or this might happen.

Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin was on the passenger list of a plane which crashed in Russia, killing all 10 on board.

He was believed to be on board the plane.

Earlier, a Wagner-linked Telegram channel Grey Zone reported that the jet was shot down by air defences in Tver region, north of Moscow.

Prigozhin led a failed mutiny against the Russian armed forces in June.

ya tebya lyublyu Mr Putin

I've always associated the surname Wagner with Robert Wagner from Hart to Hart...i can't shake it off. ...i mean who calls themselves the Wagner group?

Putin's political opponents quite often meet with tragic accidents. People fall out of windows and accidently come into contact with deadly nerve agents. However, I think this is the first time an aircraft has been mysteriously shot down.

They sound like a building firm .

Dodgy balconies and fake perfume? ..not always a good mix imo.

When I left school in 64 we had a master teaching Russian (I had taken French & German and didn't have any lessons from him) called Peter Soskice and I was convinced he was Russian.

Well the October of that year Harold Wilson & Labour won the General Election and Frank Soskice (Peter's brother) was made Home Secretary. I always thought that was dodgy with Russian connections.

I went to Tech and I bloody hated French lessons. Seemed like it was organised so the teachers could take you on trips there, if you could afford it….we just got piles of Paris Match to read.
Dropped it at the first opportunity.

I was having dinner last night at my gf place with some Thais, one Italian and a Russian all young. I managed to get in to a little conversation with the young Russian who told me he was studying here. He told me that he had fled his country like loads of Russians because he didn’t want to fight in the war and didn’t agree with Putin. As I understand it every person under a certain age are called up to fight. So those with some money just go. My gf said he had tears in his eyes as had to leave his family. She thinks I am too nosy but I told her I like intelligent conversation. A lot of Thais don’t think too deep unless it concerns money

I went to Tech also. French was the only subject I was any good at.

For someone who consequently had a ‘technical’ life, I loved Art there under ‘Fred’ Piper. Still do.

same here. could never understand it and speaking it was even harder. i was the worst at the latter and wondered if the north east accent was the problem. never had this problem with afrikaans that i was quite fluent in or german.

Why would any sensible person fly or even live in a country where they nearly caused a coup by marching towards the capital ?

think of beyreuth yearly festivals and those who attend to listen to the works of richard wagner.

By all accounts he wasn't the sharpest knife in the drawer. But in fairness Putin would have gotten to him no matter where he went to.

Wasn’t he Putins. He fat one time ?

Wasn't Wagner, Hitler's favourite composer?

I went to an all boys school and each year was split into 4 forms, so roughly 120 kids of similar age.

I was generally in the top forms for most subjects but when it came to French I was bottom of the bottom form, consequently 120th out of 120. Well took my "O" levels and when the results came out my pass mark was the highest in the school. Was that Divine intervention or wrongly marked?

The converse happened with English as I was good at English Language but very poor at English Literature (didn't understand Poetry, Shakespeare etc) and what happened? Passed Literature but failed Language.

He’d have been safe on the Central, evenj Putin’s no that daft….probably slotted in comfortably.

How do we know he was on the plane?
My bet he in now chief of some African tribe.

MR Piper I remember him

How old are you Snowy

I remember the name of my French teacher at tech. He was called Mr Vasey. Odd guy

Spooky guy…. He came out to blow the whistle at Tunstall Court and while observing the yard full of potential miscreants, a gust of wind struck and lifted his majestic comb over which rose gently like a trapdoor ..hovered and then settled down briefly revealing his gleaming dome…. We all burst out laughing.

According to the wife, just turned 70…but a mental age of 12.
I started Tech in 64 to 69….a cross between a concentration camp and a monastery….. but it had it’s moments.

Great bloke but never cross him, especially his weapon of choice the carpet beater, he kept in reserve. He didn’t suffer fools gladly.

Yes I was trying to remember what it was about him. He had a temper. I remember now

I was in the last year of tech. I am 62. I was petrified going there

I remember my first day. I thought on my first day that all of these boys where much brighter than me. I always had an inferiority complex about my talents. Was there 1972-1973 then High Tunstal. I realise niw tjose boys where no more brighter than me.

I think there was another teacher called Mr Schofield . I think he played football occasionally and I was quite impressed. He might not have been there when you attended.

He might have been a teacher at Brougham school it all seems so long ago now and of course it is.

Best teacher there for me was Tom Ellison the history teacher, followed by Peter Dawson in English, loved their subjects and made them relevant…. The rest it appeared would comfortably settle into the Wagner group of education, hard cases who no one would dare to challenge….todays kids would all be suffering from some form of severe traumatic shock, but you knew your place, you tend to forget however that most had served in the war and had high expectations of good behaviour….forgetting your Hymn book for morning assembly, no tie or dirty shoes were all capital offences, which received instant retribution…with the unassailable ‘Boss Howard ‘, a literal giant of man,captaining the ship and enforcing iron discipline.

By the the way, on my very first day at Tunstall Court I received four of the strap for getting involved in a fight at dinner time….. Rawlings words stick with me to this day….”This is a very inauspicious start to your time at this establishment “ , had to look the words up when I got home. Followed by “it’s always the ginger ones”.

Haha sounds about right . Tech and Tunstall Court always had that Tom Brown school
Days feel to it . I seem to remember someone called Mr Smethley too. Mr Piper if I remember seemed to have some sort of cult following. I guess the school has been demolished now? What resides there now

Yes think we all got the cane at some point. I guess it’s not allowed these days!

Yes think we all got the cane at some point. I guess it’s not allowed these days!

Tom Ellison rings a bell and I was engrossed in the history lessons

Ah memories of Tech, Rawlings aka The Wellie for some reason. Tom Ellison very easily diverted to talk of his time taking on ‘the Japs’. Fred Piper with his carpet beater called Maralder which was co-incidentally mangled and destroyed by the older brother of John who organises the fancy dress for Pools. I remember that carpet beater incident as we had double art first thing Monday morning ( nice start to the week) and Fred had taken all the chairs away and we had to do the two hours standing as a mark of respect to the dearly departed carpet beater.

Well Lauder St apart from the Town Hall and lecture theatre part is now Police HQ…. very appropriate. Tunstall Court was a victim in my eyes of unwarranted demolition and is now a muddy woodland car park.

There were some teachers you dreaded getting …Ibbotson in Chemistry, Mad Marley, Doigy and Phizackelea (hope it’s spelt right)
Anyone remember the bald ‘Iron man’ his name escapes me, wore glasses.

It was Rawlings who gave me the strap in my welcome to Tunstall Court, a ferret of a man mind you some had personalised weapons, Sam Lindsey had a strip of car tyre .A man who could control proceedings by just looking at you with a blank expression

that gave me a mental picture of a head monk in bondage gear with a whip on the wall.

was just talking about this when i was out with the dog yesterday when talking to another dog walker. just how useful or not exams were. my schooldays seem to have mirrored yours in passing subject i shouldn,t and failing the ones i should. english language being the best example. after leaving school i started taking institute of transport exams but had to pay, or should i say my parents paid, for extra private tuition to pass the english part of the first exam you had.that bloody willie shakespeare bloke should have had his books all burnt and you needed another book alongside his works to understand it. a mate once said that he never existed but was made up to make life hell for kids at school.

Whatever turns you on Mr A

Doc Dobson the physics teacher had a platted bunson burner tube I seem to remember

always remember vividly after over 60 years our physics teacher mr. pick. no prize for guessing hos nickname even though he was one. he started his lesson by writing bradford city on the blackboard. went around the class asking who we supported, wrote them down and discussed all their merits. this was mid term and not an end of term thing either. even today we thought the same thing was that he was pissed as it was the first lesson after the dinner break. totally out of character as us lads lived in fear of him unlike the girls did.

Conspiracy theories now,
A second plane owned by Prigozhin landed at Ostafyevo airport near Moscow.

Questions now whether Prigozhin was on the first plane, as the manifest stated, or on this second jet.

If you were him and you’d boarded the second plane, would you let anyone know you’d survived on anther plane ?

Girls…???????? …..What girls

Ditto, I'm 69 nearly and after watching Gistrap TV and a humour bagel, I bought a fart machine and took to work.

surely you can remember them. they were the only ones back in the old days who went around with skirts and that invention of satan make up who you had to buy drinks for when they got older and always avoided getting a round in.