Jack W - 8,091 contributions since March 2005
December 19th, 2006
Best of luck from everyone associated with PBC
For the past twenty months the discussions on PBC have been enriched by the wit, knowledge, and good judgement of Jack W who posted first on March 25th 2005 and has made a staggering 8,091 separate contributions. We had this message from him yesterday.
Jack W says TTFN.
I regret to report that this is something of a valedictory post from moi, at least for now I hope.
Having seen off lifes returning officer a couple of times and safely been returned, it appears like a health by-election has been called and the yellow peril machine is in full cry !!
With any luck I’ll repel the medical bar charts, but if the hospital food includes quiche I’m almost certainly done for. My enforced medical absence and r&r will certainly last several months and even many elections hence !!
Without wishing to sound too mawkish I’d like to thank you all on PB who have made my time here so enjoyable. Special gratitude go to Mike and family for all their splendid efforts.
To those who know the true identity behind Jack W and kept a little secret and those many friends on the site who have brightened up my time here with excellent political analysis and not a little humour, I say a hearty and heartfelt thank you.
A simple Scottish saying goes :
“Will ya no come back agin ?”
Faith willing aye and God bless you all.
………………………………..
Signing off …. Jack W. of this parish.
Our thoughts are with Jack and his family this holiday season and nothing would give us greater pleasure than to see that 8,092nd post.
Mike Smithson
MessageSpace Advertising
And so say all of us. Get well soon and get back sooner.
all the best Jack….
I echo those sentiments . Jack doubted I was real when I first posted on here . He thought I was an alter ego of book value , but an exchange of Emails and valuation of some Jacobite medals in his possession showed him I was my own person . I , as many others , will miss his contributions .
On behalf of all of PB.C’s lurkers, all the very best to Jack and family.
“Will ya no come back agin ?”
Typos are one thing, but I have a question, and dont get offended. Why can’t scottish people spell properly?
“Typos are one thing, but I have a question, and dont get offended. Why can’t scottish people spell properly?”
Dae ken.
The number 8091 is dwarfed by the numbers of times those comments have been read with great interest and with many smiles. With best wishes.
Jack is a true gent and a wit. Hope he gets better soon.
Jack’s a top class poster. All the best Jack. As Mike said, we’re looking forward to posting 8092.
I hope we see Jack back very soon. He is far more reliable than yougov, and always a pleasure to read.
3 I´m surprised by this. BV doesn´t seem a bar billiards sort of guy.
Here here Mike. I hope to see his 8092nd post as soon as possible!
I do hope he gets well soon.
It is a testament to Jack that we are not really sure whether he is really going into hospital or if we shall wake up tomorrow to hear on Radi 4 that he has headed a successful Jacobite coup against the apalling lowlander low-life Blair.
10.”BV doesn´t seem a bar billiards sort of guy”
He doesn’t sound like a LD either: he’s too nice!
I echo Mike’s wish to see Jack’s 8092 comment soon!
Can I add my best wishes to Jack W.
May his wit and wisdom be absent for not too long.
I hope Jack realises that he is not allowed to turn the graphs at the end of his hospital bed into bar charts. . . .
Hear hear. Good post Mike. Jack, let’s have you back soon. I will keep the whisky in the cupboard for you. You are sorely missed already.
John Hutton has announced that workshy dossers are to lose their benefits. That’s Dorneywood down the road then.
I gather Prescott, once ejected from the public purse-drain, is to become a hospital visitor. So get well quick Jack!
13 thank you, Andrea. And just when I was searching out articles for you to read…
18. Peter, I didn’t say he was the only nice one…
19 -
You’ll make a brilliant Ambassador (or politician) 
Good luck Jack W and once again best wishes. Hoping to toast your 104th birthday!
Hear hear!
Good luck Jack. You are not only the funniest poster on here but also one of the most even tempered!
Get well soon!
My blog seems a bit well, b*ggered. Can some one try it in IE and tell me if the midle column is too narrow?
24 Yes it is too narrow. By the way, didn’t know you had a blog….
Re 25, Ian, well now you do
Is that in IE?
It was fine earlier today at work. I do have to wonder what broke it!
26. yes in IE.
Re 27, Many thanks Ian. I am now off to make steam engines so will have to fix it later
24,28 — the blog column-width problem seems to be caused by the link to webcameron.
A mathematician would, of course, have made it 8191 posts, or binary 1111111111111
Wishing Jack W all the very,very best,and also hope Jack is out in time for Hogmonay,which I understand is a religion to the Scots-look forwards to welcoming you back
All the best, Jack, could do with more of your humour on this site.
re 30. That reminds me of the old joke - there are 10 sorts of people in this world - those that understand binary numbering and those that don’t
33,the 10 that do not would be 1010 in such case!
33 - Not so funny, for those of us who are studying Computing & IT with the Open University.
Just don’t mention hexadecimal - or I might cry…
Very good luck Jack, get well soon - not a good time of year to be headed for hospital. You clearly love a good laugh, I just hope your treatment is of a kind which allows you to indulge at least a little laugh!!
Everyone on here must have had some loud laughs from Jack W, particularly when he was lightening the mood of discussions verging on the bad-tempered. And most of us have learned something too - if it wasn’t about politics, it was the history of the Jacobites.
Very best wishes, Jack.
Jack W is the funniest man in Scotland apart from Billy Connolly or Christopher Brookmyre. Re. 23, I agree entirely - it can get a bit scratchy here sometimes, but I don’t think I’ve known Jack W be snarly or snappy on any occasion. He’s very equable. Let’s hope he recovers soon.
I’ve heard some excuses in my time to avoid spending christmas with the in laws but Jack has surpassed himself……I’m sure the doctors will prescribe the elixir of Bollinger & Irn Bru to speed his recovery.
39. How dare you suggest diluting that fine drink with Bollinger!
Seriously, best wishes to Jack and here’s looking forward to his return to lighten our days and broaden our knowledge.
Best of luck Jack from the Drumossie Moor branch of PB.com - there’s a whisky or two waiting for you in the heart of Jacobite country when they let you out.
Good on you mate and have a laugh at this link buddy
Thought this thread needed a bit of Christmas Cheer. An alternate view of Mr Blair:
http://www.world-leaders.com - reminds me of Spitting Image
(turn sound down if you are in the office)
The introduction is a bit cryptic. Am I to understand that Jack W is a famous somebody? I don’t indulge in PB as much as some people.
Guardian poll (presumably ICM):
Con 40, Lab 32, LD ?
Con highest for 14 years.
Hear hear — best of luck Jack.
pb.c without Jack would be like Scotland without whisky - still a fine place, but emininently less fun. As someone who spent 5 weeks in hospital over Christmas 3 years ago with no guarantee of coming back, I can only say lean on your family Jack - including Kinkell, whoever he may be!
PS Andrea. Why do you lay into LDs when we all regard you as a friend. I am slightly perplexed…
44 - lib dems minus 4 I think BBC 24 said
44,47. Update to confirm:
It is ICM in the Guardian:
Con 40, Lab 32, LD 18
Interesting…. from the Guardian:
“The Tory leader, David Cameron, today demanded a snap general election when Tony Blair quits Downing Street, claiming the prime minister’s successor would have no mandate to lead the country.”
Was it not the selfsame Tories who campaigned on the slogan “Vote Blair, Get Brown”?
Cameron is obviously a bit confused…..
48 - Thanks. A pleasing end year performance. Wonder if ICM asked about intentions if GB were PM.
(if correct),the claimed Guardian polls extropolated via Wells give a Conservativew overall majority of 26,with 338 seats,Labour would hold 261 seats whilst the Lib Dems would be back to their Alliance-1980s days of 20 seats-food for thought!
49 - It was also Blair who pledged to ’serve a full term’.
49 - Ah well, notsosage, a degree of confusion is permitted if you’re a full 22 points clear of the also-runs
52 - Well, if Brown does call a snap election then Blair will, technically, have pretty much kept his promise to serve a full term.
The fact that that full term will only have lasted for 2 years is neither here nor there, I suppose…
53 -
54 - Perhaps, Steven. God knows, it would be the first one he’d ever kept, however involuntary.
I believe this poll shows normal ‘mid-term-blues’ can affect any govt,even that of thte rightly -acclaimed,most excellent,Mr.Anthony Blair-I wish Tony and his family well,and even more so to Gordon Brown,as he builds up to a near-fatal (for the Tories) FOURTH successive election victory-I await with baited breath
Re 29, John many thanks for the insight, it appears to have fixd itself, possibly, or rather probably a link on the right hand side hwich has been fixed as it was an SEP.
44. ‘Con highest for 14 years’. Seeing as they were on 40% with ICM/Guardian in August, shouldn’t that be ‘Con highest for 4 months’?
Full Guardian ICM story is at
http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,,1975780,00.html
Doesn’t look as if the GB as Labour Leader question was asked this time.
59,We should all know by now that:
(a)Psycholigically,many Tories are schoolboy-boast merchants
(b)Unprecedented stability,decency has occurred under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown
(c)Inevitably,murmurs grow after 9 years and 7 months
(d)Psephological data going back to the days of Harold Wilosn’s second term(1966-1970)proves that,historically-
Its more than likely Gordon Brown will beat David Cameron in a general election,whenever it comes!!!!!!
59. I was just quoting The Guardian - see link at 60. It appears that the “Con highest for 14 years” refers to the average of all ICM polls in 2006.
61 - Have you tried looking in a mirror lately, Patrick?
60. Thanks, I see now that they are talking about the annual average of Con 37% Lab 33%, the best for the Conservatives since 1992. A very good year for the blue team, no doubt.
63 - Alastair, Be gentle…
“Unprecedented… decency has occurred under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown…”
It’s the way he tells ‘em
65 - It certainly is.
I particularly enjoyed the one from a few days back where he lauded the IRA for their campaign of terror against the British mainland and said that “we deserved everything we got”.
Pure class.
66 - Not that this sentiment was by any means uncommon among his colleagues on the left wing of the Labour Party, of course….
46. Paul Loyd..oh dear, it seems I did it again! After the Venerable Helen, I managed to upset someone else!
My early comment was a tongue in check….
Anyway, I think it wasn’t a mystery that the Libdems aren’t my favourite party, for a number of reasons (some of them probably irrational).
I found quite unlikely that all Libdems will regard me as a friend, btw. I hope you can understand that I could have virtually met some Libdems I don’t like (in other forums and co). But that doesn’t mean I don’t like all Libdems (apart Book Value!)
I hope it resolves your perplexity….
Ah, if you think that was lying into the LDs, well, you should ask Book Value was I usually say about them when I’ve my anti-LD mood! Or when I see Simon Hughes too much.
Hope that Jack returns soon. Even an occasional poster - and more frequent lurker - has relished his relentless missives
Jack,
My best wishes and kindest thoughts at this difficult time.
Hang on in there mate, we’re not done with you yet!
Be lucky
TB