“There are the judges robed and wigged and looking from the gallery, if one can say so without disrespect, like a flock of sheep – pedigree sheep, of course.”
(Manchester Guardian on the House of Lords at the opening of the new session)
John Lentell
3rd May, 1969
“What a pity times are not what they used to be. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone wants to write a book.”
(Literal translation of message inscribed on the oldest piece of papyrus preserved by the State Museum in Instanbul)
John Lentell
2nd May, 1969
“The best confidential report I ever heard of,” said Lord Wavell, “was also the shortest. It was by one Horse Gunner of another, and ran: ‘Personally I would not breed from this officer.'”
(From Lord Wavell by Major-General R.J. Collins)
John Lentell
1st May, 1969
“Cow and Gate Milk Food for Infants and Invalids, a Complete Baby Food. As supplied to His Majesty’s War Office and Other Government Departments.”
(Label on Milk Food tin)
John Lentell
30th April, 1969
“The other day a man came to dinner and I said to him, “You’ve been here before?”.
“Yes.” said the man.
“And,” I conjectured, thinking hard, “it must have been some two years ago?”
“No,” said the man, “You aren’t quite right, it was at tea-time.””
(An Innkeeper’s Diary by John Rowland Fothergill, 1876 – 1957)
John Lentell
29th April, 1969
“……..he had always regarded controversy as the very breath of existence….”
(From Man of Vision, the definitive biography of Lord Trenchard by Andrew Boyle)
John Lentell
28th April, 1969
“Labour to keep alivce in your breast that little spark of fire, called conscience.”
(George Washington, 1732 – 1799)
John Lentell
27th April, 1969
“I have not thought it necessary to reiterate that I consider Britain the most civilised and humane country, and the happiest to live in, and I have not dwelt on the long traditions of democracy, and the tolerance and humanity of most British institutions, which Englishmen easily forget and which writing this book has brought home to me.”
(From Anatomy of Britain by Anthony Sampson, 1926 – 2004)
John Lentell
26th April, 1969
“We are indeed in the totalitarian grip of frightened men. Things were made worse by the non-intervention policy of the country’s commercial and industrial community. In their hearts these men must know that all is far from well in Government.”
(Pat Bashford – April 22nd, 1969)
John Lentell
24th April, 1969
Footnote:
Pat Bashford was the leader of the Center Party in Rhodesia. He died in 1987 in Harare at the age of 72.
The Rhodesian General Election of 1970 was the first under the revised, republican constitution of Rhodesia which provided for 66 members of the House of Assembly, with 50 seats reserved for voters of European descent, 8 seats for voters of African descent and 8 seats for “Tribal Chiefs”.
The ruling Rhodesia Front headed by Ian Smith won all 50 “European” seats. The Center Party gained 11% of the vote and zero seats.
My father ran as an independent candidate in the Salisbury City constituency. I was 9 years old at the time and recall his refusal (I’m sure due to limited funding) to plaster posters all over the Jacaranda trees that lined the streets of Salisbury. Instead, with the aid of my mother, he produced 8 or so hand painted wooden boards and tied them to a few trees. Still vivid in my mind is one of the boards in black and orange colours that had a picture of a dog with the slogan “Please leave some room for my dog, vote John Lentell”. He drove us kids into town one evening to show us his board posters on display.
He polled 24 votes.
I always remembered that number and now due to the wonders of the internet, amazingly, there it is documented on Wikipedia in the link above!
I’m sure there’ll be a ‘piece’ about it coming up – we’ll see, in about a year’s time…
“It would seem that the amount of destructiveness to be found in individuals is proportionate to the amount to which expansiveness of life is curtailed….life has an inner dynamism of its own, it tends to grow, to be expressed, to be lived.
It seems that if this tendency is thwarted the energy directed towards life undergoes a process of decomposition and changes into energies directed towards destruction;…..the more the desire towards life is thwarted, the stronger is the drive towards destruction; the more life is realised, the less is the strength of the destructiveness. Destruction is the outcome of unlived life.”
(Escape from Freedom by Erich Fromm, 1900 – 1980)
John Lentell
23rd April, 1969
The late Sir Henry Wood walked through Knightsbridge with a friend and paused outside a fishmonger’s. He glanced at the rows of cod’s heads and said, “My God! I should be at the Albert Hall!”
John Lentell
25th April, 1969
(Sir Henry Wood was an English conductor best known for his association with London’s annual series of promenade concerts, known as the Proms)
Lentell Soup 