, not annoyed, by your first reply because you had misjudged my motive in posting it.

My first reply was based on my assumption that you seemed to want to argue with what I said just for the sake of it, but it seems I was wrong in that judgement, you were being serious. I apologise for my last sentence, but I still was a bit gobsmacked at your willingness to continue things when I was struggling to see what the "argument" was supposed to be about - the message that, apparently, got you upset, was meant to reflect my incredulity as much as anything.

The way you argue in favour of Prince Philip suggests you think that I dislike him. I can understand that to a degree, but I don't think you'll find anything in this thread, or others, from me to that effect. I'm anti Royalists, but not because I hate them as individuals (well, apart from Prince Andrew who I've never liked), it's just that they don't interest me in the slightest as people.

I actually think that, if we have to have a monarch, then the Queen has been a good one, but to illustrate my level of disinterest in them, I don't know if Andrew and Anne have remarried, I don't know which one is which with William and Harry, I have no clue as to the name of any of the Queen's other grandchildren apart from Zara Phillips who, i believe once won Sports Personality of the Year for some reason.

As for your "forelock tugging", I can only go by what you write on here and in the last day in your efforts to defend the principle of Royalty, you've denounced Republicanism and appeared to say that you're in favour of the class system. Also, in your seeming determination to portray the population of this country as staunch Royalists, you've now gone to what seems to me to be extreme lengths of quoting You Tube watches back at me. I agree that 8 million extra UK watchers who have looked at the video on You Tube because they missed the funeral live for whatever reason would be impressive, but we both know it's not that don't we. Unless I'm very much mistaken that 8 million is a worldwide figure and I daresay it includes a fair proportion of people who watched the whole thing live on telly as well - the same applies to viewings on things like IPlayer and the ITV Hub.

Based on the last paragraph, I think "forelock tugging" is justified.