Click on the button for your RSS readerIf your RSS reader is not shown, click the 'other reader' link for the feed page Google Reader or Homepage My Yahoo! Bloglines My AOL Technorati Favorites Netvibes Pageflakes Windows Live Other readers Birth beyond the bars Posted by Colin Randall on 26 Sep 2006 at 14:56 Tags: Law, Family, Nathalie Getcliffe, imprisonment, birth Let this blog break another piece of news about one of its pet subjects. Nathalie Gettliffe, the French woman at the centre of the bitter child custody battle that has landed her behind bars in Canada, has given birth to her fourth child. Nathalie Getcliffe in happier days In what I hope was a generous, if long-awaited, display of compassion by the Canadian authorities, baby Martin was brought into the world in a proper hospital four miles from the jail. Denied bail pending her trial in November, when she faces up to 10 years in jail if convicted of removing two of her other children in defiance of a court order, Nathalie is already effectively serving a tough prison sentence at the Alouette Correctional Centre for Women in British Columbia. Prior to going into labour, she was said by her boyfriend, Francis Gruzelle, the father of Martin and the fourth child, to be exhausted and in poor health. He blamed "horrible" prison conditions, complained about the medical care she had received and alleged that she had been assaulted by other inmates. A prison spokesman was quoted by the Hamilton Spectator as insisting that a pregnant woman would receive attention comparable to what she could expect outside jail. In the event, those with a say over the nature of her incarceration managed to overcome any fears that a woman, nine months' pregnant and evidently not in the best of health, might make a break for it. At the onset of labour in today's early hours (1.30am, Canadian west coast time), she was transferred to Maple Ridge hospital. Since I started writing this posting, I decided to hold fire in the hope of having further information. French language reports have now caught up with me but none has so far given any details about the baby's weight or state of health of mother and child. As I stated quite clearly when I raised this case in August, I offer no view on the guilt or innocence of Nathalie Gettliffe. I still cannot see what great purpose is served by her continued detention, as I may also have made clear. Someone close to the case did tell me that she had rejected a suggestion of plea bargaining that might have limited her eventual punishment to two or three years' imprisonment which, on the facts as known, would self-evidently be even more disproportionate than the five months already served (a term covering the latter half of a difficult pregnancy). What I think about her treatment since she was arrested in April may be no more valuable than the thoughts of the man on the Vancouver omnibus. It is interesting to note, however, that France, through its foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blaze, must have had similar thoughts, since he asked at a high level for a humanitarian gesture in her favour. Perhaps the dead-of-night transfer to a civilian hospital was that gesture. Posted by Colin Randall on 26 Sep 2006 at 14:56 Post to: del.icio.usDiggNewsvineNowPublicRedditComments [60]Back to top60 comments Show most recent: First Last farewell, farewell Dan 27 Sep 2006 11:34 I have enjoyed your blog very much Colin. All best for whatever you do... Report this comment disingenuous matabala 27 Sep 2006 14:41 What you think about her treatment is all too readily understood by reading your piece, the second to deal with this case. Your strained plea of objectivity falls on these deaf ears. Report this comment Au revoir or adieu? Helen 27 Sep 2006 16:02 Devastated to read of your departure via the Guardian Website Mr Randall. I have had such pleasure from your reports from Paris over the last two years. I hope you carry on writing about France and the French...it was an added bonus for me when you started up your blogs...the depth of your knowledge and the clarity of your prose will be a hard act to follow I think. Good Luck, your reader Helen Report this comment Postage to Orleans anne gilbert 27 Sep 2006 16:29 Richard. What is this pending news of Mr. Randall departing our blog. Can't see anywhere that he has announced it. anne Report this comment A bientot Colin Randall 27 Sep 2006 16:36 Thank you for those messages (well, two of the three I have seen so far - and at least the event they mention will have brought a little smile to matabala's face). I hope to have an opportunity for a proper au revoir, or even a bientot, in due course. Report this comment bye swatantra nandanwar 27 Sep 2006 17:37 Best wishes Colin, enjoyed your blog. Ms Getliffe sounds like one of those irritating people who will go to any lengths on a matter of principle, no matter who gets hurt in the process. Mind you I could be wrong, she might just be a good mother. Report this comment Fine reporter Quentin Letts 27 Sep 2006 19:44 Dear Colin, I do not know your email but want merely to say that you have been one of the Telegraph's great reporters over the past 20 (or is it 25?) years and that you will surely be snapped up by another Fleet Street title. Bon chance, mon brave! Q. Report this comment Don't look back. James (Bill Taylor) Hamilton 27 Sep 2006 20:04 I've enjoyed my little charade. Thanks for playing along. See you and Joelle around the first of the year, I hope. We'll drink to happier times and your brilliant new venture, whatever it may be. Cheers mate, Bill Report this comment Great Scot! Sarah Hague 27 Sep 2006 20:08 Oh good grief, this is terrible!!! Colin, how come it's the Guardian that announces this news before the perpetrator himself? I'm disgusted that the T is doing away with so many foreign correspondants. How does it think it'll keep up with what's going on? By joining forces with the Guardian? Pah! Signed, Disgusted of Montpellier Report this comment Restructured no doubt richard of orléans 27 Sep 2006 20:40 Well Anne, Mr Randall has shown at times a certain degree of understanding, even liking, of the French. Such behaviour is not tolerated in the City of London. We all make the same mistake, try to explain that there is something worth learning in France, but just get chopped off as gone native. Nevertheless the personal intellectual richness that comes from intimately knowing the splendid French people largely outweighs the hurt from the mean spirited actions of the stay at home brigade.I haven't seen the information in the Guardian, I don't read it. Awful paper, I prefer the Telegraph being sincerely Little England, to the Guardian's fake internationalism. Report this comment Shameful barry 27 Sep 2006 23:08 It is appalling that you have been made redundant. The Telegraph management are utter fools. I thought the new man was being brought in to protect staff against cuts? All the best with whatever you do next. I think you are well out of the amateur night that the Daily Telegraph has become Report this comment What? Louise 28 Sep 2006 06:00 This is unbelievable ... what is the Telegraph doing? Doing away with three foreign correspondents isn't going to save the Telegraph, is it? I'm sure they could get rid of a few in Canary Wharf or wherever they are now, before disposing of a highly respected journalist such as Colin. So the Telegraph is soon to be without foreign reporters in France, New York and Washington - fairly important places to my mind. But obviously Con Coughlin doesn't see it in the same light. I think we should blast this man with guardianesque type emails and petition for Colin's continuation, although perhaps in the light of events he doesn't want to stay anyway. Due to dwinding sales, the papers have invested heavily in digital technology - before long we shall have to pay to read the Telegraph online, that is a certainty. Sans moi! Report this comment Wither and Fade richard of orléans 28 Sep 2006 09:44 Maybe we could quickly get a couple of hundred messages on this blog. We don't want to be accused of failing to exercise our right to free speech. Unused liberties wither and fade. Report this comment I agree... Louise 28 Sep 2006 10:16 ...with Richard for once!! Let's petition for Colin's reinstatement - send postings to all the blogs so everyone knows what is happening - so far I haven't heard or seen mention of this shameful caper in the DT - or perhaps I haven't looked properly. I think that perhaps them wot rules at the DT are perhaps rather ashamed of their behaviour, and so they bloody well should be. Report this comment What is the Telegraph playing at? lisa 28 Sep 2006 11:19 I too read about the departure of Colin Randall in The Guardian - I won't be reading the Telegraph in future as Colin's blogs and other articles were the only things I read in the paper. I've never contributed to this blog before but feel moved to now by the shameful behaviour of the Telegraph management. Hope you find a nicer bunch of people to work with Colin - or maybe you could get yourself a lucrative publishing deal a la "petite Anglaise" Report this comment Colin B, Sarah Hague, Le Beauf, Natalie, Sohail, Gordon, June Harper, Louise, Philip Coleman, Diane, James Hamilton and Richard of Orleans anne gilbert 28 Sep 2006 11:38 To my fellow bloggers. I do feel that Colin Randall is owed many letters of thanks from his readers and scribblers. I personally will write him soon. This post is my thank you to those who came to write here. We enjoyed a lot of laughter and wit, eclectic topics and devilish sparring. All of you sent me on the learning curve (fell off a few times)and I've enjoyed being here as a sense of place. I hope we meet again somewhere, sometime. anne Report this comment What the... Shona 28 Sep 2006 12:08 I just heard you've been terminated Colin. I am amazed. Your blog has been a must read since it started. I won't be turning to the Telegraph nearly so much without you. Report this comment Postage to Orleans anne gilbert 28 Sep 2006 12:33 Are you thinking of canvassing against the redundancy. If yes, a petition-type letter could be created with signitories or were you thinking of general support. Myself, I think it best to look around for a blog without the crayon as we might not be accepted. Report this comment Ped the pedagogue anne gilbert 28 Sep 2006 12:48 Ped. Your name was on the draft of my recent posting. It fell off somewhere in the title bar. Anyway, you're there. Best wishes. Report this comment He deserves our support richard of orléans 28 Sep 2006 13:04 Anne I think the best place to start is by explaining to the Telegraph that we really appreciate Colin's journalism and that it is, and always has, brought a lot of readers to the Newspaper. We don't need to be rude or anything. Normally newspapers like to know their journalists are read and appreciated. Come on you lot Colin has been working hard for years keeping us informed and amused he deserves our support and your friends support and your friends of friends support. Report this comment Au revoir... Sarah Hague 28 Sep 2006 13:07 Anne, your idea of writing to Colin was excellent, and I have done just that. I suggested to him that when he finds new pastures, and has the opportunity to start a blog, that he drop us a line and we'll come enthusiastically to give him our support. The party's not over until the fat lady... Report this comment I'd like to know anne gilbert 28 Sep 2006 13:29 Hello Sarah. I've seen this expression about the fat lady before. It's never given in any context and I still don't know what it means. What does it mean? Report this comment P to O anne gilbert 28 Sep 2006 13:37 Yes on the letter to the Telegraph but by what means? Send it to the editor? Report this comment Fat lady's a-singing Sarah Hague 28 Sep 2006 13:50 Anne, here is a link: http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/fat-lady-sings.html "Often mistakenly attributed to N.Y. Yankees Hall of Famer Yogi Berra — his expression was "it ain't over till it's over" — this popular quote originated in the following form: The opera ain't over until the fat lady sings. According to an article in the Washington Post on June 3, 1978, San Antonio sports writer/broadcaster Dan Cook first came up with that proverb about three years before, in response to Ralph Carpenter's statement that "The rodeo ain't over till the bull riders ride." According to Cecil Adams, Cook says he first used it in a column around 1976, but we haven't been able to confirm that. What's certain is how the expression was popularized. Cook said it on television in 1978, when the San Antonio Spurs were behind in a series with the Washington Bullets. The Washington Bullets' manager, Dick Motta, repeated it, and was widely quoted by the media. By the time the Bullets came from behind to win the finals that year, the saying was on thousands of T-shirts, "fat ladies" were coming to games to cheer the team on, and the proverb's popularity was firmly cemented. (Motta, who had a solid grasp of grammar, was originally quoted as saying "It's not over... It's like an opera. It doesn't end until the fat lady starts singing and that hasn't happened in this one yet." It immediately reverted to Cook's punchier version in retellings.) Finally, it should be noted that a Southern proverb, "church ain't out until the fat lady sings", has been found in a 1976 publication. It's not certain which expression came first, and whether one was influenced by the other." Report this comment Not for me (the FLS) anne gilbert 28 Sep 2006 14:12 Good on comment. Still, a vacuous expression that I would never use. Add it's insensitivity if you see it. Report this comment That is very sad Robert Marchenoir 28 Sep 2006 14:54 I am very sorry to hear about your predicament, Mr. Randall. I appreciated your articles and blog very much. I often turned to them to understand what is happening in my own country. This blog was a way to attract a foreign audience that I am sure the print edition could not match. I wish you all the best. Report this comment blue pencils? Louise 28 Sep 2006 15:55 I saw on Shane Richmond's latest blog that he ws saying their last four bloggers would soon bee appearing - I sent a remark that they would perhaps soon be plus 4 but also minus 2. I must have sent it about 5 hours ago, but it hasn't appeared - is the blue pencil at work? Report this comment The blog, the book, the film petite anglaise 28 Sep 2006 18:21 Time to get an agent Colin, a book deal is just around the corner! On a more serious note - I'm really saddened to hear this, and I sincerely hope that you won't be leaving Paris. Report this comment Apocalypse now Colin Berry et al 28 Sep 2006 19:10 Listen, you folks, quit sobbing. It's not the end of the world. It's far, far worse than that ...... Anyway, best wishes for the future, Colin R. It's been great fun rising to your judiciously chosen bait. Maybe you should start giving master classes in writing blog intros ( which is much harder than it looks, as I've said previously). Adieu mes amis. Colin Berry ( aka Gordon, James, and a few more pseudonyms besides .....) Report this comment Romeo and Juliet (II, ii, 185) Ped 28 Sep 2006 22:40 I have been busy elsewhere and still don't know the details. Has Colin said anything about losing this imminent departure? Is he happy to be going or was he shoved. Either way I shall miss his blog, it is one of the first things a head for in the morning. Good luck with whatever comes next Colin and thank you for that which you have given us in the past. With luck we shall all meet again Ped. Report this comment Noooooooooooooooooo! Thomas R 29 Sep 2006 10:45 Dumped by the Telegraph, that sucks! Take petite's advice, go for the book deal - but get yourself a new blog quick, I need my daily fix. (And obviously I don't want to get it from the Daily Telegraph any more.) Report this comment P.S. Thomas R 29 Sep 2006 10:59 OK, me again, but I just had a question. Petite got dooced for keeping a blog, but if the outrage of his many blog fans saved Colin would that be “un-dooced”, “de-dooced” or would we have to coin a new expression – randalled? Report this comment Appalled JP 29 Sep 2006 11:19 Everyone is appalled. Colin is indeed a fantastic reporter and a victim of the madness currently taking hold at the Telegraph. Report this comment Amends please richard of orléans 29 Sep 2006 13:26 Could not Bill Taylor make amends for the Canadians rather rough treatment of our compatriot. He should get an e-mail connection to Nathalie so she can send a message of support to her partner in trouble. Hopefully they won't lock you up Bill for collusion. Report this comment michelin j cheever 29 Sep 2006 15:19 Colin, I am overwhelmed by your news. What is the world coming to? And before we even managed to settle the one really important issue remaining. i.e. Where is the best Indian restaurant in France to be found? But take heart, word has it that Michelin are considering including a special curry section in the 2007 edition of their Guide. The place could be yours for the asking. By the way, as a starter try the the Rani Mahal in the rue Saint Augustin, Paris 2, which is quite new and features all ranges of heat at a vey reasonable price. (P.S. Don't bother to attempt this one Richard of O. It would be more than your etiolated taste buds could take). Report this comment Why are we waiting ? Colin Berry 02 Oct 2006 13:58 Are we really to believe that no new posts have been submitted over the weekend - at any rate, ones that have cleared the New Model Army strait-laced, buttoned-down blue pencil brigade of the present regime ? Does anyone else get the impression that this blog is being shut down by a combination of aggression and stealth ? Well, I guess those Canary Wharf folk are into new territory - albeit one of their own making. Personally, I prefer things to end with a bang, not a whimper. Come on Colin - deliver on that hint: give us what our Froggie friends call a "coup de frappe". Report this comment One Colin who WON'T be missed Bill Taylor 02 Oct 2006 14:36 Good old Colin Berry - sensitive to the end! Here we have a man, Colin Randall, trying to deal with the sudden loss of his livelihood and all the concomitant problems and trauma. And all Colin Berry can do is whine about what's happening to this blog and demand a spectacular climax. I'm sure in a previous existence he was an enthusiastic spectator at the Roman Colosseum or perhaps at Tudor bear-baiting events. Never mind anyone else's pain and suffering, Colin Berry wants to be entertained, damn it! Report this comment out of the woodwork... Louise 02 Oct 2006 16:12 The ending of Colin's blog has at least made a couple of you come clean with your 'real' names?! Although Colin might have received a video conference handshake, how can they wipe his blog off the Telegraph - what about the archives? I too noticed that there were no postings over the weekend - and none on Alec's blog either. My posting on Shane Richmond's blog was definitely blue pencilled - obviously orders have come from on high. Are they ashamed of themselves? Report this comment Don't let the b*stards grind you down ! Colin Berry 02 Oct 2006 16:19 You sad, sad man, Bill of Ontario. You now have to find somewhere else to spew your bile. I'm sorry that life has been such a disappointment to you. C'mon Colin R. Forget the sad, sad Bills of this world. Let's end on a high note. Give us a signing-off worthy of your masterly touch ! Report this comment No boor like an old boor Bill Taylor 02 Oct 2006 18:52 I am a sad man, Colin Berry -- deeply saddened by what has happened to Colin Randall, a cherished friend of very long standing. I'm saddened, too, but not at all surprised by your attitude. There are no high notes in this situation and your our incomprehension and boorish lack of compassion is truly appalling. Report this comment They shoot horses Michael 03 Oct 2006 00:50 Having been binned myself from international and national titles, I offer you my greatest sympathy. Gob shut till you get max severance. After that: sans rancune. Thanks for a very evocative blog. Report this comment A sad performance kapentakid 03 Oct 2006 02:48 Bill Taylor writes " I am a sad man," and he sure is. You'd think from his outpourings of guff that this was the people's princess getting ecrasé in an underpass instead of a well liked journo getting the bullet from a philistine management. Get real man. Stuff happens. Report this comment GTT Natalie 03 Oct 2006 04:49 I am so sorry about the news! Haven't read what happened as yet. I have been out of town, Paris as it happens, and just returned tonight and looked at the blog. Come to Texas! Promise we won't shoot you, arrest you, or hang you. Just feed you to death! All my best. Natalie Report this comment Down the slippery slope Jane Holland 03 Oct 2006 09:25 Well, that sums it all up for me - Colin's blog was one of my must-reads for the day, and now it appears that he is leaving the Telegraph, like other columnists I used to read (Duff Hart-Davis going back a few years, Germain Greer more recently). Britain is insular enough without getting rid of the intelligent comment that comes from foreign correspondants. More grey news in a grey and dreary couple of weeks. Good luck for the future Colin - and get a new blog going once any gardening leave has been dealt with! Report this comment Goodwill to all men Bill Taylor 03 Oct 2006 14:33 I'm usually a charitable man, kapentakid (is this yet another of Colin Berry's pseudonyms?) but in your case I'll make an exception. I hope sincerely that "stuff" happens to you, too. Bad stuff. Then you'll know what "real" is all about. Report this comment Michael?... Robert Marchenoir 03 Oct 2006 15:47 ...Would that be Michael Johnson from The Columnists? Report this comment Spark of humanity anytime soon? richard of orléans 03 Oct 2006 16:08 It seems that the british have lost all sense of community and belonging. The 'stuff happens' comment of Kapentakid is typical of zombies living in a souless decaying wilderness. Sun rules OK. No doubt Thatcher knocked all decency out of you, but will we not eventually see the reappearance of a spark of humanity? Report this comment You're so right, Richard Bill Taylor 03 Oct 2006 17:26 For the record, Colin Randall and I go back more than 40 years. We were at school together, worked together, ran a folk club together. I was at his wedding to the lovely Joelle and spent some time in Paris with them this last March. I offer no apologies for my concern for Colin's welfare and no concessions to anyone inclined to treat the situation lightly. Report this comment Colin Randall needs no minders Colin Berry 03 Oct 2006 20:18 Colin Randall and Bill Taylor old pals ? Well, truth, if that's what it is, can indeed be stranger than fiction. One the one hand you have Colin Randall, master of understatement, who's blogging genius is to put strangers at ease, to feel welcome and confident to contribute. On the other, there's this abrasive character whose track record here over the months boils down to one thing: he's an enemy of free speech (except, of course, when it's his own), one who's wedded to his own narrow brand of PC. Such a shame, then, that at this poignant moment in time, a self-appointed minder should interpose himself between Colin and his admirers. Report this comment Berry funny Bill Taylor 03 Oct 2006 21:32 Coming over to Colin's new blog, Colin Berry? You won't have the Telegraph censors to protect you there. I'm no enemy of free speech; the very opposite. But I am passionately opposed to prejudice, racial or otherwise. What you would self-servingly call PC. Which is why I look forward to taking you on. Gloves off. Report this comment Sorry; comments problem on your new blog Sedulia 03 Oct 2006 22:41 Very sorry to hear the news, Colin. The Telegraph's loss. Hope you will keep writing. Re: your new blog-- I don't like to have to (and won't) register on yet another site, with yet another name and password, before being able to leave a comment. Good luck, Colin. Report this comment A zombie writes kapentakid 03 Oct 2006 22:57 Right on Colin Berry! It is alas a sign of the times that one cannot express a decent sympathy for another's misfortunes, while acknowledging that it's a rough old world, without being attacked by loons raving on about senses of community and belonging. Where's their British stiff upper lip fer chrissakes. Report this comment Unfnished business anne gilbert 04 Oct 2006 01:41 Not a whole lot of good writing or thinking on this blog at the moment.Colin Randall is on his way to better times.Some of you may not see it that way,but that where it's at.Now moving on from all this roiling,stuff yourself style posts,let's get to the unfinished business.Y'all left The Fois Gras blog without bringing it to the number 103.Not nice to do this as it could have been and should be Mr.Randall's second place record.Finish the business please.And make it your best! Report this comment It's that woman (?) again ! Colin Berry 04 Oct 2006 15:33 Last word of (well-meant) advice to "Anne Gilbert" on this blog: 1. Do please remember, my dear, to insert a space between each full stop and the first letter of the next sentence. You don't want a cramped style putting the wrong idea into people's heads about the writer's cognitive powers, do you ? 2. Try to cultivate a less prissy, less nitpicking manner. 3 Do please drop this silly obsession with Colin's third place ranking on his Foie Gras post. After all, he does hold the all-time record for top number of comments on a Telegraph blog. I refer, once again, to his 18th May "We'll Meet Again" topic, which attracted 187 comments, no less (quite a number of which I contributed myself in a bout of blogging spring fever !) Who said the age of chivalry is dead ? Well, they were right, weren't they ? I guess (for me at any rate) it was the blogosphere's free-for-all that finally killed it off ! Apologies to the "fairer sex", however, if Anne Gilbert is really Bill Taylor in drag. Report this comment English school master richard of orléans 04 Oct 2006 16:18 Colin Berry I never met anyone who follows convention so rigidly. I imagine you in a navy blue blazer, grey trousers, white shirt, boring tie, black shoes. Try to relax a little, you're not living in the UK now. You're allowed emotions. Give up your English school masterly habits. Report this comment Motes and beams Bill Taylor 04 Oct 2006 18:39 "Try to cultivate a less prissy, less nitpicking manner," Colin Berry writes without apparent irony -- given that you'd be hard put to find a more prissy nitpicker than him. And how insufferably patronising of him to call Anne Gilbert "my dear." As for his apologies to the "fairer sex...." Add sexism to all his other prejudices. No, Colin Berry, I'm not Anne Gilbert. And you're not qualified to advise anyone about anything. Report this comment Parting shot (& bisou for Louise) Colin Berry 05 Oct 2006 12:27 There he goes again, that Bill Taylor, revealing yet again his fundamental misunderstanding about the blog. Listen chum, I don't have to be "qualified" to make observations on this forum, and even if I did, who is to assess those qualifications ? Bill Taylor ? I will comment as I see fit: it's called free speech, a time-honoured concept and institution that he seems totally unable to comprehend. Yes, we know you are a journalist, Bill Taylor. Unlike some, I don't hold that against you (there have been two highly-regarded ones in my family). But in the brave new world of blogs that by itself cuts little ice. Why should it ? Does being a journalist make one a better judge of character, or better at detecting posturing, inconsistency or hypocrisy ? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought journalists saw their role as reporting and commenting on the human condition - as distinct from setting themselves up, as you consistently do, as the ultimate arbiter on matters of opinion or style. I once expressed an admiration for our sovereign. Your response Bill, was to equate that with being a "Franco admirer", and to repeat it when challenged. And when I conjured up an imaginary independent homeland for native Americans, tongue in cheek, as "Red Indiana", you got up on your soap box and accused me of using racist terminology, a charge that was totally at odds with the very point I was making about American double-standards over Israel and Palestine. And you have continued to bandy around that ludicrous racist tag, ignoring protests from myself (and others ) that your comments were bang out of order. If there's somebody who's not qualified to sit in judgement on his fellow bloggers, at least in the University of Life, then it is you, Bill Taylor. You have a long track record on this forum of twisting and misrepresenting what people say, all so you can score a easy point or two at the expense of those whom you apparently regard as bottom-feeders in life's journalistic food-chain. If you are as good as you want us to think you are, then here's a bit of free advice. Start your own blog. Let's see what you are capable of pro-actively. Colin R is currently showing us how to go about it, despite it being a difficult time in his life, and lacking now the benefit of an MSM life-support system. Once again, good luck Colin. And here's me signing off finally from your Telly blog. I guess all good things finally come to an end. I shall remember 2006 as the Year of Colin Randall. Goodbye also to some others who have brightened the last few weeks and months with their wit and humour, especially Louise. Who was it who memorably said that her warmth shone through the chinks in her writing ? Report this comment Last word? Don't bet on it. Bill Taylor 05 Oct 2006 15:00 Colin Berry may not have a thought in his head but he always has a PS up his sleeve. But, finally, we had it from his own mouth: "You don't have to be 'qualified' to make observations on this forum." We always knew he was arguing from ignorance. It's almost refreshing to have him admit it. Report this comment Grosse fatigue Robert Marchenoir 05 Oct 2006 20:48 Could anyone more inspired than me come up with some uplifting and warm-hearted last comment to put the finishing touch to this blog? I think Colin Randall's blogging deserves more, as a farewell, than these tit-for-tat shouting matches between otherwise intelligent people who occur every now and then on blogs, and which belong more to schoolyards than to grown-up conversations. However entertaining they might be for a while. Regardless of the great talent for writing and controversy their protagonists may muster -- and believe me, I am a humble admirer in this case. Thank you so much. Report this comment Divinely embued richard of orléans 06 Oct 2006 12:52 Robert I don't think it needs anything special. The whole point of Colin's blog and its success was its informal, light hearted tone. There is that essential lack of English pomposity and one up manship. It is divinely embued with the culture of France.