More British Than A Bowler Hat

You Can't Get More Brit Than That-
Actually you can, because there is a tale to be told about the bowler hat.  Our South Canadian cousins call it the "Derby", doubtless after the British city, so even then they can't get away from it being another thing that hails from the allotment of Eden.  
     None of which has to do with what follows, of course - you know BOOJUM! and our non sequiteurs*.
     One of the things that also hailed from the Allotment is the Spitfire.  Art?

Art! You - oh, go on, I'll give you that 

     I was actually referring to the fighter plane.  Given that the MG Spitfire is also a British icon, i shall not Tazer Art.  This time.  ART!
     The Spitfire plane.

Better.

     Okay, this might be deemed bordering on Current Affairs, were it not for the fact that the Spitfire in question was shot down in 1944.  NH341 was flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force - and yes, the Canadians - the proper Canadians - fought alongside the Brits in the Second Unpleasantness** - until it got shot down by the bally Teutons.  It has now been renovated at a cost of £3 million, from this - 

A fixer-upper

     - to this -

Rowrrr!

     We're going to need it when we take on Europe if you believe the recent newspaper headlines, which is once again tiptoeing around the shallows of Current Affairs, so let us move on.

Cranes
I'm warning you, Art, don't mess this one up.  The erected construction artefact not the bird.  Since the skyline of Little-Ur-On-The-Irwell*** is dominated by cranes, because it appears nobody is satisfied with how the city looks and can only conceive of improvement by building another block of offices, it is strange how very seldom one gets to see them actually being erected in the first place.
     One reason is that a considerable number of these supposed "cranes" are in fact alien spies hiding in plain sight; they're suddenly here, and equally suddenly gone.
     Still, some of them must be the real thing, because <makes a deliberate effort to avoid slipping into that speech by Kurt Russell in "The Thing"> of the law of averages.
     Thus -

Surprise!

     See the grid section lower left?  That's the base section of the crane.  Later on a pump truck came in to put concrete around the legs, after which they'll need to wait for it to cure before adding that hunk of metal hanging off the crane.
     Sorry for getting excited about this but it doesn't often happen.

A Clerihew For You
Let's see whom to hurl rubber brickbats at today.  How about the Ruffian president?

Putin, known as Vlad

Is well known for being bad.

The reason for all his guilty looks

Is that he's bad at returning library books.

     Ha!  Take that stinging political satire, Vlad!  
     If I never post again you now know why.

     Ooh, ooh, another one comes to mind.

Margaret Thatcher

Was a rat catcher.

She hung them up by their tails,

Skinned them, and made them into sails.

     Tee hee!

Saint Catherine's Island
Yes, another tidal island along the shores of the UK.  This one is off the shore of Pembrokeshire, and unlike some of the ones featured previously, would seem to be fun to visit.  Other islands have featured bleak isolation or triffid-like overgrowth, but St Kate's is more visitor-friendly.  Art?

Complete with fort

     It has also featured in an episode of "Sherlock", the rather precious and po-faced Beeb series that doesn't feature humour or Lucy Liu, where it stood in for a prison island.  Well, if you can only get there twice a day then that makes it more secure, I suppose^.

Quick - Vlad - look the other way!

     Damn it, there goes that bus poster with "Prettylittlething" on it again.  What is it!  Actually I don't really care, I just have to fill in a small post to get to count.

Close enough?

     No, not exactly pretty, but pretty close.  "Pretty close" - do you see what I did there?  You see - O never mind.

     Right, I am off to sit and bask in the sunshine because this is also as rare as seeing a jib crane getting built!

*  I apologise for using French whilst bragging about Britishness, but we all have to make sacrifices.
**  Also the First, but there isn't the space here today.
*** Manchester to you
^  Don't tell Vlad, he might get ideas.