THE BRITISH THREAD II

No I bloody haven't. You are a rascal. It's not Steve Bell, it's Martin. I love the way he draws Cameron, Clegg and Osborne. You probably know this but it's a take on And When Did You Last See Your Father by William Frederick Yeames, currently on display in the Walker Art Gallery.

Izzy, you are so bloody brilliant I can hardly contain myself.

Maybe this'll print bigger than Walter's. A good question, actually.



If this is going to boil down as a battle of wits between the Murdochs, Wade and our parliamentarians (the committee session I mean) I wouldn't bet against the Dirty Diggers.

I think a lot of it will hinge on Coulson. Murdoch didn't want him to go into Downing Street because it would keep the focus on NI's dirty tricks. When they released the emails with Coulson authorising bungs to bent coppers they hung him out to dry. Will Coulson stitch them up, or suck it up? At least the Met have stopped doing Murdoch's bidding for now. It's going to be an interesting few weeks.

I'm looking forward to what Ofcom have to say about Roop's existing stake of 40% in BSkyB.

I think everybody is missing the point. Probably deliberately.

Media is the problem. Has been for a long time.

This event is merely a manifestation of the real problem. And they don't know how to fix it. When "free speech" becomes a shibboleth Cockney market trader types in flash suits know how to ring your necks with it.

So called local newspapers and TV stations have been in bed with every demand side "chief" you know about for a very long time.

Ignoring that was like ignoring the first signs of rust in a girder. So don't be surprised that the roof is falling in. They are as bent as a corkscrew.

The idea that most journalists are "decent and honourable" people is laughable.

I don't think we're blind to the faults of the tabloid press, especially The Daily Mail. Murdoch is a symbol of the very worst excesses, his reach is global, and encompasses so many different media outlets.

People have been complaining about the influence of the media since the Pamphleteers. Short of all these various enquiries that are about to take place I don't know what else can be done. You can't put the genie back in the bottle.

Have you had a falling out with the reporters on North West Tonight?

Most interesting now, is the position of the police top brass who have been dining off the Murdochs for some time now, and ex-police in their pay, and who have been telling us for some time that there was no evidence for an extensive inquiry into the phone-tapping practices.

Stephenson, Yates and Hayling must be sweating.
Andrew Neil's programme was good on Thursday.
Watch Andrew Marr tomorrow for more fun. No-one is afraid of the Murdochs and their lawyers now, so everyone's putting their ha'porth in.

And now the American authorities are gearing up to have a go.
Oh dear, oh lor'.

The Met has always been dogged by accusations of corruption. Sue Akers looks like she might be doing a proper job, but I'd take everything away from the Met and let some other police force or body like MI5 take over the investigation.

If the Met hath lost its mettle, wherewith can it be metted?

Tonguetwisters aside it looks like the woman leading the investigation is the only member of the met with a pair of bollocks. I would say cojones for the benefit of any Americans, but I don't want to sound like William Haig.

"Looks like" is hardly evidence for the impressionistic conclusion izzy. The lady might be merely one of those the hackers haven't got anything on. Her purity of mind, like Mrs Thatcher's, gets her the brush and shovel.

But I'm sidelined moving house.

The funeral of the last heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Otto von Habsburg, has taken place in the Austrian capital Vienna.

I saw this obituary in the paper.

Eleswhere in the paper, somebody recalled a story about this gent. Apparently later in life, resident in Germany and an MP, he was asked by one of his colleagues one day,
"Did you see the result of the Hungary-Austria football match?"
To which he replied "No, who were we playing?"

I forgot to mention his Sunday name. Apparently it was

Franz Joseph Otto Robert Maria Anton Karl Max Heinrich Sixtus Xavier Felix Renatus Ludwig Gaetan Pius Ignatius von Hapsburg.

It's really something from the 19th Century, apparantly he was given all the pomp and circumstance, and laid in the vault of his ancestors. Do you think they did it just because he was the last Hapsburg, that if he'd squired half the bastards in Vienna it would be a different story? This way they've got a full set, they can give it a year, turn it into a museum.

Bollocks, you're just pissed off that a woman's doing a better job than all her male predecessors. (ANd,I'm just talking about the NOTW investigation, before you start frothing at the mouth about Sherlock Holmes.)

Don't forget to wash the floors before you put the carpets down.

Actually, the vault and the church were just and only built as the 'burial ground' for the Habsburgs (and Habsburg-Lothringens) in that Capuzine church. (A trust, founded by empress Anna in 1617)

Other Habsburgs are buried in the crypt of the Loretto Chapel of the Benedictine Monastery at Muri, Switzerland.
In Vienna, in the "Gruftkapelle", there are now Zita von Bourbon-Parma, Carl Ludwig Habsburg-Lothringen, Regina von Habsburg and Regina von Habsburg .

A different question: no-one really could tell me, why the second 'n' in "Hannover" has been stolen in the English language.

But perhaps someone knows, why "Habsburg" became 'Hapsburg' in English?

I would imagine it's probably due to our habit of anglicising everything. Hap is a more natural sound in English than Hab, especially when it's followed by an s. We do it all the time, during WW1 Ypres was known as Wipers. Bleinheim ( pronounced Blen 'um) Palace, and the Cinque (pronounced sink) Ports are other examples.

Yes, I know about that. But I'd thought it wouldn't include changing family names