Posts in United Kingdom
Words Worth Noting - April 6, 2023

“As if to underline the national decline [in Britain in the 1970s ], every flailing industry flew the moth-eaten flag: British Steel, British Coal, British Leyland. They were all owned by the state – even the last, which was the national automobile manufacturer. The government had taken all the famous British car marques – Austin, Morris, Rover, Jaguar, Triumph – and merged them into one. That’s right: the government made your car. Or, rather, a man called Red Robbo did, when he was in the mood, which wasn’t terribly often.”

Obit of James Callaghan by Mark Steyn in The Atlantic Monthly June 2005.

Words Worth Noting - March 27, 2023

“At age seven, the much-tutored [future Queen] Victoria was reading British classics, perfecting her German and learning French. However, her frustrated piano master one day noted, ‘There is no royal road to music, Princess. You must practise like everybody else.’ Victoria slammed the piano shut. ‘There! You see there is no must about it!’”

Donna Jacobs “Monday Morning” in Ottawa Citizen May 21, 2007

Words Worth Noting - March 15, 2023

“Lord Salisbury’s observation that ‘no lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you should never trust in experts’”

Michael Mandelbaum in New York Times June 16, 1985 [and widely quoted online but not, in any examples I found, with further attribution as to when or where Salisbury said it].