Died, Died, Died...

Stirling Moss died. He was the greatest English racing driver in an era when racing drivers had the glamour and life expectancy of wartime fighter pilots. I never followed the sport but everybody in my boyhood knew his name. When someone did something mean or stupid on the road what you shouted at them was, "Who do you think you are- Stirling Moss?" So not only a hero but a by-word. These days the phrase is, "Who do you think you are- Lewis fucking Hamilton?"

Lord Armstrong of Ilminster died. He will remembered for popularising the phrase "economical with the truth"- and for using it to deflect the charge that he'd lied. He was a senior Civil Servant so lying was pretty much his profession. The Telegraph must think him important because it gave him a full page obituary.

Tim Brooke-Taylor died. He was an Oxbridge entertainer- a contemporary of Cleese and Chapman who- if the dice had fallen differently- might have been a Python. Instead he became a "Goodie" which isn't the same thing at all.

A Time To Rejoice In The Good That We See

Around four o'clock I got up and closed the window on my side of the bedroom and Ailz got up and closed the window on her side of the bedroom because the temperature had dropped and the wind was blowing the curtains. This morning I've been picking sheets of newspaper out of the hedges and putting them back in the recycling bin- with a heavy stone on top. The weather has changed drastically, dramatically.

I put a scarf and hat on to go out and I'm still wearing them. Ailz came downstairs and immediately launched into my least favourite Christmas song- Cliff Richard's "Mistletoe and Wine"- and I told her not to go there.

Talking about people who have died recently, one who hasn't is the Prime Minister- though apparently he came close. Odd fish, Johnson- and not at all your usual politician: in his address to the nation- before heading off into convalescence at Chequers- he not only thanked his nurses by name but emphasised that the two to whom he owed most are foreigners- a New Zealander and a Portuguese. It's well known that the NHS relies heavily on immigrants to keep it going, but you don't expect a senior Tory politician to draw attention to the fact. Anyway, it was a generous thing to do.