Month: January 2022

Occasional Limericks Only #10

In a mad world, only the mad are sane – Akira Kurosawa

The pic below is of a Hillside Dalbury mini-campervan conversion by Hillside Leisure based in Derby. It’s price in 2016 when new, would be ca. £28k.

The model, below, is also a Hillside Dalbury mini-campervan (new in 2016 as well) and is for sale, second hand, in 2022 with 31,660* miles on the clock…

Any guesses as to the asking price? 

Well, it is currently advertised by Harbour Creek Motorhomes for £33,995! That’s nearly £6k more than its original price (model specs are similar).

Seemingly, it’s all down to a shortage of semiconductors for new vehicles, Nissan’s decision to cease production the NV200 a couple of years ago (it’s the Dalbury’s base vehicle) and the so-called ‘staycation’ boom. But … even allowing for any discount on the used van’s purchase price, say £2k, it appears that the world has gone mad!

Here’s the limerick…

A campervan buyer was heard
To complain that things were absurd.
Supply and demand
Had got out of hand
And his purchase would now be deferred.

* the mileage has been excluded from the advert since I first saw it – don’t ask me why!

Postscript: ‘No’, I’m not selling mine!

Occasional Limericks Only #8

Bliar, Bliar, Pants on Fire…

It is worth reflecting that the week in which we learnt of the death of Nobel Laureate and Archbishop Emeritus of Capetown, Desmond Tutu, is also the week in which we learnt that the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair has been honoured with the highest possible rank of knighthood, as a Knight Companion of the Most Noble Order of the Garter.

It is estimated that between 750,000 and 1,000,000 people protested in London against Blair’s war and many tens of thousands more throughout the rest of the UK

In 2012, Tutu withdrew from the Discovery Invest Leadership Summit in Johannesburg as he felt he “couldn’t sit with someone who justified the invasion of Iraq with a lie”. As he wrote in a Graun thinkpiece at the time of his withdrawal:

“The immorality of the United States and Great Britain’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, has destabilised and polarised the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history.”

“If leaders may lie, then who should tell the truth?”

“Leadership and morality are indivisible. Good leaders are the custodians of morality. The question is not whether Saddam Hussein was good or bad or how many of his people he massacred. The point is that Mr Bush and Mr Blair should not have allowed themselves to stoop to his immoral level.”

A renowned politician did conspire
To lead us all into the mire
Of an illegal war
But depite the uproar
He’s now knighted as Sir Tony Bliar!