Gary White

Reeves explaining why the offshores, non doms, corporates *won't* be challenged & therefore pay into for 'a decade of renewal' (to compensate for 14 yrs of rapacious thievery). No, it'll be you, with some Hard Choices to go with it. Tough Choices, Hard Choices, same old same old.

Ah, the Late, Great, Chris Rea. Proper person. #popmaster

@TerrySparrow4 Well played though, you've done it.

having this HGV licence is what got me to France 🇫🇷 in 2002. I’ve never owned a home or anything, so I was never going to buy a house here like many. Southampton bedsit to Cherbourg flat at the start, due to the licence. But all the rest I got here in France is down to my graft.

3.40am and a 45min break on the A6 between Paris and Lyon 🇫🇷. On there 3 timed shop deliveries to do in the Valence area. 30yrs I’ve been doing this line of work but I’ve never enjoyed it, but stuck in it now due to my age really. The only good thing that ever came from 1/2

@konstructivizm Control Centre vs. Call Centre. Not 1/10th as cool.

Apollo 11 Control Room vs. Artemis II Control Room

@StephenKing Get Chris Walken on the 'phone. He's had time to practice since then.

I predicted someone like Trump many years ago, in THE DEAD ZONE. So now I'm saying this--in the next 12-16 months, we're going to find out if the two machines for the removal of a man unable to fulfill his duties actually work. They are impeachment and the 25th amendment. He is deeply unwell .

@almurray As almost predicted in "Down To A Sunless Sea", a novel by David Graham, from years ago.. @carltonkirby would probably recall.

Four astronauts set off for the moon, Armageddon happens while they're away, they're the last 4 people left: Adams & Eve (rated R)

You *do* actually have to know Siouxsie Sioux when you hear her. And as for not knowing at least 3 Queen tunes...? Well. #popmaster

@Smylers2 I got mixed up between Stevie Winwood and Bill Withers and said Bill, not Stevie Winwood. 'appens. 🤷

@_garywhite_ I didn't know Bomb the Bass either — but it seems plenty of others got 39 today! That's the only question I had no chance with, whereas I feel I should've got t'other 2 I got wrong: Steve Winwood (I said Bruce Hornsby) and ‘Homely Girl’ (I said ‘Lonely Girl’). 27. #PopMaster

Who knew that one, Bomb The Bass?! I didn't anyway and I'm not stoopid. Mainly. #popmaster

@StephenKing 🎼🎵 He's all Duma Key to me🎶

Trump is so idiotic it is beyond description even for the guy who wrote PET SEMATARY and MISERY. I can’t even.

#TOTP I see your mam*s on that Casio again.

youtube.com/live/m3kR2KK8T… #Artemis2 #NASA If you like a live feed from the source.

@SarahDuggers Gulp!

Joani Reid’s taste for seamen must be hard for her husband to swallow.

By 1971, the Vampire was a relic. It had already proved in 1965 that it no longer belonged anywhere near a war. Yet one IAF officer thought otherwise. He painted the old jet like a shark, took it to the front, and flew night interdiction sorties over Pakistan. On his 96th birthday, I remember Walter Henry Marshall. Wg Cdr Marshall was then at the Flying Training Wing, Hakimpet, as its Chief Instructor, far from the main theatre and with little chance of seeing action. But he was not prepared to sit out the war. In that familiar Indian Air Force spirit of not being left behind, he willingly took a detachment of obsolete Vampire fighter-trainers forward and turned them into an ad hoc strike unit. These were not aircraft anyone would have chosen for night interdiction in 1971. The Vampire had no business being there. Yet that is exactly what Marshall and his men used it for, flying night attacks against railway junctions, stalled trains and other targets across the border. For this leadership in action, he was awarded the Vayu Sena Medal. The citation, as often happens, says less than the story deserves. And then there was the paint job. When the detachment moved up from Hakimpet and reached Halwara, the aircraft were still in standard silver finish. Parked under camouflage nets, they looked too exposed, and some form of camouflage was clearly needed. Marshall later recalled that when paint was requested, what turned up was blue, black, white and red. So the Vampires were painted, in his words, almost “al fresco”, in a rough mix of blue, black and grey, each one ending up different. At that point the technicians asked for permission to add some wartime artwork. Marshall knew full well that asking for formal approval would go nowhere. So he let them get on with it. White jaws, red teeth, shark mouths, and four aircraft, each wearing a different expression. Since they flew at night, almost nobody saw the result, and nobody reported the breach of regulations either. Good fun, yes. But what sits behind the image is something far more serious. Marshall’s own recollection makes clear how improvised and how dangerous the whole business was. There was no proper written operational plan, only verbal instructions. The role was assigned at short notice. The aircraft were old and temperamental. Night flying in the Vampire was itself restricted because of technical concerns. There was a single VHF set, no ejection seat, and cockpit lighting that was, by his own account, fit only for day flying. He was stunned when given the task. He also understood the risk to his crews. Low-level night navigation and weapons delivery in a Vampire was not merely difficult. It was asking for disaster. So he did what good commanders do. He thought it through, worked out what could be made to work, and adapted the aircraft and the crews to the role as best he could. Targets were often assigned late, after dusk fighter sweeps and evening debriefs in the operations room. Time on target was often around midnight or later. The aircraft carried rockets and guns, which meant even the harmonisation of the guns had to be thought through for strafing rather than range firing. Fuel was always a worry, not least because Vampire fuel gauges were notoriously unreliable and every aircraft behaved a little differently. And yet, for this strange mission, the old Vampire had one unexpected advantage. The side-by-side seating of the trainer allowed the pilot in the right-hand seat to become navigator, map-reader, timekeeper and weapons assistant all at once. He could raise himself, look out and down for pinpoints and water bodies, call course corrections, monitor speed and height, set switches for weapon delivery, call the pull-up point and even spot the red tail lights of vehicles on the road. On the return leg, he would often fly the aircraft home. His own final verdict says it best. It was, he wrote, to the credit of those “average instructors of FTW”, men not originally meant for combat, that they performed this role with the very best, TACDE. That is Walter Henry Marshall’s story. Commissioned in 1953, a fine flying instructor, he retired in 1975 and passed away in 2017. I was fortunate to record this account from him not long before that. #IAFHistory

made my computer dramatically play BBC news music before every meeting

@Harsh_Recoil @MrJamesMay Hello. You can get it from Morrisons. Or via Ocado, etc Also, HP do one in their squezy plastic containers. It's not bad, but if you like your wine, sauce & motor oil out of renewable or should I say, recyclable, containers / 'vessels' then please support your local grocery shop.

@_garywhite_ @MrJamesMay I've not had that in ages. I'm not sure if it's still sold anymore. I used to love this sauce on hot dogs!

HP Sauce has arrived at the cafe. This country is fantastic.

#popmaster Here 😊

@moanaparte Quite right. Fag smoke nicely covered the stink of boozy, crisp and lager/cider fuelled farts, as well.

You non-smoking johnnies were handed every single pub in the country to not smoke in on the 1st of July and what did you do? You let half of 'em go to the wall. That nonsense won't be happening again on my watch. You either smoke in the buggers or you're BARRED and ARRESTED.

When I'm in charge, I'll make not smoking in a pub a criminal offence.

@lynnebroom Absolutely right.

@_garywhite_ Yes I thought R 2 much harder today

#popmaster This second set of Q's is very hard. Champion league level. I mean not giving Enya, because it's Clannad. And that Bee Gees question. Well. But fair play to Rebecca. I think it unnerved her a bit.