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A bathing beauty, photographed by Richard Rutledge. 1957. "A hat is like a superpower times ten." said master milliner Stephen Jones. "You move differently in a hat, you feel differently, you act out a part. But more than anything, hats are about the person wearing them." Think of Faye Dunaway in her beret, Jackie Kennedy in her pillbox or dear Isabella Blow in an outlandishly fabulous creation. Hats add glamour and they are worn for precisely that reason. Huge hats add serious glamour but really anything goes- if it's worn with conviction.

The Tory party are in a mess following the calamitous speech given by Theresa May at the Tory Party Conference. She coughed and spluttered all the way through, was interrupted by a silly twerp (a self-described comedian)who handed her a spoof P45 and then the letters of the slogan behind her started falling off the wall. A REALLY bad day at the office. The state of the party which is supposed to be delivering Brexit can be summed up in the words of Disraeli: artycelia   22 hours ago " You behold a range of exhausted volcanoes. Not a flame flickers on a single pallid crest." Apologies to Disraeli but so fitting a quote to describe the Tory party as it presently exists. Delete 21 Recommend Reply

artycelia   17 hours ago While we are in such disarray it would seem sensible to cancel Brexit. I think the EU would agree. Britain is in turmoil. We need to sort ourselves out. We need a sturdy house before we renovate and we are far from that premise. Exit Brexit. Delete 46 Recommend Reply

artycelia   2 days ago That was a REALLY bad day at the office. The cough was unfortunate, perhaps she should have had a contingency plan in place for the speech- asking Amber Rudd to prepare to deliver it  maybe? The content was lost amid the coughing. The silly twit who handed over the P45 should be thoroughly ashamed of himself, there might have been a moment of sheer panic before she realised what was happening. That action put her off her stride.  The letters falling off the slogan - it all went horribly wrong. The thing is though, that this is the government who is responsible for taking us out of the European Union. Bloody Brexit. Are there any contingency plans in place if/when that all goes horribly wrong? Two letters I would like to see fall to the floor are a 'B' and an 'R' . I am no fan of Mrs May but blimey, I hope her husband has a very large 'in and 'onic waiting for her when she gets home tonight. Delete 24 Recommend...

artycelia   2 days ago I hope the little twerp who (very shakily) handed Mrs May the P45 rests very uneasily in his bed tonight and for many nights to come. If this was the US he might well be brown bread. Like it or not we are living in a tolerant democratic society which is great but don't take the p**s. It wasn't clever or funny. Shame on you. Delete 10 Recommend Reply

artycelia   2 days ago Brexit is casting not a shadow but a rolling in, devastating storm which will buffet and then shatter the United Kingdom. Our politicians are not armed with the necessary knowledge, intuition or wisdom to carry out such a negative policy, a policy that is unsupported by half of the electorate. British politicians of all parties need to move to halt the Brexit negotiations, get the UK house in order, deal with home affairs and make the most of at least having cohesion somewhere. Half of the nation wish to remain in the EU. The British ship is off course, the Captain seems determined to go down with her ship. However for a lot of us this journey to a final destination is not over. Exit Brexit. Delete 13 Recommend Reply

Sometimes I come across such a brilliant post in The Times that I really wish I had written it myself. This post is in reply to an article by David Aaronovitch : 'Macron offers us a way out of Brexit mess.' Published online: 27/9/2017. Paper version 28/9/2017 John T   1 day ago The fact that Brits (particularly Brexiters) thought Brexit would break the EU apart shows how out of tune we are with continental Europeans. It's no surprise we can't negotiate with them. We simply don't understand them. The 2 Global wars in which Continental Europe's 2 biggest powers, France and Germany, were the crucible prompted some introspection among them both, and one of the results of that was the EU. The EU was envisaged as their way of preventing any more Verduns or Holocausts. To achieve this, national interests which could easily become nationalist fervour were supplicated to ideals of pan European cooperation. Henceforth France & Germany would coo...