Author: janus

I'm back......and front - in sunny Sussex-by-the-sea

Leicester

Richard III

When I were butter lad, Leicester was a boring city only 24 miles away on the wrong side of the Watling Street. Like my home town Coventry, it’s an unlovely product of Midlands industry with more success hitherto as a ‘rugger’ city; the Tigers are still a force in the pro game.

But now they play a bit of footie too, it seems. And celebrated Mark Selby’s 2nd snooker World title on the same day as the Foxes won the Premier League. Mark’s another Leicester lad.

So what? Well, not much really! Except it makes a change when provincial places grab the headlines innit?

Oh yes, and Richard III’s bones were discovered there! No more wintry discontent now!

Trump aces it

Yes, he is gross and boorish; offensive and arrogant; uncouth and incorrigible, etc, etc…

But his foreign policy speech hits the mark, by pointing out that foreign policy is about establishing and protecting his country’s interests. A blinding flash of the refreshingly obvious!

So UKGov, please note. Enough already of mealy-mouthed false altruism, hand-wringing concern for distant beggars, the pretence that the world cares about the UK’s well-being.

Grow some, Cameron! Learn from Trump’s focus on what matters for us.

What else, Mr President?

Silver tongued Obama waxes lyrical about his country’s reationship with the UK. The usual suspects are wheeled out – I won’t remind you – to instruct us to Remain.

Don’t be fooled. Obama has two goals: to lead the global debate and just as significantly, to be seen to favour the EU as an institution. He can never support its breakup and the overt fragmentation of foreign policy. He does not respect the sovereignty of individual states, except his own! He wants a world map to show a single block of colour between the Atlantic and Russia. Simplistic? Yes, that’s US politics.

Extreme justice

Anders Breivik, self-confessed Nazi mass-murderer, has won a court case against the ever-correct state of Norway. The food and living conditions are not up to snuff, as it were.

Not that the monster is likely to be treated very much differently in future.  Perhaps an M & S ready meal now and then, but certainly no ‘association’ with other inmates.

So was it worth the legal costs – not a krone paid by him, I’m sure? Even the purists must wonder.

 

‘Twas ever thus and evermore shall be so

Politics has always been a mean and dirty business. It’s what makes historical tales of power and passion so fascinating. Think Caesar, the Plantagenets, the Tudors, the Kennedies….pick your favourites.

So of course the Brexit issue is a messy, manic business – even dirtier than the US primaries will become. So many individual reputations are at stake – but truth be told, little else. Yes, I mean it.

‘Markets’ will wobble, governments will fall and rise again, but otherwise Brexit will be less risky than Remain. Why? Because unelected oligarchies mean trouble, controlling economies without popular choice. Because for every Remain argument there is a balancing reply in the real, non-political world.

So there.