Funny thing is I've known him to have written for the Guardian as well.

The tone of this column reminds me of the Hastings parodies in Private Eye. Which is not a good thing as he actually makes some reasonable points.

This glorious weather will bring us nothing but misery

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... isery.html

All top rated comments point out that only Immigrants ever use water.

Which is odd since it's well known that they're all smelly and unwashed.

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That subtle admixture of the absurd and the surreally plausible...

And take our benefits AND our jobs.

Something from Max in the FT today about the police being overpaid and undermanaged. Mentions Hillsborough, and police shooting suspects unnecessarily. Can you guess who he chooses as an example of the latter?

Yep, the chap in Chelsea. Who merely had a shotgun that he'd been firing at the police.

Why can't we British make patriotic films like Spielberg's blockbuster?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2271614/Why-British-make-patriotic-films-like-Spielbergs-blockbuster-Lincoln-unembarrassed-hymn-America-says-MAX-HASTINGS.html#ixzz2JggsxhxW



er...



alright, then. And this:



Because that's why Zulu is a good film, gotcha. Makes me cringe to see a decent writer putting out such drivel for a bit of cash. I don't much like Max Hastings but he's better than this.

I agree. Possibly he's just getting more reactionary as he gets older. Happens to lots of us.

Like Ann Leslie, he can write. Shame he can't do more books.

I'd love to take some of the people who threw up their mind numbing comments, and dump them in the middle of a grizzled old film crew and see what happens.

Hello, H!

I'm called Harold Shand on Urban 75, where I hardly ever post.

Great name.

Shame about Colin.

Hi Tubby,

Ooops, unintentional name theft, sorry!

It is a great name, love the film. Best acting ever at the end, it's just his eyes.

Apologies, veering off topic. I notice no one in the comments has mentioned money and commercial viability when it comes to 'patriotic' UK films.

That article stuck in my head for some reason and I think British films, the kind that get gushed over, are often cloyingly patriotic but in a way that fits British tastes. What does he want, a bulldog shedding a tear over black and white images of the Canary Wharf bombing? Personally I think our version of American flag-wanking is to have Hugh Grant playing a bloody nice bloke of a prime minister or cooing over royals acting like 'proper people'. It's a lot more understated but it's just as inspiring/nauseating depending on your bent.

That surely can't be his understanding of what Zulu is really about? It's like saying The Italian Job is about the early days of computerised traffic management in Italian cities, or that Batman Begins is a story about an elderly English butler working for an eccentric young man in the US (to pick two other Michael Caine flicks, for the hell of it).

I think Max ought to start work on a screenplay about young, up-an-coming journalists who reported back from the Falkland Unpleasantness. In those far off days before satellite phones and t'Internet journalists would file their stories via MOD teletext operators on the boats lying offshore the Falklands. Being a band of brothers the journos would take turns in dodging the bullets 'n' bombs and deliver the copy collected from all the hacks to the MOD. When Our Lads entered Port Stanley all the hacks were present and wrote their articles and a journalist going by the name of Max Hastings was given the job of getting all the copy to the MOD in time for the Press deadlines back in the UK. For some reason only Max's was transmitted back to his delighted editor and therefore became an exclusive and kick-started Max's career.

COTD....

Our coffers are empty, yet still the compassion industry squeals for more money

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/artic ... money.html

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"You may have heard the phrase, 'The flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas.' Well, try this: 'The lies of a newspaper in London can get a bloke's head caved in down an alley in Bradford.' Richard Peppiatt