Month: May 2017

Listen up, Charioteers

Pin back thy lugs and faites attention!

Posting entire articles from other sources is not what the Chariot is here for.   Posting short extracts, piccies or videos to support your observations is fine, providing they are clearly marked as such in one way or another.   Ordinary [hyper-] links are often a better way of providing background context.

WordPress is full of tools and advice that help you accomplish all these things, and more, very simply.   Go find!

Please, please do not copy and paste HTML if you don’t know what you’re doing.   It’s not difficult to learn, but I’m getting fed up with correcting mistakes which ruin the appearance of the Chariot.

If you can’t publish good-looking, original posts which fit in with the Chariot’s style, do a bit of rapid learning, or stop posting.   Future messes will not be corrected, but will be zapped.   Authorship privileges can be rescinded …

It’s nice to have enthusiastic contributors with interesting thoughts, but I’m getting to be too old to go around picking your toys up and putting them back in the cupboard.

Thanks – class dismissed.

Shooting from the lip

A nice phrase from the Beeb today, asking if it’s snobbishness that makes us hate Don the One. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39849073

So I’ve asked myself the question. Do I react against him because he can hardly string three words together? And when he does, the words often fly in the face of the facts? Yes and yes.

No, I don’t expect heads of state to be academic icons, intellectual leaders; but I do expect them to have some grasp of their language, some awareness of the key issues facing them and some respect (yes, respect) for their peers’ qualities as heads of state. A quick jibe and a quick u-turn won’t do.

What’s your take on the soon-to-be-lame Donald duck?

Believe it or not

Stephen Fry, asked what he would say if he were confronted by God, replied:

“How dare you create a world in which there is such misery that is not our fault? It’s not right. “It’s utterly, utterly evil.

“Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world which is so full of injustice and pain?”

It is hardly a new challenge to Christians of course, but the intelligent if controversial Mr Fry made the mistake of uttering it publicly in 2015……in the Republic of Ireland. Surprisingly (or not) the Defamation laws there include blasphemy – and his remarks could now fall foul of them, risking a fine of 25,000 euros.

Good God, you say! But he doesn’t. Isn’t that his right?

No overall control

What a telling label! It describes perfectly the plight of the self-acclaimed winners in Scotland, the SNP. And it masks the reality that the Tories have taken one huge stride towards rendering them powerless in June. Overall the SNP lost one council and 7 seats, hardly a triumph; and with Labour losing 4 councils and 133 seats, even more councils require coalitions to control their agendas. So keep digging, Nicola; that hole is acquiring catastrophic proportions.

Labour Pains

Labour have imploded, the Limp Dims have lost more ground, the SNP have lost seats despite Labour’s travails. Only the Tories have had a good local election, gaining 164 council seats in Jockland. Meanwhile, in England, Labour have fared worse than Alex Salmond at a marathon. The Limp Dims continue their decline. UKIP have all but disappeared. Oh yes, a very satisfactory local election indeed. Let’s hope that the Delightful Mrs May continues her winning streak next month.

What a shame

Phil the Bubble is retiring

War hero, constant companion and consort to Good Queen Bess, founder of his great eponymous awards scheme and all round good bloke, the Duke of Edinburgh is finally retiring from public life at the grand old age of 96 (he is retiring after his birthday).

If anyone deserves a good retirement it is he, but there is only one downside. I will miss all of his off the cuff remarks and jokes that so upset the snowflakes of this world. I hope some other public figure picks up his baton!!  🙂