Those of us who have followed the EU for years will only be all too familiar with a certain pattern. The EU makes proposals — and takes initial steps to formalise them — that are so astoundingly tin-eared and untenable that national governments and electorates scream in protest. Continue reading “This again?”
Month: June 2017
Of frying pans and fires
Here and throughout the blogging world, spleens have been vented, feet stamped, cool lost and superlatives exhausted – at the gross incompetence and ineffable profligacy of a sitting government; and all to the accompaniment of the opposition’s sneering triumphalism laced with preposterous claims of competence and reliability.
Soon the fabled one week in politics will live up to its reputation and prove to be a long time since 8th June. The Queen’s Speech will be agreed by the warring Tories, the opposition will have their jolly bunfight in the House, the negotiations with Brussels will duly begin – and everybody will go away on their hols. Continue reading “Of frying pans and fires”
Conspiracy theories??
I am not normally one to subscribe to conspiracy theories, but, given the idiocy of half the UK population in the General Election I just wonder……..
- If the polls at the time that Maggie Maybe called the election were rigged to show a much more commanding lead for the Tories than actually existed to persuade her to call the election, given that a lot of poll companies seem to be Labour inspired and I never really believed them anyway?
- How much electoral fraud was involved in some of the Labour victories. They have rather a record for such things?
- Whether Maggie Maybe wanted to lose to screw up Brexit negotiations?
- Whether her chief advisers were either Labour plants, received large backhanders or were just total wazzocks? I suspect the latter, but you never know.
Probably we shall never know, but we can only hope that she is dumped very soon for a proper Conservative leader and that they can do a deal with the DUP to ensure Brexit continues on course. We also have to hope that when the next inevitable early election comes, the Constituency Boundary Changes have been made, so that Labour do not get a 10% head-start in the polls.
The only good things to come out of this election were Nick Clegg, Alex Salmond and SNP Westminster leader Angus Roberson all getting the chop and the reining in of the SNP. Everything else was a disaster, although not as bad as if Jeremy Corbyn had won. That would have been apocalyptic.
What, me worry? (Alfred E Neuman c1964)
I have nothing to add.
Seems Appropriate.
Finally
I was amazed to see the Grauniad’s balanced assessment of today’s runners and riders, according to the last opinion polls.
It is probably a sign that the old Mancunian rag is preparing to abandon its loony left connections tomorrow.
Finally.
Time for others
By coincidence, after I’d seen many reports of people going the extra mile during the latest terrorist outrages, I saw an article in the Beeb’s travel pages about a Greek word nobody, even Greeks, can translate satisfactorily. It’s ‘philotimo’ (from the ancient Greek φιλοτιμία which appears in Homer and Pindar). Down the centuries the meaning segued from ‘ambition to impress’ to ‘altruism’ and ‘doing the right thing’ and these days seems to hover somewhere in between those apparently contradictory concepts.
Did the ancients see a connection there, I wonder. Did they reckon acts of kindness might be motivated, perhaps subconsciously, by a desire to appear virtuous, a wish to deserve praise?
Anyway, see what you think! Just askin’.
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20170605-the-greek-word-that-cant-be-translated
More Blether
Once more, another psychotic raghead attack, more anodyne platitudes spewed by politicians, more ‘standing together’, mass wholesale purchase of candles and rotting flower mounds.
How much longer does the citizenry of the UK have to take this utter travesty before someone has the balls to DO SOMETHING?
Theresa was right
TV debates between political party leaders are meeja ambushes. The organisers, including the so-called impartial BBC, make the most of the opportunity to rig the audiences and ask questions from the ‘when did you stop beating your wife’ school of interviewing. The aim is to evoke scandalous replies, crowd pleasing and maximum embarrassment for the debaters.
Theresa is not a street-fighter. Maybe 200 years ago (had women participated)she would have acquired such skills for the hustings or remained in the shadows. Bojo is, but he cannot be trusted to behave. So should a PM be pilloried for refusing to take part? Not in my book – horses for courses, I say.
The election result will turn on other issues. The size of the turn-out, especially among the youngest voters; the actions of former UKIP supporters; the strength of feeling about security and defence; the reliability of the leadership. So stick to your guns, MS May – it’s one of your strengths.
Using Barbarians to Control Barbarians.
“Using barbarians to control barbarians” is a centuries-old Chinese policy. If rivalries and divisions between outside rivals can be exploited to China’s benefit, the Chinese will capitalise on any and all opportunities. In recent days the vapidity of the Yanks and the idiocy of the Europeans has given the Chinese their best opportunity in centuries to wreak havoc on their Western rivals. Continue reading “Using Barbarians to Control Barbarians.”
Boadicea's Chariot 
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