Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Very good of him to agree to die just when the Beeb needed some publicity for its new film about the great train robbery.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25426914

I wonder whether Jack Mills' family will shed a tear.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

I don't understand why so many people are glorifying this person.

I have the news on and they just showed an interview him who was insistant he was happy about what he did.

Then people saying he's not a 'proper' villain and shouldn't even have been in prison.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

I think people viewed him as a bit of a 'jack the lad' type of character.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

He was ****.The sort that use the system,cheated the system and then make out they are hard done by..

Be interesting to see who thinks he was a wonderful jack the lad who was misunderstood.

:rolleyes:

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Good riddance. the man was **** who never showed an ounce of remorse, lets not forget what him and his gang mates did to train driver Jack Mills and second man David Whitby who never fully recovered from the event.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Good

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

There are no excuses for what he did then and nor should there be any now.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Who on earth decides what makes the top story on the BBC News website.

Obituaries for a common and not very good criminal are taking precedence over the biggest fall in unemployment for 4 years, the hunt for the body of a murdered teenager, the probable murder of a British doctor in Syria, the government losing £230 million on bank shares and umpteen other stories more newsworthy than Biggs.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

We had the same poor decisions last week with a celebrity chef becoming the lead item on the BBC news when there were far more important news stories.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

About bloody time. Let me know where he is going to be buried and I will go and go a jig on the grave after he has been buried.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Criminal dies. Good.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Good riddance to bad rubbish only thing that could make it better would be a five second announcement that he died and no more this **** deserves nothing more.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

if i was a cynical man I would say the BBC Marketing dept baring in mind what is on BBC1 @ 8PM this evening

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Its sad to say but gone are the day when the BBC set standards for others to follow.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

It was the lead story on the SKY News website earlier today too. The lead story now isn't much better:

http://news.sky.com/

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

I'm watching CNN.No danger of them mentioning him.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

He wasn't a proper villain, he was a lowlife ne'er do well who lucked in joining a gang of proper villains because he knew a train driver and when it came to the crunch he couldn't even get that right and was ostracised by them.

That said I'm not glad he's dead and can't really understand why people are happy about his passing, what difference does it make to them?

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

^ This!

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

I wouldn't like to work in the area where he is being buried - the funeral cortege will be massive.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

This.

Being glad someone you never knew has died, very strange.
I am neither glad nor sad, it makes no difference at all to my life.

Exactly the same about Nelson Mandella, Princess Diana etc.
They are just names, I have/had no reason to be glad or sad about their deaths.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

I'm not happy about him being dead just don't see why he deserves any glorifying

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Ronnie Biggs was an old time crook, who earned respect in the underworld. Thats why l said that l wouldn't like to be in the area on the day he gets buried, as it will be BIG.

In yesterday's world the crooks always respected the elderly, and only done banks and bullion. In todays world you can't even leave a window open without someone breaking in.

Yes, the driver of the train died, but you cannot blame Biggs for that, That person was never found.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Arthur, you do talk utter round things at times.

These guys were thugs - look up the Krays, and the crimes they and their ilk committed; they ran protection rackets in the East End of London, menacing shop keepers and pub landlords.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

I think the BBC should postpone tonight and tomorrow's showing of the Great Train Robbery as a mark of respect to man who only returned to the UK to get free treatment from the NHS.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

To me that's a contradiction.

Why should I remember that he has a son / was a father. As you say what's it got to do with anything or anyone.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

With Ronnie Biggs I don't think the negative reaction is born of a personal hatred towards him but rather from the cult status he was granted as a result of his crimes. He gained a kind of infamy whilst he was on the run and his release was encouraged by many. The annoyance you're seeing is a backlash against that image. People trying to remind everyone that he committed a crime, then went on the run sticking his nose up at our criminal justice system and the family of the victim and then came back when he ran out of money. He never seemed to express a ounce of remorse for his crime and his attempt to flee justice, in fact he seem proud of it, and we should not glory that.

I think this story from The Economist sums it up: http://www.economist.com/blogs/bligh...g-ronnie-biggs

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Sorry but, good riddance.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

and in your twisted head that's supposed to be better is it ? :rolleyes:

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Oh yes, he may have been part of a gang that hit a man over the head with an axe handle and terrorised three others, but he loved his mother, eh. :erm:

The fantasy universe you live in gets more bizarre by the day.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

It's as bizarre as it is pathetic.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

The Piranha Brothers....

and Part 2

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Dinsdale... :D

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

I love the way that having no real knowledge of a person or subject in no way hinders you from having a strong opinion on it/ them, he wasn't an old time crook, he was a small time crook who had a minor role in the robbery, screwed it up and was basically ignored by the gang from then on. I do expect to see the celebrity gangsters that haunt such occasions turning up though to "pay their respects" and get a photo opportunity.

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Yes, and when those banks lost that money, who do you think paid for it? The banks? I doubt it. I'll wager that cost was passed on, either to the taxpayer or the bank's customers. Either way, the bank wouldn't have lost out. The general public would have. Including, I daresay, some of the elderly.

The same person who presumably wouldn't have been there unless the gang was there?

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

Including poor old souls like Arthur.


... and then he nailed my head to the floor... :erm:

Re: Ronnie Biggs is dead
 

:tu:

Exactly!